I can’t believe it’s been five years since the publication of the fifth edition of the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America! But it has, which apparently means it is time for the sixth edition. This venerable guide, first published in 1983, has long been considered one of this continent’s best field guides. Does this latest one continue that trend, or is it a superfluous update?

This review will start with an overview of the guide, its structure, and features. In this regard, it does not differ greatly from its predecessors. So if you’re already familiar with this guide’s previous incarnations, you may want to first check out this list of changes from the 5th edition, and then skim ahead to the evaluation.

Plates

The NatGeo guide follows the now-usual plan of illustrations on the right-hand page, with text and range map on the facing page. The plates consist of paintings from 21(!) artists. With that many contributors, you expect a mishmash of styles. That is the case here, both between pages and even within the same plate. Thankfully, most plates, despite the varying styles, are of very high quality. Many of the illustrations are updated or completely redone with each new edition, and those redone for this sixth edition are a clear improvement. Most of the problematic plates from before are now among the best in the guide (i.e. the Spizella sparrows). There are still some plates that need work (like the vireos), but I suppose they have to leave something for the inevitable seventh edition!

A good amount of variation within species is illustrated, including sex, age, seasonal, and regional differences, as appropriate. Each is clearly labeled, including subspecies names, which is very welcome. Additionally, the illustrations are annotated with field marks, a la the Sibley and Collins guides. I love this feature, as it clearly draws attention to the most important characteristics to look for on a bird, and is a great use of space.

Species Accounts

• Name – English and scientific
• Size – length for all species and wingspan for some; in inches and centimeters
• Notes – identification information, including plumage descriptions and behavior
• Voice – description of song and calls
• Range – habitat, abundance, and other information that can’t be shown on a map

The identification information is extensive, but not exhaustive, as the authors focus on the most important characteristics. The descriptions are largely the same as in the prior edition, but the voice and range sections have, on average, been expanded. Many non-passerines, such as shorebirds and gulls, have a voice description for the first time.

Range Maps

All but a few introduced or rarely occurring birds have a range map, including many that did not in the fifth edition. They are large (for a field guide) and zoomed in appropriately for limited ranges. Many also continue well south into Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, showing much more of the bird’s entire range than most other field guides. Distinct colors illustrate permanent, breeding, winter, and migration ranges, with dotted lines showing the extent of irregular occurrence. All of this is good, but it is two features unique among current North American field guides that make these maps stand out: distinct colors for spring, fall, and both-way migration, and subspecies names and boundaries.

The extra detail on migration is very helpful, but it is the subspecies information that excites me the most. The maps of 59 birds with multiple subspecies are marked to show the ranges of the constituent subspecies. And if this weren’t enough, there is a separate section in the back of the book with larger and even more detailed maps for 37 additional species.

In most cases, if I were to say that the range maps are the best thing about a field guide, it would be a sign that I was struggling to find something good to say about it. Well, I have no shortage of good things to say about this edition of the National Geographic guide, and the range maps just may be the best thing about it. In fact, it may be worth buying for the maps alone!

Other Features

National Geographic includes all the birds that have been recorded in North America north of Mexico – 990 in all. 92 of these are found in an illustrated list of accidental and extinct species at the end of the book. Along with a single illustration, details of the species’ occurrence and a brief description of appearance is included.

An eight-page introduction describes the plan of the book, gives some tips for better birding, and presents diagrams illustrating the parts of a bird, among other things.

The navigation options have been expanded and improved. The seven thumbtabs for major families have been retained from the previous volume. A “quick find index” on the inside-front cover flap lists birds’ “last name” in alphabetical order. Additionally, a visual index to bird families is printed on the inside of the front and back covers.

Issues

The only issue I have with this guide is not specific to this particular guide, but rather with field guides as a whole – slavery to taxonomic order. Most North American field guides follow the species order prescribed by the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) rather closely, at least to the level of family and genus. NatGeo6 is no exception, incorporating the latest changes from the AOU at the time of publication. Most of these changes are to a species’ scientific name, which of course should be kept up-to-date in field guides. But some groups have been moved around. If you want to check out a longspur, for example, you would no longer look after the sparrows (their usual place in field guides since before I’ve been birding), but before the warblers. How does this help birders, especially new ones? More and more, I think field guides should stick to a standard sequence designed to help birders identify birds.

But this review is not the place for such a discussion. And if this is my main issue, that can only be a good thing!

Changes

The sixth edition of the National Geographic guide is not a mere cosmetic change. Dunne and Alderfer have done much more than incorporate the latest AOU updates, add a new species or two, and slightly change the cover. Again, here is a detailed list of changes. This guide is clearly an improvement over the previous edition, even more so than the fifth was better than the fourth.

Recommendation

National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Sixth Edition is a great guide. In my review of the fifth edition I qualified my recommendation, especially for owners of a prior edition. Not so with the sixth – it belongs in every birder’s library! From beginner to expert, it will be useful to any birder. And for those interested in geographic variation, it is a must.

