All Posts

As mentioned in a recent post, I’ve been looking forward to finally seeing this book. So I was excited when it showed up on the doorstep yesterday. I’m planning on doing a full review eventually, but in the meantime I wanted to share some initial thoughts.

• My very first thought was amazement at how large and heavy the box from Amazon was.
• I was pleasantly surprised at the packing. I’m extremely anal about the condition of my books, and sometimes they can get dinged up in the mail. I was hoping that it would be shrink-wrapped, but the publisher did one better. Princeton is shipping these out in their own secure cardboard box, as befits a book of this quality (and price).
• This book is huge! Here are a couple of comparison shots…

And now on to the contents.

Art

Some of the sample artwork from this book had me concerned. While this monograph’s main purpose is to be a knowledge reference to this family, for many, the artwork is the main draw (pun not intended, at least until I caught it!). The art doesn’t absolutely blow me away, but I do like it. There are a few images that I don’t particularly care for, but there are also some really good ones.

Text

I haven’t had time to read much of it. And even when I do, I’m not an expert on this group of birds. But I will at least compare the family overview and species accounts with those from the Handbook of the Birds of the World.

This is a gorgeous, well-produced book. The only thing even slightly unattractive about it is the copious amount of white space. I know it’s not a simple either/or, but I would rather this large book with large art and a lot of white space than a smaller book with smaller art and less space.

At over $100, I can’t say that this book, no matter how nice, would be worth it for everyone. But I can say that it was for me.

Trogons: A Natural History of the Trogonidae

by Joseph M. Forshaw

I love trogons, and the description of this new book left me drooling:

This is the definitive natural history of the spectacularly beautiful tropical birds known as the trogons, a family that includes the legendary Resplendent Quetzal, the sacred bird of the ancient Mayans and Aztecs. A collaboration between renowned ornithologist Joseph Forshaw and eminent bird artist Albert Gilbert, Trogons combines science and art to create an unprecedented picture of a threatened bird family. Forshaw’s text provides the most authoritative and comprehensive account of the trogons ever written, and Gilbert’s stunning paintings are the first to accurately depict all species of trogons in their natural habitats and true colors. The book’s detailed synthesis of current knowledge about the trogons is enriched by Forshaw’s personal field observations in the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Americas, while Gilbert’s meticulous artwork is based on fieldwork in the same areas. With its large format, more than 40 full-color plates, and state-of-the-art five-color printing, this limited-edition book promises to become a classic and a collector’s item.

However, there are some over at BirdForum that were leery of the artwork. After seeing a couple of sample plates, I can see why.

But I went ahead and ordered it anyway. The trogons are one of my favorite families, and I couldn’t resist. Additionally, this is a limited edition, with only 700 copies available in the U.S. and another 700 for the rest of the world. I hope publishers don’t read this, but I’m a sucker for limited editions.

As soon as I get this, I’ll post my initial thoughts as soon as I can. But in the meantime, if you think you will eventually want a copy, I would suggest ordering it sooner rather than later. Amazon currently shows only one left in stock. I have no idea if they will be receiving any more. But given how much it costs, I wouldn’t blame anyone from holding off until they can see it first!

I maintain an Amazon wishlist for the usual reasons; mostly I just want to keep track of the books and other items that I want. But I make it a habit to glance over the list frequently. I want to keep an eye on the prices because Amazon has a habit of changing them often. Usually, it’s just a couple of dollars up or down, but sometimes the price gets dropped enough that I immediately place an order before it goes back up.

But today, while looking over my wishlist, a price virtually jumped off the screen at me. Take a look at the screencap below and see if it does for you as well.

Yes, you read that right. But here’s a look at the product’s page, just in case you don’t believe it.

Yes, that’s right – for just over $89k, you too can own this superb owl guide! Somehow, I found the resolve to pass this incredible deal.

I checked out more guides in this California series, and most were still the regular price. But a few had this mysterious “sourcing fee” added. The fee for the raptor guide was a relative bargain at $23,000+.

Checking again just now, I see that everything is back to the regular price. What, no one wanted to buy a book that costs as much as a luxury car?

It’s July, so it’s already time to get out there and look for shorebirds on their southbound migration. In fact, there have already been a couple reports of Upland Sandpipers here in Georgia. But this group of birds can be notoriously difficult to identify. So when you head out to the nearest beach, sod farm, or sewage treatment plant, you may want to take a specialized identification guide with you. But which one?

Here, I will be comparing the four most recent guides that cover North American shorebirds. However, two of them also cover Europe and Asia, and the other two, although focused on North America, would also be useful elsewhere.

