Eesti laululinnud - Lemming Rootsmäe, Heinrich Veromann

This book introduces all songbirds identified in Estonia up to October 1, 1971, except for birds belonging to the Corvidae family, of which we have 9 species. In addition to the observation data collected by the authors over more than 20 years, the book was compiled using a large amount of data published in professional literature and unpublished materials by several other amateur ornithologists. When presenting data from other authors, the text refers to the author and year of publication of the corresponding work, according to which the reader can find the full title and place of publication of the work in the list of literature at the end of the book.
With this book, the authors tried to introduce as much as possible of this interesting material collected during research and bird observations to our large and ever-growing family of bird and nature lovers, which has to be searched for in difficult-to-find ornithological periodicals and foreign-language books. The authors also show what is still unknown about each bird species' lifestyle and behavior, in order to encourage active observations to fill in the current gaps. Thus, this book is a manual for learning about birds, but also a programmatic guide for further research into birds, which can be carried out with the help of nature observers and enthusiasts. As such, "Estonian Songbirds" should be a necessary supplement to the books "Birds of the Estonian SSR" and "Field Determinant of Estonian Birds" by Prof. Dr. E. Kumar. The observation data sent to the center by members and trusted persons of the Naturalists' Society, which have been used in the compilation of the book, are preserved in the archives of the ornithology section and most of them are published here in print for the first time. The largest number of materials were made available by Endel Edula (observation data on thousands of bird nests), Ülo Lemmik, Aavo Põlenik, Ilmar Lind, Aivar Leito, Toomas Saat, Rein Pärg, Tiit Randla, Mari Kivilaan, Helmi Põldma, Marie Nelke, Aleksei Kass, Juhan Põldvere and Paul Sügav. Aavo Põlenik is also the author of a large part of the original photographs, some of which are from Fred Jussi and a number of which were obtained from the well-known Finnish ornithologist Dr. Kalervo Eriksson. The authors express their sincere gratitude to all of them.
The authors only address the question of the harmfulness and usefulness of birds in the book in exceptional cases — in the case of species such as the starling and the grey thrush, where the problem of usefulness-harmfulness has indeed become exceptionally acute and the picture is complicated.
The attentive reader will undoubtedly notice that the authors have had relatively little data available on unusual songbirds. For example, in some cases there is barely any data on the size of the bird's full plumage, etc. The authors hope that all known and hitherto unknown bird lovers will find momentum and inspiration for future work from these shortcomings and that many new bird enthusiasts will join the ornithology section of the Estonian Naturalists' Society (Tartu, Hariduse tn. 3) to make their own contribution to the study of our birds.

Keywords:
colorful
birds
songbirds
Estonian
handbooks