Major field guide designed to enable birdwatchers to distinguish between those rare birds that are often confused with a common species. It extends the range covered in The Macmillan Guide to Bird Identification, to cover some 208 species from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. It is arranged around 70 `confusion' groups: each has introductory text describing the major problems, where and when each of the covered species occurs, and structure, ageing and flight; this is followed by individual species accounts with detailed text describing and comparing structure, flight, perched, and plumage. The colour plates (by Alan Harris) show similar species side by side, with notes pointing out the key distinguishing identification features.