Wow! During the autumn of 2020 I was able to test the chapters of several species of Ageing & Sexing of Migratory East Asian Passerines. I was impressed.

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The rumours that Lars Svensson has been working on a revised version of his ringers' Bible (Svensson, 1992) are persisting. The question is how urgent that still is - a thought that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. "The Svensson", even though outdated on some parts, was the best there was on ageing ans sexing passerines in the WP for a long time. But now I hardly ever use it. Ringers and bird watchers interested in the fine art of ageing, sexing, moult and wing formulas have been served by many books in recent years (often, of course, indebted to Svensson). Demongin (2016) wrote the New Testament for ringers, but there is also the spasserine handbook by Shirihai & Svensson (2018) and the revised Jenni & Winkler (2019). And of course there is Javier Blasco Zumeta’s website - who is also in the process of publishing a book! And now the hefty and pricy Ageing and Sexing of Migratory East Asian Passerines is added to the pile.

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A number of species in this book are common in Western Europe (though sometimes other subspecies are involved):  Marsh Tit, Bluethroat, Goldcrest, Brambling and Siskin. It also deals with a few species that are not expected to occur here, like the Chinese near-endemic Yellow-bellied Tit. But most interesting are probably the species that occur in Europe as rarities. These vary from very scarce, but annual birds like Pallas’s Leaf Warbler, Richard’s Pipit or Rustic Bunting, to absolute megas like Eastern Crowned Warbler (Figure 2), Siberian Accentor, Blue Nightingale or Taiga Flycatcher.  

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With a bilingual book, the authors (three Swedes and a Chinese) have chosen to make a book for both the East Asian and the European market. The text pages are split vertically: in English on the left, in Mandarin on the right. On the photo pages, the Mandarin captions are underneath the English ones. The two-language approach, though understandable, contributes to the large size and heavy weight of the book. The layout is very pleasant. It is regular, predictable and the pages never ‘scream’ which offer a pleasant read. This is a point where, for instance, the 'crammed' Demongin could be improved a bit.  

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The species accounts shortly deal with the ID, but the soul of the book treats the ageing and sexing. Moulting schemes are presented in a table that is remarkably spacious and in a very large font. The texts on ageing and sexing are precise and to the point. Much is already known from, for example, the Svensson or Demongin - but not everything. Interesting is the value that is assigned to body feather structure and age identification. In juvenile birds these often have a different, looser structure than in adults. These are usually moulted within the first months after fledging. For example, juvenile Chiffchaffs or Tree Creepers are often easily aged by this feature. But the way in which this book uses feather structure after the post-juvenile moult was new to me: never before had I, for example, searched for unmoulted, juvenile undertail coverts of a Yellow-browed Warbler in late autumn to determine its age. An eye-opener, which does require some practice.

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The photo quality is excellent. They are razor sharp and well exposed. Almost all are taken against a grey background to reflect colours as neutral as possible (with a natural background these can be distorted by photographic effects). Perhaps aesthetically less natural, but extremely effective for the purpose. And these grey backgrounds certainly contribute to the ‘calm’ layout of the book. In general there is also quite a bit of empty space on both the photo and text pages. By far most relevant plumages have been photographed, but when one is missing for instance, the space is left empty.