Query referencing 20 sheets / Indirect error with multiple ranges - google-sheets-formula

Question

I have 20 sheets (Eagle, Kestral etc) and want to reference the whole group of them, in different queries.
To stop query formula text being massive I have tried to use the Indirect function but looks like Indirect may not be able to return multiple ranges.
Example for just 2 sheets:
Query({Indirect(A1)}) where A1 contains the text Eagle!F3:I33;Kestrel!F3:I33
gives Indirect error "not a valid cell/range reference".
The 2 formulas below work OK but become unweildy when referencing 20 sheets.
Query({Eagle!F3:I33;Kestrel!F3:I33})
Query{indirect(A2); indirect(A3)} where A2 is Eagle!F3:I33 and A3 is Kestrel!F3:I33
Suggestions please (no script).
Challenge2 = How to include sheet name (bird) in Col1 of query output. Sheet name (bird) is written in cell A1 of each sheet.

Answer 1

Here is the solution that I settled on.
Problem summary
Challenge 1: Avoid oversized query formula when referencing many sheets/tabs.
Challenge2: Return sheet name as part of the query output.
Key information
Script is not an option as causes access and performance issues for users in my organisation.
Indirect function cannot pull multiple ranges into a Query.
There is not a function that returns sheet names (except within Script).
I started with a static list of sheet names.
Each sheet contains Name and Total data, but needs to be tagged with sheet name to identify it in output of query. Each sheet also included the sheet name in cell A1 (but not used in solution).
Solutions
Solution to Challenge 1: Specify the unique sheet ranges & select statements within hidden helper columns then reference them in the query.
Solution to Challenge 2: Insert sheet name as text within each select statement.
=query(
{query({indirect(B4)},C4);query({indirect(B5)},C5);
query({indirect(B6)},C6);query({indirect(B7)},C7);
query({indirect(B8)},C8);query({indirect(B9)},C9);
query({indirect(B10)},C10);query({indirect(B11)},C11);
query({indirect(B12)},C12);query({indirect(B13)},C13);
query({indirect(B14)},C14);query({indirect(B15)},C15);
query({indirect(B16)},C16);query({indirect(B17)},C17);
query({indirect(B18)},C18);query({indirect(B19)},C19);
query({indirect(B20)},C20);query({indirect(B21)},C21);
query({indirect(B22)},C22);query({indirect(B23)},C23)}
,"where Col3 >="&F2 &B2 ,0)
useful screen shot - helper columns and output
Cells F2 & B2 are user defined. F2 is the minimum value to return. B2 relates to ordering of output.
B2 creates an extra bit of text for select statement, depending on user defined dropdown in E2.
=if(E2="order by lap count"," order by Col3 desc",)
The ,0 at the end of the final wraparound query is the optional query header row clause. Zero tells query that the input data has no headers. Necessary for this query.
The curly brackets inside each sheet query convert column names F, G, H to Col1, Col2 Col3.
The curly brackets and semicolons in the final wraparound query combine the sheet query outputs into an array, one underneath the other.
Top Tip – When referencing multiple sheets/tabs in a query, it is better create a wraparound query (as above) to filter the output . This is because if you were to filter the individual sheet queries and one of them returned no data, the curly brackets in the wraparound query would return an array error.