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Birds of Seychelles
by Keith Betton in the United Kingdom
Seychelles lies in the western Indian Ocean. The land area is small at just 458 sq km, but in total there are 155 islands spread across an area of ocean covering 1,374,000 sq km.

This book is a condensed version of that of the same name published by Helm in 2000. That field guide (which was co-authored with Ian Bullock) was the only modern book to cover every species recorded in the Seychelles. It is still available and provides a huge resource of information.

Once again all species are included in the new volume, but the main difference is that the text has been considerably reduced and rewritten. This highlights key identification features, including habitat, distribution, status and voice. The original plates have been repeated but many have been resized and a number of new images have been added, with 12 extra plates. In total there are around 1000 illustrations.

Every species is given an English name following the traditional Voous order (used by the African Bird Club for many years until its recent decision to follow the IOC List). Creole and French are both official languages of Seychelles, along with English, and all names in each language are listed in an appendix. In addition, there are brief notes on each of the main islands and Important Bird Areas. There are no range maps but the author uses a table of 16 distribution bars in four different colours to indicate status of each species on each of the islands. This is a good idea and works really well.

This is a handy book that will take up very little room in one's bag. It really is designed for field use but I expect many people will still want the original book to read in their hotel room.