	The Shorebird Guide	Shorebirds of North America: The Photographic Guide	Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia: A Photographic Guide	Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia: A Guide to Field Identification
Author	Michael O’Brien, Richard Crossley, Kevin Karlson	Dennis Paulson	Richard Chandler	Stephen Message and Don Taylor
Publish date	April, 2006	January, 2005	July, 2009	March, 2006
Price (MSRP)	$24.95	$29.95	$35.00	$35.00
Size (width x height x thickness)	6″ x 9″ x 1 3/8″	5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ x 1″	6 1/8″ x 9 1/4″ x 1 1/8″	6 1/8″ x 9 1/4″ x 1/2″
# pages	496	384	448	224
# species	91	94	134	124
Illustrations	Photos	Photos	Photos	Paintings
Account/Plate layout	Two sections: 1st has photos, with limited text and maps; 2nd has species accounts	Everything in each species account	Everything in each species account	Two sections: 1st has plates on the right (multiple species), with some text on the facing page; 2nd has species accounts, with maps, more text, and shows the bird in flight
Range maps	Color; breeding, winter, resident, and migration (with two shades to show relative abundance)	NONE	Color; breeding, winter, resident	Color; breeding, winter, resident
Species accounts	Status Taxonomy Behavior Migration Molt Vocalizations (Photo section also has short notes on Size, Structure, Behavior, and Status)	Size Plumages Subspecies Hybrids Identification In Flight Voice Behavior Habitat Range	Identification Ageing (with separate descriptions of each age class) Call Status, Habitat, and Distribution Racial Variation and Hybridization Similar Species References	Key ID Features Behavior Flight Action Voice Distribution Confusion Species

Recommendation

So, given all of these choices, which one should you get? Well, none of them are actually bad, and any would be helpful shorebirding. But in case you don’t want to carry around four shorebird guides, here are my thoughts on them.

I would immediately rule out Message/Taylor. I prefer general field guides that use paintings, but I think photographs work better for shorebirds. Plus, I just don’t care for most of the illustrations here. Some, admittedly, are pretty good. But most just look bad to me. I think it’s because the painter attempts to show the feathers in too great of detail. Personally, I just don’t care for that.

The Paulson and Chandler photographic guides are very similar in their approach and layout. The photographs are of similar quality. On average, Paulson includes just a bit more photos per species, but the ones in Chandler are larger. Chandler includes many more species, but this is largely irrelevant to North American birders since they both contain all of the birds likely to be seen here. I love the formatting and layout of Chandler’s guide; of the two, it just looks much better. After going back and forth between them, I think I prefer the newer guide from Chandler.

But there is no doubt in my mind that The Shorebird Guide is not only the best guide for shorebirds, it is the best family-specific guide that I have seen. The authors emphasize birding by impression (aka “jizz” or “giss”-based identification). They point out field marks that the others either do not mention, or bury in the text. And the photos are simply amazing! The thing I like best about this guide is that many of the photos show birds of different species together, with the captions helping to point out the differences. This is supremely helpful in learning these birds, but none of the other guides do this. Every North American birder (and probably any birder in the Northern Hemisphere) needs to have this book. It’s that good. (It also happens to be the cheapest!)

But really, can you have too many guides to shorebirds?

Full Reviews

• The Shorebird Guide
• Shorebirds of North America: The Photographic Guide
• Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia: A Photographic Guide

I hate that I haven’t done many reviews lately, but between work and other things it’s been pretty busy lately. Of course, since one of those “other things” is our first child that will be arriving in September, I’m not sure when I’ll get any more time!

But to help fill in the gaps, I’m going to start regularly posting about the book(s) that I’m currently reading. These will be what I will be reviewing next, so it’s kind of like a preview. Here’s what I’m currently working on:

• Birdsong by the Seasons: A Year of Listening to Birds
  Donald Kroodsma

  The author’s previous book, The Singing Life of Birds, is probably the best birdsong for birders book out there. This new one is more of a supplement – instead of teaching about the science of birdsong, it extols the wonder of it. If you enjoy listening to birds, then you will love this book.

• The Prairie Keepers: Secrets of the Zumwalt
  Marcy Houle

  I loved the author’s prior work, Wings for My Flight: The Peregrine Falcons of Chimney Rock, so I was looking forward to reading this as well. So far, it is not disappointing me. I’m blazing through this account of the author’s time spent uncovering the secrets of one of the last (relatively) unspoiled prairies in North America.

• Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds
  Trevor Herriot

  I’ve actually just finished this one. This is an interesting, and extremely well-written, look at one of our most threatened ecosystems – grasslands. Anyone interested in prairie birds and/or conservation should read this. For a unique visual look at the book’s various subjects, check out Trevor Herriot’s blog.

Here is some bird book review goodness for your reading pleasure:

And here are a few more interesting links:

• The Natural Capital blog has an overview of three field guides.
• Patrick, of The Hawk Owl’s Nest, shows us a birding board game from a few years back. If you could get a group of birders inside for a little while, it looks like it would be fun to play!