On the one hand, I am enjoying this book. The author writes well. He mentions lots of birds and places in and around Vienna that I know. Also plenty that I don't know, of course, and plenty that aren't in and around Vienna. He is very well read and brings up interesting books and authors. I picked up two books at the library yesterday on the basis of his recommendation. Classic 4 or even 4 1/2* territory.

On the other hand, there is an awful lot wrong with the book. The URLs of websites he wants to refer to are replaced by Q-codes, so if you aren't set up for that you are out of luck. The essays were published weekly, but the book organizes them alphabetically, and the date isn't listed anywhere. When talking about viewing birds, this could be important. There is an awful lot of non-bird commentary, often about things I don't care about. Basic information about the birds listed would be nice, even if that's not really what the book is about. If an essay about another bird is more than half about the pheasant, maybe that part of the essay should have been put with the pheasant essay. It was actually more interesting, and I have no idea where to look for it.

Also, the author includes a lot of English. OK, I wouldn't really mind, but... He makes a big deal of laughing at someone who refers to the 'Eisvogel' in English as 'ice bird' and not as 'kingfisher'. And soon after gets a quotation wrong, adding an 's' to a subject making the sentence both ungrammatical and nonsensical. And then later informs us that the 'Rotkehlchen' in English is called 'robin', and is the topic of the lovely song "When the red, red robin goes bob, bob, bobbin' along". Problem is, the song is about the American robin, and fits that bird, not about the European robin which is neither 'red, red' nor goes bobbin'. If you are going to show off your great English knowledge, you ought to try to get it right. This also makes me wonder if his other, oh so intelligent-sounding comments are really valid.

All of that is several things that ought to have points, or at least half points taken off. Which would get us down around 2* or even lower. Do I settle on 3*? Or just decide that I can't rate this one? ( )