Birds of North America and Greenland is the latest entry in the Princeton Illustrated Checklists series. (It was also published in the UK as Collins Field Guides: Birds of North America.) You may be wondering what they mean by illustrated checklist. Though this book is little, it is more than a mere list of birds found in this region accompanied by illustrations. But it is also not a full-fledged field guide. Think of it as a “lite” field guide.

This guide includes nearly every species recorded in the lower 48 states, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland – over 900 birds. Some recent additions to the region – whether vagrants or “splits” (discussed below) – are missing. The standard field guide format is followed, with the illustration plates on the right and species accounts on the facing page.

Illustrations

Birds of North America and Greenland is illustrated with the author’s own paintings. As I mentioned in my review of Birds of the West Indies, also by Norman Arlott, I find his work to be very attractive. The illustrations are labeled as male/female and breeding/non-breeding where appropriate. Annoyingly, instead of the species’ names, numbers are used to identify the birds on the plates.

The concise format means that not all plumages were included. Most male/female and breeding/non-breeding plumages are displayed, with warblers being the most glaring exception (all having at most two birds illustrated, with the exception of Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers). Some geographic variation is illustrated, but not any immature or juvenile birds, which could cause some identification headaches. The only birds shown in flight are seabirds (only in flight), pelicans, raptors, jaegers, swifts (only in flight), and swallows. Oddly, the gulls and terns are only shown perched, even though the former were also shown in flight in the West Indies guide.

Species Accounts

The text accounts include:

• Size – length in centimeters
• Field Notes – brief notes on behavior, identification, and subspecies
• Voice
• Habitat
• Distribution

The “Field Notes” impart some useful information, but not nearly enough to differentiate between similar species, leaving you to decipher that yourself from the plates (which don’t show all possible plumages!). For example, the author mentions that some Philadelphia Vireos are drabber than the one shown and look much like Warbling Vireos. But nothing is mentioned of how you can differentiate such birds.

Range Maps

Breeding, winter, and permanent ranges are shown on maps with country, but no state or provincial, boundaries. These maps are extremely small and tucked into the inside margin – to the right of the text – where they are hard to see. Perhaps a better placement would have been on the outside of the page, to the left of the text. They give a rough idea of where the bird occurs, but nothing more.

Issues

Even a cursory reading of this guide revealed errors like incorrect alternate names, labels, and sizes. Rick Wright noted the same in his review, including the use of the wrong illustrations for European Starling. No field guide is going to be error free, but the amount of them here is more egregious than most.

Taxonomy is always in flux, but this guide seems especially out of date. The latest AOU updates are not incorporated, but that is not a surprise or issue. However, neither Winter Wren nor Whip-poor-will has been split (based on the 2010 AOU update); although in each case the text mentions the possibility of one.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning that since Birds of North America and Greenland was originally published for a European audience, Arlott has chosen to use some names that may be unfamiliar to North American users (with other names given in parentheses). Here are a few examples:

• Great Northern Diver (Great Northern or Common Loon) – “Diver” being the European preference
• Snipe (Common or Wilson’s Snipe) – Considers Common and Wilson’s as races of the same species
• Chuck-wills-widow (Carolina Chuck-will) – I’ve never heard that alternate name before
• Blackbird (Eurasian Blackbird) – Many birds also (or primarily) found in Europe are listed as just a single name
• Grey Catbird – uses the English word forms, such as “grey”, even for birds that are indigenous to the Americas

I’m disappointed that Princeton didn’t change these to make this book more user-friendly to their North American audience.

Recommendation

The appeal of Birds of North America and Greenland is that it illustrates all of the birds of North America (minus Mexico, of course, and the latest splits) with very nice paintings for a low price. I was able to reliably use the Illustrated Checklist for the West Indies in the field, but would not be able to do the same with this one. The number of possible birds is too great, and the lack of variation depicted and identification information in the text will too greatly handicap efforts at identification. Because of this and the various issues (especially the fact that it is not user-friendly to birders within this region), I cannot recommend this guide to anyone here in North America. It could, however, be of use to visiting ecotourists and general wildlife enthusiasts, or those who may never visit but want to know what our birds look like.

If you want to take a closer look at some plates and text, there are more examples at Princeton University Press.

If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? My shortlist of answers to this question isn’t all that short and constantly changes. But Antarctica is always on it. Antarctica? It is cold (I hate cold) and doesn’t have all that many birds (I want to see lots of birds). But what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up in quality (penguins – ‘nuff said). So it was with great excitement, and not a little trepidation, that I received Antarctic Wildlife: A Visitor’s Guide, by James Lowen.

Antarctic Wildlife is one of the most unique field guides I’ve come across. It’s not just the photographs, layout, or any one particular thing. Rather, it is the overall approach taken by the author. Lowen intended this to be a guide to the wildlife – marine mammals, birds, and a few plants – one might see on a typical cruise from Argentina or Chile to the Antarctic Peninsula. Everything about the book serves this purpose in an extremely user-friendly manner.

