The compendium has been a reliable and proven reference work for ornithologists, dedicated birdwatchers, and anyone involved in nature and landscape conservation dealing with questions about occurrence, biology, distribution, population development, conservation status, and more for many years. The structure of the work is based on the latest systematic-taxonomic list, the development and changes of which are explained and justified here for the first time. The distribution maps, completely newly created for the second edition, contain detailed information on breeding distribution as well as migration and wintering areas north of the Sahara. This special edition includes all sparrows (Volume 2) and all non-sparrows (Volume 1) based on the current edition.