TheHelm Identification Guides are a series of books that identify groups ofbirds. The series include two types of guides, those that are:
Taxonomic, dealing with a particular family of birds on a worldwide scale—most early Helm Guides were this type, as well as many more-recent ones, although some later books deal with identification of such groups on a regional scale only (e.g.,The Gulls Guide, which covers only species in Europe, Asia, and North America)
Geographic, including all bird species in an area (e.g.,The Birds of the West Indies)
Early volumes were sometimes published under theCroom Helm orChristopher Helm imprints. In addition, a parallel set of guides, very similar in design, was published byPica Press in the 1990s (markedPica in the list below); Pica was later absorbed intoA & C Black (now part ofBloomsbury Publishing Plc), and these guides are now marketed as a single series. A completely revised version of the initialSeabirds has been published byLynx Edicions.
Several of the books have won theBritish BirdsBird Book of the Year award.A list of titles in the series, in chronological order of publication, is as follows:
Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse - a guide to the Pheasants, Partridges, Quails, Grouse, Guineafowl, Buttonquails and Sandgrouse of the World bySteve Madge andPhil MacGowan (2002)ISBN0-7136-3966-0