This starts with the extensive introduction. In addition to the standard descriptions of the book and how to use it, the author has included an overview of the environments you will pass through, the Antarctic cruise experience, and the wildlife. Actually, it is much more than a mere overview, especially regarding the wildlife. Lowen introduces each of the families included, from seals to skuas (and one page on plants), gives identification tips, and tells where to look for these animals during the different segments of your cruise. There are even tables listing the species you are likely to see in different parts of the Antarctic Peninsula, so that you can better prepare based on your particular ship’s itinerary. This introductory material is excellent; the author seems to have included everything you might need in order to make the best of your trip.

Antarctic Wildlife limits its geographic scope to just the areas routinely traversed by Antarctic cruises. The species accounts are even divided based on the cruise’s three distinct sectors: the Beagle Channel; the Drake Passage; and the Antarctic Peninsula. Normally, I despise such “gimmicky” organizations in field guides. But it works here, for the most part, mainly due to the relatively small number of species covered. Species are only included in one section, even if they are possible in others. But if you don’t find a likely match for a creature seen in one, it’s quick and easy to look through the other two as well. But attempting the same organization for almost anywhere else – say, a trip down the Manu – would be utterly insane. However, this scheme does make it more difficult to directly compare related species.

Species Accounts

The accounts follow the standard plan, with photographic plates on the right-hand page and text on the left. One to five species are included on any given two-page spread, though most have just one or two. Each account includes:

• Name – English, Scientific, German, and Spanish
• Threat Status – according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature
• Status – color-coded bars giving abundance in each of the three sectors
• Measurements – length and wingspan in centimeters; comparison to other species, as appropriate
• Talking Point – interesting tidbits
• Main text – description and identification tips
• Where to Look – where exactly to look in each sector

The few number of species per page means that the text is pretty extensive – and often very interesting. I particularly enjoy the “talking points” and various sidebars scattered throughout the guide. The whale accounts also include a helpful diagram showing what it looks like when surfacing.

The plates of most mammals and some birds are partitioned traditionally. However, those for most birds feature photographs edited onto a common background, similar in style to The Crossley ID Guide, although not nearly as complex as Crossley’s scenes. Each image is labeled with a number and, when applicable, a code denoting sex, age, and breeding/non-breeding. The photos are good to great, and the plates very attractive overall. The relatively few number of species per plate accords the space to include multiple images of each bird. The variation depicted should be sufficient to identify most birds. Some seabirds, however, are extremely difficult to identify. I would recommend serious birders also carry along a more detailed guide for them.

The cetacean accounts only include photos of the animal at the surface. This makes sense, as that is all that you are going to see in the field. However, if you’d like to see what the animal as a whole looks like, there is a wonderful two-page plate in the introduction that illustrates these whales and dolphins “in all their unconcealed glory”. Thoughtful inclusions like this really set this guide apart.

Another nice touch is that some species, such as Wandering Albatross, and Humpback and Killer Whales, have supplementary pages of photographs in order to show a greater variety of appearance and behaviors. There are also an additional 22 pages of incredible (and useful) photographs of penguin behavior.

One final nice thing about this guide is that a portion of the proceeds will go to support the Save the Albatross campaign.

Recommendation

Earlier in this review I mentioned receiving this book with a measure of trepidation. This was not borne out of any misgivings about the book’s quality, but rather its anticipated effect on me. I was right to be wary; thanks to this book, I now want to go to Antarctica more than ever! And if (hopefully, when) I go, it will not be without this book. Antarctic Wildlife: A Visitor’s Guide should be required for any cruise-based visitor to the great white continent. And if you want to risk being compelled to pay big bucks to go on such a cruise, I’d also recommend it to anyone even slightly interested in the wildlife of Antarctica.

For those traveling to Antarctica outside of the area covered by this book, as well as serious birders and those wanting to know even more about the wildlife they may encounter, I would also recommend the more extensive (and larger and heavier) The Complete Guide to Antarctic Wildlife, by Hadoram Shirihai.

At the beginning of 2011, The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds was published with much fanfare. It seems like a new field guide is published every year, but a single look at this one will tell you that it is very different. I posted a peek inside the guide along with some preliminary thoughts in my initial review, but it’s (past) time to discuss this book in more detail.

Images

I have to start here. Crossley uses photographs to illustrate his guide. But instead of presenting them separately as other photographic guides have done, he incorporates all the pictures of each species into a single photoshopped montage.

The first thing you notice is the backgrounds. The birds are integrated into an appropriate habitat: ducks on water, warblers in trees, etc. Next, you realize how many birds are depicted in each scene. There are hundreds of some ducks, but most species, even songbirds, have at least a dozen. The birds are shown in various poses and at different apparent distances from the viewer. Thus, some birds will appear very large as if they were in a traditional field guide, while others may be so small or positioned in the background such that they are very difficult to spot. All of this is a part of what Crossley calls reality birding.

Crossley composed his plates to be “as lifelike as a printed image will allow” in order to show the birds as they actually appear in the field. This includes not only showing the habitat and positioning birds at varying distances, but also lighting conditions and partially obstructed views. It even includes behavior! If you see a bird doing something in one of these plates – for instance, a Rough-legged Hawk perched on a limb that looks much too small to support it, or a Blue-winged Warbler poking its head into a cluster of dead leaves – you can be sure that these actions are typical for the species.

