Vorstman’s Guides
Guides for anyone who wants to go beyond a first identification: field marks set beside the species with which confusion actually occurs, the sound alongside them, and for every species where and when to expect it. Everything is free to read, and every photograph and recording carries a free licence and the name of its maker.
The guides
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The birds of Europe
Europe, North Africa and the Middle East
Seven hundred and thirty-one species, from the guillemot on the cliff to the sparrow in the yard. For each: field marks, the species it is genuinely confused with, a recording, a distribution map and the habitats where it belongs.
Open -
The birds of North America
Canada, the United States and Greenland
The same arrangement, for the Nearctic. Habitats here follow the USNVC and CMECS, because the European classification does not fit prairie, chaparral or tundra.
In preparation -
The birds of Australasia
Australia, New Zealand and the surrounding islands
A bird world that shares little with ours: honeyeaters, kiwis, parrots in the snow. Habitats follow NVIS and LCDB, the classifications Australia and New Zealand use themselves.
In preparation -
The mammals of Europe
Europe
From the pygmy shrew to the wisent. Where the bird guide puts a recording, this one puts the track: the footprint, the droppings, the feeding signs — because a mammal is usually not seen at all.
In preparation -
The carnivorous plants of the world
worldwide
Plants that catch animals, arranged by trapping mechanism: snap trap, pitfall, flypaper, bladder and lobster pot.
In preparation
About these guides
The guides are made by Werner Vorstman. They are built as static pages: no trackers, no cookies, no advertising. Taxonomy follows AviList for the birds and the Mammal Diversity Database for the mammals; the distribution maps are computed from records held by GBIF. Images come from Wikimedia Commons and sound from xeno-canto, under CC0, public domain, CC BY or CC BY-SA only — never under a licence that forbids reuse.