A Field Guide to Mesozoic Birds and other Winged Dinosaurs

The conceit of this book is that one can produce a bird-watcher's guide to the ornithology of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The first part of the book provides an overview of the modern understanding of early bird evolution, and just how much we can (and can't) tell about, for example, the plumage of long-dead species. For that matter, what exactly is a “bird” in this context, when we're heading back to the increasingly blurry line between them and the reptiles?

The bulk of the book, in true bird-watchers style, consists of beautifully painted illustrations of just about every known species of Mesozoic bird/winged dinosaur (an appendix at the end lists those that didn't make the cut, largely because not enough is known about them). Each comes with a brief description, with things like the wingspan, native habitat and probable ecology and diet described.

It's a fascinating insight into the diversity of such early birds, and surely an invaluable guide for anyone interested in the subject. Not exactly the sort of thing you'd want to sit down and read at a single sitting, but then neither is, for example, A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Northern Europe.