Species Accounts and Maps

As striking as the pictures are, don’t neglect the text. Crossley starts with the bird’s status, habitat, and behavior. A terse description of vocalizations is given for some species. The ID section lists important field marks used to identify, age, and sex the bird (there’s a phrase in which context is everything). Only rarely mentioned are subspecies, hybrids, and the like.

Crossley’s accounts are very informal, making them memorable and unusually pleasurable to read. In fact, they often reminded me of Pete Dunne’s descriptions in his Essential Field Guide Companion. For example, see if you can tell what bird Crossley is describing with these statements (answers after the review):

1. Tiny round ball of feathers with a cocked stub for a tail – nothing else like it!
2. Sits at top of trees, with condescending stare.

The range maps use the standard three colors to indicate permanent, breeding, and winter ranges, with dotted lines to show approximate limits of irregular occurrence. Unfortunately, migratory range is not shown. The maps for full-page accounts look small on the page, but are really no smaller than the maps in other field guides. The maps of less-than-full-page accounts, however, are tiny and can be very hard to see. Oddly, some maps show the bird’s range across almost the entire continent, while others are zoomed in on the eastern half on which this guide focuses.

Other Features

Here are a few more aspects of the Crossley guide that you should be aware of:

• This Crossley ID Guide covers the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada (a western guide is in the works). Most regularly-occurring species in this region have full-page accounts. Rarities and vagrants generally get a quarter page and regional specialties a half page.
• This book differs from most field guides in that the species sequence is not strictly dictated by taxonomy. Instead, it groups similar families based on habitat and physical similarities. The order closely follows the sequence suggested in an article in Birding magazine, which shouldn’t be all that surprising since Crossley was one of its coauthors. In my opinion, the article presents a compelling argument. Now that I’ve seen it put into practice, I prefer it over a strict taxonomical ordering. It may take some getting used to (but see the next item in this list), but if all authors follow suit it will make field guides much more consistent and usable (though I’m not holding my breath on that).
• The inside-front cover and first page serve as a visual “quick find’ index, with unlabeled bird pictures representing the various families. A more detailed, 16-page key follows that shows just about every bird in the book (omitting most vagrants), this time labeled with alpha code (see next) and page number. The birds within each group are shown in scale, allowing for size comparison.
• In order to save space, Crossley makes heavy use of “alpha codes”, or bird-bander codes, as an abbreviation in the text. Many experienced birders have likely been exposed to these codes and will barely even notice their use. But I can see them being a bane to beginners. As Crossley notes in the introduction, the birds being referred to are often related, and thus close by. But I can still see some users having to refer to the alpha-code index in the back an annoying number of times.
• Don’t skip the introduction. If you haven’t already gathered it, this guide is a little different, so the “How to use this book” section is very helpful. There’s also a great, succinct discussion of how to be a better birder, along with an extensive set of labeled bird topography diagrams.
• Crossley’s website – Crossley Birds – includes 45 sample plates (as of right now) with expanded captions that give additional notes on identification and other interesting background information.

Issues and Errors

Inevitably, there are some issues with the Crossley guide:

• Even with all the photos, some plumages are still not illustrated. Immature Saw-whet and Boreal Owls are prominent examples (this seems to be a recurring theme with recent field guides) .
• As previously mentioned, most scenes are a full page with some being smaller. In order to reduce wasted space, the smaller ones are fitted together to fill a page. To accomplish this, sometimes unrelated birds had to be put together, which causes some aberrations with species order. For instance, you have to flip five pages from the regularly occurring mimids before you come across Bahama Mockingbird. This could have been avoided, but it would have made a big book even bigger.
• Some of Crossley’s plates are stunning to behold, more a work of art than utilitarian image. But a few, at least to me, just don’t look very good. The author has said that in order to keep the plates as realistic as possible, many of them are darker and less sharp than photos we’re used to seeing in field guides. That explains most, but not all of the poor images. There are some – I don’t know a better way to describe it – that look like an image scanned at low resolution. Even when viewing these pages from a normal distance, the colored dots that make up the image are distractingly visible. I have no idea whether this is due to the original images, all the processing done, or the printing process.
• In one interview, Crossley said that when it comes to identification, “size is just about everything”. It’s quite surprising, then, that the only measurement given in his guide is length (and then only in inches). Wingspan should have been included as well.

Crossley has listed a few corrections on his site. In addition to these, the White-eyed Parakeet account means to compare it to the very similar Green Parakeet, but the alpha code used is actually that of the African Gray Parrot (not very hard to tell apart!).

Purpose and Audience

The Crossley ID Guide, despite the category in which I classified this post, is not a field guide. Its size alone would preclude all but the most determined from carrying it with them while birding. Also, its design is not conducive to quick comparison between species. But this is by design. In the introduction, the author urges birders to not take a guide into the field. Further, although Crossley may be helpful in sorting out a difficult identification, it would not be the first reference I turn to when faced with such a quandary.

