Peter’s Books
Peter has written and illustrated over a dozen books. His latest, SEABIRDS: The New Identification Guide, is his greatest work to date.
SEABIRDS: The New Identification Guide
This book has arrived from the publisher and is available for purchase. SEABIRDS: The New Identification Guide will not be offered for sale on Amazon.
This is the first comprehensive guide to the world’s 435 species of seabirds, to be published since the 1983 publication of Peter Harrison’s SEABIRDS: An Identification Guide. It covers all known seabirds, beginning with seaducks and grebes and ending with cormorants and pelicans. Lavishly illustrated and detailed throughout the 600 pages, this guide gives full treatment to all known seabird species including recently rediscovered and rarely seen species.
The essential new field guide to the seabirds of the world.
239 superb, full-color plates with extensive captions and detailed facing-plate identification texts and maps, to enable identification at a glance.
More than 3,800 full-color figures with illustrations of distinct subspecies, sexes, ages and morphs, are further supported by in-text identification keys and figures.
Comprehensive and definitive, the text covers status and conservation, geographic range, movements and migration, breeding biology and feeding habits, plus identification and latest taxonomic treatments.
The only seabird guide to cover all known seabird groups and species. Seabirders worldwide will find this to be an authoritative, one-of-a-kind publication for use around the globe.
The Conservation Edition
This book has arrived from the publisher and is available for purchase. The Conservation Edition of SEABIRDS: The New Identification Guide will not be offered for sale on Amazon.
During the 15 years it took to create the long-anticipated SEABIRDS: The New Identification Guide, many people who saw the emerging art plates noted that they were the very heart and backbone of the book. We believed that the book, produced in a larger format, would allow for the full beauty and execution of the plates to be properly and adequately appreciated and studied. Thus, the idea was born to produce a boxed “collectors’ edition,” limited to a global print run of just 1,000 numbered copies.
As Peter Harrison has devoted much of his adult life to supporting habitat restoration programs, he has decided that a portion of the proceeds from the sale of this collectors’ edition will be dedicated to seabird protection. The book is referred to as the Conservation Edition.
Each copy of the Conservation Edition has been produced in a boxed 22.5 x 31 cm (approx. 9 x 12 in) format and printed on FSC-certified Imagine Silk paper sourced from managed, sustainable forests, with all materials used conforming to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.
Which Book Should I Choose?
I’m asked quite frequently how the two books—the field guide version and the Conservation Edition—differ from each other. Friends often ask me which book they should choose. I thought perhaps it might be easiest if I show you.
The Conservation Edition, as you see, is much larger, allowing for the beauty and execution of the plates to be fully appreciated. Both books cover a staggering 434 species—all of the world’s known seabird groups and species—throughout the 600 pages. Both are lavishly illustrated, with more than 3,800 illustrations spread across 239 full-colour plates. As for which book is right for you, I would say that both versions have their place. The smaller format guide is ideal to take with you in the field, while the larger format boxed edition, is perfect for your library or coffee table. You might decide you would like to own both!
Collectibles
SEABIRDS: An Identification Guide
Hard cover - This is your opportunity to own a brand-new mint-condition, signed by the author, copy of the revised SEABIRDS: An Identification Guide. First published in 1983, this is the book that started the “Seabirding Movement” around the globe to become the standard book of reference for seabird identification.
SEABIRDS: An Identification Guide
Soft cover - This is your opportunity to own a brand-new mint-condition, signed by the author, copy of the revised SEABIRDS: An Identification Guide. First published in 1983, this is the book that started the “Seabirding Movement” around the globe to become the standard book of reference for seabird identification.
Seabirds of the World: A Photographic Guide
This pocket-sized guide was designed as a companion volume to SEABIRDS: An Identification Guide. It differs in that its 741 photographs were, at the time, the largest and most complete collection of seabird photographs ever published. Originally published in 1987, this 1996 edition is the last publication.
This photo: Pincoya Storm Petrel. © Peter Harrison Top of page: White-tailed Tropicbird. © Peter Harrison