Bird Pellets: A Complete Photographic Guide

Many of us will have found owls pellets while on a walk, and some may have even extracted the contents to see what has been eaten, but most will be unfamiliar with the range of species which produce pellets and how to go about finding them. Ed Drewitt’s Bird Pellets: A Complete Photographic Guide aims to fill this gap and goes about doing so in a thorough and digestible manner on a (literally) indigestible subject.

The book is mainly divided into two parts, the first helping to identify the maker of a pellet, while the latter half shows the likely contents of pellets and which animal they might have come from. Both sections are filled with high-quality images, allowing for detailed inspection of the minutiae needed to identify a vole skull to species level, and are accompanied by detailed text, especially so for many of the mammal skulls.

While by no means aimed at children, and a useful reference guide for any field naturalists, I’d imagine many young naturalists will get a lot from this book (didn’t we all start with collections of skulls, feathers, pellets and bits of bone?), whether from the many pictures of birds coughing up pellets or the access into a different aspect of these birds’ lives. The range of bird species covered is insightful, with even rare and unusual birds, such as European Bee-eater, being given an entry. 

Book reviewed by Rob Jaques