So if the Crossley guide isn’t for use during or after birding (not that you can’t, of course), what is its purpose? I think the value of this guide lies in learning birds before you go birding. Everything about this book is designed to familiarize the reader to birds as they actually appear in real life. This is a book to be studied – immersed in, really – at home.

The next question is who is it for? The quick and easy answer is anyone interested in North American birds! Intermediate birders may get the most from it, but I’d think that even experts would enjoy and learn something from this book. As for beginners, I tried to imagine how I would have reacted to the Crossley guide when I first started birding. The plates can be quite intimidating, and I’m not sure I would have had the framework to fully get everything shown and written in the book. But I still think that it would make a great learning tool, especially when used in tandem with a more traditional field guide. I can’t help but feel that if I could have studied with the Crossley and Sibley guides open to the same bird, I would have become a better birder faster. Actually, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing to do now.

One last thought: I wonder if Crossley’s unique photographic montages will better serve to engage beginners and even non-birders. Birds arrayed in static, consistent poses against a neutral background (a la Sibley) facilitates easy comparison, but no matter how accurate or attractive the illustrations are, they aren’t alluring to anyone who’s not scrutinizing them for the sake of identification. Other photographic guides showcase gorgeous portraits of birds (like the recent Stokes field guide or, especially, the Sterry and Small guides), but they still aren’t relatable to the uninitiated. But Crossley’s images grab the viewer and forces contemplation, or at least awareness, of birds as a part of our world.

Recommendation

The amount of work that went into The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds is staggering. It contains 640 scenes, composed from more than 10,000 photographs (nearly all taken by Crossley himself!), that present the birds of eastern North America in a unique and lifelike manner. I don’t know if it will revolutionize field guides; probably not, though, if for no other reason than I don’t know if anyone other than Crossley could produce a guide like this (I’m only half joking). Still, the Crossley guide has become my go-to source for learning birds, and it is simply a pleasure to browse through. I highly recommend it.

Answers:

1. Winter Wren
2. Northern Hawk Owl

When I plan birding vacations, many things factor into the decision on where to go. I want to maximize the number of birds I see, of course, so number of possible species is very important. But it’s not just quantity; quality also plays a part. I’m reluctant to talk about birds in this way, as no species is necessarily inherently “better” than another. But it’s just a fact that certain birds possess qualities that make them more desirable to birders. Some of these qualities are spectacular physical appearance, unique behavior, rarity, and a restricted range.

It’s with this in mind that I’m surprised the Caribbean seems to be overlooked by most traveling birders. A trip to this region will not yield a long bird list (indeed, an extended stay on even one of the larger islands may not break 100 species). But what it lacks in quantity it sure makes up in quality. You want spectacular birds? Just wait until you see a tropicbird or one of the diminutive todies. Rarity? Unfortunately, all too many island species are threatened. And many of the Caribbean islands host one or more birds found only there. To see what I mean, one just has to crack open a field guide to the region, such as Birds of the West Indies, by Norman Arlott.

Birds of the West Indies includes all the birds recorded in the three major Caribbean island groups: the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and Lesser Antilles, as well as San Andrés and Providencia. As a part of the Princeton Illustrated Checklist series, this is a compact, little book. Contrary to the series’ name, however, this is more than a mere checklist with pictures. It follows a standard field guide format, with the illustration plates on the right and species accounts on the facing page.

Illustrations

This field guide is illustrated with paintings by Arlott. They’re not only accurate (which is the most important thing), but I find them very attractive as well. The concise format means that not all plumages were included. Most male/female and breeding/non-breeding plumages are displayed, though not for all the warblers. Some examples of geographic variation are included, which is very important in this region. However, no immatures are illustrated, which could cause a huge problem with some birds. Immature night-herons, for example, would be impossible to differentiate using this guide. The only birds shown in flight are seabirds (only in flight), raptors, gulls, swifts (only in flight), and swallows. Oddly, the terns are only shown perched.

Personally, I’m frustrated by the use of numbers to label the species. This is a common convention in field guides that have to stuff many birds on each plate (such as those for the neotropics). But most of these pages are not very crowded, so I would have preferred them to be labeled with the species name instead. I find it annoying to have to constantly look back and forth to find out what bird I’m looking at.

Species Accounts

The text accounts include:

• Size – length in centimeters
• Field Notes – behavior, and description of any subspecies
• Voice
• Habitat
• Distribution

The “Field Notes” focus on behavioral traits that may be important for identification. Occasionally, field marks are mentioned that may not be evident in the illustrations, and descriptions of juveniles and subspecies are given where appropriate. I appreciate the inclusion of behavior (an important aspect that many field guides don’t address), but I’m disappointed that it does not give tips on how to differentiate between similar species, leaving you to decipher that yourself from the plates. This would be a major drawback in a field guide for any other region, but less so here. The Caribbean region doesn’t have as many confusing species as most places. Still, while using this guide to prepare for a recent trip there, I found this to be a recurring annoyance.

