Handbook of the Birds of the World – Volume 3

34 experts from 13 countries contributed to this volume. The Foreword on art and nature is by Robert Bateman.
The volume covers 30 families. These include several singular families with only one species (Hoatzin, Limpkin and Sunbittern of South America, Crab Plover from the Middle East, Ibisbill from Central Asia, the threatened Kagu of New Caledonia and Plains-wanderer of Australia), as well as forest species (the rare mesites of Madagascar and trumpeters of South America) and those of open landscapes (buttonquails, seriemas, bustards, thick-knees, seedsnipes). The main part of the volume, however, is made up of the families of waterbirds: rails, gallinules and coots (133 species), sandpipers, snipes and phalaropes (86 species), skuas (7 species), plovers (67 species), gulls (51 species), terns (44 species) and auks (22 species), among others.