Comprehensive new guide to the world’s 435 species of seabirds

One-of-a-kind seabird guide written and illustrated by a seabirder for seabirders

Renowned seabird expert, author, artist, and conservationist Peter Harrison, has announced his most ambitious work to date, SEABIRDS: The New Identification Guide. The culmination of a lifetime dedicated to seabirding, SEABIRDS: The New Identification Guide took 15 years to compile and illustrate. The result: an essential one-of-a-kind seabird guide, written and illustrated by a seabirder for seabirders.

This new guide comprises 600 pages and covers all known seabirds, beginning with seaducks and grebes, and ending with cormorants and pelicans. This is the first comprehensive guide to the world’s 435 species of seabirds to be published since Harrison’s 1983 award-winning publication, SEABIRDS: An Identification Guide. “I have dedicated my adult life to the study of seabirds, and the last 15 years to writing and illustrating this book,” says Harrison. “Nothing will give me more joy than to share my life’s work with seabirders around the world.”

Seabirders will find this to be an authoritative publication for use around the globe. Lavishly illustrated and detailed throughout the 600 pages, this guide gives full treatment to all known seabird species including recently rediscovered and rarely seen species.

  • 239 full-color plates with extensive captions and detailed facing-plate identification text and maps, to enable identification at a glance.
  • More than 3,800 full-color figures with illustrations of distinct subspecies, sexes, ages and morphs, are further supported by in-text identification keys and figures.
  • Comprehensive and definitive, the text covers status and conservation, geographic range, movements and migration, breeding biology and feeding habits, plus identification and latest taxonomic treatments. “I’m a big believer in books being user-friendly,” says Harrison. “Unlike many other modern field guides that include as many as eight species on a plate, in this new book, the plates are arranged so that most have only two species. There is a facing plate on the right-hand side with as many as 20 figures. And then opposite that plate is the corresponding text and colored map. At a glance, the reader has full-color illustrations, a distribution map, and comprehensive text to see where the bird occurs, how to identify the bird, and the details of its breeding biology. It’s really a beautiful book, well-designed, and very user friendly.”

Although it has been 15 years in the making, all identification text and figures have been kept up to date, with the latest scientific publications and notes. Of special significance is the description of the Pincoya Storm-petrel, a species Harrison discovered in February 2011.

Contributing to the project, the talented Swedish bird artist Hans Larsson completed all artwork for the gulls, terns, skimmers, skuas and seaducks—93 full-color plates in total. In addition, ornithologist and author Dr. Martin Perrow added structure and uniformity to the text, tightened up taxonomy and relationships, and ensured the inclusion of the latest research findings.