Voice and Habitat are just what you would expect. In most cases, the Distribution section just notes the island(s) the bird is found on and, in the case of migrants, when. Abundance status is given for some, but unfortunately not all.

Range Maps

Range maps are an essential component of a field guide. Usually. But for this region, they’re really not necessary for most birds, with the exception of seabirds and some single-island endemics. For the rest, the distribution section in the account should suffice. However, this guide includes a range map for most every species, gathered together in a separate section in the back of the book with eight two-inch-wide maps per page. I wouldn’t complain about what is essentially a bonus, if only they were handled better. For most species, the map only shows whether it is present on the island, not necessarily where it actually occurs on that island. Further, every map uses the same scale that shows the entire region. As a result, many maps are zoomed too far out to be of use for the smaller islands (the two smaller Cayman Islands can’t be seen at all). Using an appropriate scale would have allowed the maps to be much more detailed and useful. Finally, while the maps include the plate number where you can find the bird, the species accounts inexcusably do not indicate where to find the map. A page or map number should have been included in the accounts.

Consistent with the plan to make this guide as compact as possible, the introduction is a very succinct four pages. Along with brief notes on how to use the book, there are a couple of bird topography diagrams and a nice, full-page, color map of the region covered.

Comparison to Other Guides

Prior to this Illustrated Checklist, the preeminent field guide to the Caribbean was the identically titled Birds of the West Indies, by Herbert Raffaele et al. The format of the two books is largely the same, though Raffaele includes maps for only selected species alongside the text accounts. I much prefer Arlott’s illustrations; I find the look of some birds in the other to be “off” somehow, especially the warblers and shorebirds. However, Raffaele does show more variation and the text includes more identification information.

Recommendation

I would highly recommend Birds of the West Indies to anyone visiting the Caribbean, even a single island that has a good guide of its own (i.e. Jamaica). So the only question remains which Birds of the West Indies – Arlott or Raffaele?

Actually, the answer may be both. Honestly, I don’t think either one is completely adequate by itself. Arlott has gaps in the illustrations and is deficient when it comes to difficult identifications, while Raffaele’s poorer illustrations (in my mind) requires a North American field guide as a supplement for shared species. I took both on a recent Caribbean vacation. I found myself referring most to the Illustrated Checklist, which came with me while Raffaele stayed in the room. That was a good arrangement, though I think the best combination would be Arlott’s field guide and Raffaele’s A Guide to the Birds of the West Indies, an older, larger reference on which his field guide is based. That way you would have Arlott’s superior art and behavioral notes, while Raffaele’s book rounds out the illustrations and helps with confusing species by way of its expanded text.

But that’s an expensive arrangement. If I were forced to choose just one for birding in the Caribbean – or for Florida birders hoping for a vagrant – I’d have to go with Raffaele’s Birds of the West Indies.

Birder 1: Whoa! I’ve got a gorgeous male Cerulean Warbler.
Birder 2: Where?!?
Birder 1: In that hickory straight ahead, 2 o’clock.
Birder 2: Which one’s the hickory?
Birder 1: The one with the straight, compound leaves that…
Birder 2: Wait, straight what?
Birder 1: Compound leaves – it’s where…never mind, it just flew off.
Birder 2: *#$&@!

I normally write about bird books on this site. So why review a guide to trees? If the conversation above sounds familiar, you know that it is in a birder’s self-interest to be at least somewhat familiar with trees. Further, I think it is important to be not just a birder, but a well-rounded naturalist. Birds and trees go together, and I think it’s valuable to learn about both and how they are intertwined. Finally, I was interested in this book specifically due to its author. David Allen Sibley is the creator of a very highly regarded (and my favorite) field guide to North American birds.

The Sibley Guide to Trees covers 668 trees found in the continental United States and Canada. All native trees are included, except those found only in southern Florida, as are many commonly cultivated species.

For those familiar with Sibley’s bird guide, this one is very similar. The general layout is the same, with the accounts laid out vertically on the page. Most occupy half a page, though a few are smaller and a good number are full-page. And, of course, it is illustrated by Sibley’s gorgeous paintings.

Species Accounts

The accounts include:

• Name – common, scientific, and other commonly used names (very helpful)
• Text – evergreen/deciduous; size; general characteristics
• Illustrations
• Range map

This book is copiously illustrated with Sibley’s fantastic paintings. We get not one, but multiple images of leaves, showing the possible variation. The underleaf is also shown, as well as the fall colors where appropriate. Additionally, any flowers and fruit are illustrated. For most, sample twigs are shown and for many a section of the trunk detailing the bark. Where the shape or structure as a whole is distinctive, the entire tree is portrayed.

The maps use a green color to show the range of native trees, while yellow indicates where non-native species have “escaped” and are growing in the wild. Accompanying the maps is some text giving the abundance, preferred habitat, and hardiness zones the tree is found in. For native trees, it mentions whether it is cultivated or not and for introduced species tells where it is natively found.

The accounts look sparse text-wise, but a deceptive amount of information is included. In addition to the text at the beginning of the account and that associated with the maps, some trees have highlighted boxes of text that discuss hybridization, identification, and other interesting information. The illustrations are also captioned with pertinent information, like the size of leaves and fruit.

