First Iraqi field guide now available

A joint effort between BirdLife International and Nature Iraq recently resulted in Field Guide to the Birds of Iraq in Arabic. The Canadian government and the World Bank covered the cost of the guide, described as the first illustrated and complete field guide for an Arabic-speaking nation.

"These are some of the most wildlife-rich sites in the Middle East, but often all we hear about is the conflict," Richard Porter, BirdLife International's Middle East adviser and co-author of the guide, said in a statement.

Iraq has 387 bird species, many of them native to the marshes in the south of the country where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow toward the sea, an area that has been described as the likely location of the biblical Garden of Eden.

For more details about the field guide, click here.