Identification Guide to European Non-Passerines A BTO Guide

"[...] Despite the subtle difference in title, this is essentially an updated and expanded edition of the 1993 first edition. Indeed, the first thing you notice when picking up the book is that the new version is thicker, and in fact it has an extra 130 pages. Eighty of those are dedicated to waders, a group that didn't feature in the first edition, since they were dealt with by Prater et al.'s 1977 Guide to the Identification & Ageing of Holarctic Waders. In my view, the Prater guide was a best confusing and at worst completely unusable, so I was interested to see how Baker had dealt with some of the more familiar waders. First impressions are good. Certainly, the fact that most illustrations are now in colour (in contrast to both 1993 edition and Prater et al.) is a great help  [...] The main challenger to this book is likely to be Demongin's 2016 Identification Guide to Birds in the Hand. Demongin has the advantage that it covers many more species than Baker and in some cases in considerably more detail; but this extra detail comes at a cost. For me, there's something of an information overload in Demongin; in contrast, Baker is an uncluttered, concise and easy-to-use guide. Data are laid out clearly, key features are easy to find, and ageing criteria are simple to work through in a logical order. This ease of use can make all the difference when you're quickly scanning through an entry in the field. Baker and Demongin sit side by side in my ringing box but, as my default go-to reference for non-passerine ageing and sexing. Baker's updated guide continues to be first choice."
– Stephen Menzie, British Birds, Volume 110, February 2017