Introduction

A 30-page introduction covers the basics of tree taxonomy, conservation, and identification. It provides a lot of useful information and shouldn’t be skipped. Each family is also introduced within the body of the book. Most are just a few paragraphs, maybe with a picture or two. On the other hand, the introduction for larger families – oaks, for example – can span several pages and feature many illustrations.

Approach

Many tree field guides organize species based on shared characteristics and include a key to help in identification. A key is basically a series of questions that will lead you to a (hopefully) correct identification, or at least greatly narrow down the possibilities. The Sibley Guide to Trees takes a different approach. First, it is organized taxonomically. So trees are grouped with those that are most closely related to it, which may or may not be the trees that look the most alike. And there is no key.

Instead, Sibley takes a more “holistic” approach. He encourages you to look at the whole tree. In order to best understand his approach, you should read Sibley’s description and rational of his choice. As a beginner in tree identification, I must admit that I still longed for some kind of key, something to make identification easier. But as I considered it further, I realized that, as a birder, I was already comfortable with this holistic approach.

In fact, in many respects The Sibley Guide to Trees was written for birders. In the post linked above, Sibley even wrote that he “tried to approach tree identification in the same way that modern birders approach bird identification, to create ‘a tree guide for birdwatchers’”. Obviously, you don’t have to be a birdwatcher to use this book. But if you are, you should already have a good grasp of what the author is trying to do.

Being the same size as the “big” Sibley bird guide, this book may be a bit large to carry on you. But it could be carried in a backpack or, of course, kept in the car.

As with any work of this magnitude, errors are bound to creep in. A list of errors and corrections can be found on Sibley’s website.

Recommendation

The Sibley Guide to Trees is a beautiful book that (I can’t believe I’m saying this about a tree book) is fun to simply flip through and browse. But it’s also informative and should prove very helpful in tree identification. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in the trees around them, and especially so to fellow birders.

While on a field trip recently at a water treatment facility someone found a bird wing. It wasn’t immediately obvious to me what species had been the unlucky victim, but another birder identified it as belonging to a Wilson’s Snipe. I had no reason to doubt the identification, as I had probably seen more snipe that day than I had in my entire life beforehand. And then there’s the fact that the identifying birder was none other than David Sibley.

You may never stumble across a complete wing, but most people find bird feathers from time to time. As a birder, it’s impossible not to wonder what species they may have belonged to. But it’s usually not easy to figure out; traditional field guides are great for entire birds, but not so much for individual feathers. In order to have a shot at identification, you can either make sure to always bird with Sibley, or you can use Bird Feathers: A Guide to North American Species.

Bird Feathers presents representative feathers from 397 North American birds. For each species, 6-28 feathers (average of 10-12) are laid out next to each other and photographed against a neutral background. Multiple primaries, secondaries, and tail feathers are included for most, along with a sampling of body feathers. A caption identifies the kind of feather and gives the length in both inches and centimeters.

The accounts also indicate what kind of wing type the bird has (as defined in the introduction) and whether the feathers shown came from a male, female, juvenile, or if this is unknown. Color range maps show permanent, summer, winter, and migration ranges.

Bird topography illustrations and a list of abbreviations used are included on the inside of the covers. The inside edges are also marked like a ruler, with inches on the inside-front cover and centimeters on the back, facilitating the measurement of found feathers. These additions are very handy and most appreciated.

I happened to have this guide in my car during the aforementioned field trip when the wing was found. I took the opportunity to compare the actual feathers with what is shown in the book, and they were clearly a match. Even if we didn’t have the correct identification to begin with, taking the authors’ suggestion of considering where it was found would have led us to check it against a snipe relatively early in the identification process.

Bird Feathers is obviously valuable as a reference, but I have found it surprisingly interesting to simply flip through. I suppose this should be obvious, but looking at individual feathers can be a radically different experience than looking at the full bird. For instance, I don’t think anyone could imagine that the feathers shown here could belong to something as gorgeous as a Painted Bunting. Conversely, I found the individual Pine Siskin feathers much more striking than the bird as a whole.

It’s also fun and educational to see how well-known field marks are formed by the individual feathers. For instance, the secondaries of ducks with iridescent speculums are iridescent on only one vane of the feather. The vane that will be covered by the neighboring feather is “normal”. Presumably, iridescence is more costly to produce. Also, it’s not immediately apparent that these Magnolia Warbler tail feathers would produce the bird’s classic “dipped in ink” pattern. In the field the base of the tail appears white. However, the white portion is actually at the mid-way point of the feather, and the base is dark. But this dark portion is hidden by the undertail coverts. I never realized how much of a tail is covered by the coverts.

You will also learn a great deal from the introduction. The first part covers feather origins, types, and how they contribute to flight. A chapter on flight feather identification describes each of the wing and tail types and their respective feathers. Numerous photos accompany the text, including very helpful shots of each wing type as a whole, along with all of the individual flight feathers laid out side by side. This 63-page introduction is very helpful and instructive, and should not be skipped.

Adult birders aren’t the only ones who can learn from Bird Feathers. It can also lead to teaching opportunities for kids. Examining feathers can facilitate discussions about flight and all the other concepts covered in the book’s introduction. This includes conservation. When the child asks why they can’t keep the feather, you can tell them it was made illegal to possess feathers in order to protect birds from the plume harvest that almost resulted in the extinction of our herons and egrets.

Obviously, at fewer than 400 species, Scott and McFarland have not included every bird in the United States and Canada. Nor do they show every type of feather for each bird that is included. But that would go beyond the scope of this book as an introduction and field guide to bird feathers. The birds here are those of which you’re most likely to find a feather.

Recommendation

As a reference, Bird Feathers will be useful to anyone who spends significant time outdoors. But for birders, it’s even more valuable for the insight it provides into birds’ lives, form, and appearance.

In my initial look at the Stokes guide, I expressed a very favorable opinion of it. After spending some more time with the guide, my thoughts haven’t changed much. I would highly recommend it, though not as a field guide. What do I mean? Read on…

The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America covers 854 species, all of which are on the official ABA Checklist. The taxonomy is relatively up-to-date, even including the “new” Pacific Wren. It does not, however, give Mexican Whip-poor-will its own account, though it does cover the differences between it and its former conspecific nicely.

Each account occupies one half to four pages, with an average of about one. I like the layout, which presents the photographs first, at the top of the page, making it easier to compare species. The lack of margins between the photos and page edges allows the photos to be larger, and gives the guide an attractive look.

Photographs

In a nutshell, they are good, and there are a lot of them. The quality of most is good to superb, though there are a very few that I would consider sub-par. But even then, they were chosen for their instructive value rather than beauty. (Though there had to have been a better Black Phoebe profile shot.) The pictures are also larger than those in most photographic guides.

Each photo is captioned with not only the bird’s age, sex, season, and subspecies when known, but also the location and month it was taken. This is a very useful feature, and one that I wish all photo-based identification guides would emulate.

But to me, the best thing about the photos is the sheer number of them. One of the main advantages of paintings-based field guides over photographic ones is the amount of variation they can show. Just look at the Sibley or Collins guides and the amazing number of illustrations per species they provide. Photo field guides have never attempted anything close, until the Stokes. On average, the Stokes guide has four photos per species. This still doesn’t match Sibley, but is much higher than any other photo field guide I’m aware of.

Species Accounts

Besides the species’ name, of course, each account includes:

• ABA Code – number (1-6) next to the name indicates rarity
• Size – length of the bird, in inches only
• Shape
• Plumage – broken down by age, gender, and season
• Flight – plumage, shape, and behavioral clues
• Habitat
• Voice
• Subspecies – number in North America, names, brief description, and range
• Hybrids – list of species with which it’s known to hybridize

I’m undecided whether the ABA code or terms such as “common” or “scare and local” are a better method to indicate how likely one is to find a bird. Regardless, I’m happy to see the codes included here; a surprising number of field guides don’t provide anything of the sort.

The shape and plumage descriptions are quite extensive for a modern field guide. The emphasis put on shape is especially great to see, as it is often overlooked. But, of course, there’s bound to be a few field marks that aren’t mentioned. Many guides call attention to definitive characteristics in some way, whether via arrows pointing to field marks or bolded text. Whatever the method, a field guide needs to succinctly highlight the most important identification information. That was not done here, however, and it often leads to long, intimidating lists of things to look for.

My favorite part of the text is the treatment of subspecies. The Stokes follow Peter Pyle’s classification of subspecies and summarize the ranges and descriptions from his excellent, two-part Identification Guide to North American Birds. I’ve long been looking for a single, concise source for this information. This alone has earned the Stokes field guide a spot among the primary reference material that I keep close by.

As birders quickly learn, behavioral traits can be as important for identification as plumage, shape, or anything else. Appropriately, some key behaviors are noted in the Stokes guide, but are buried in the plumage descriptions where they may not be noticed. For instance, the Palm Warbler account does state that they pump their tails, but it’s mentioned in the Adult Summer section. Of course, they pump their tails just as much in winter! A separate section dedicated to behavior would have been much more preferable.

The range maps have distinct colors for permanent, summer, winter, and migratory ranges. They also use dotted lines of the appropriate color to indicate areas of rare occurrence. The maps were created by Paul Lehman, so they’ll be very similar to most of the other recent field guides, which also use his data. The area shown in the maps is scaled nicely depending on the bird’s range.

Some range maps could be a bit larger.

The only problem is that the maps themselves are all of the same, very small, size. I have good close vision, but I have to hold the book uncomfortably close to make out some details. The dotted lines can be especially hard to see. It would have been nice if the maps could have been reproduced a bit larger. Some accounts use every bit of their allotted space, so their maps could not have been any bigger. That’s understandable. But many leave a great deal of blank space, making their maps appear ridiculously tiny. Granted, having some maps larger than others would be inconsistent, but it would be more reader-friendly. At the very least, darker colors could have been used.

Other Features

The introduction is very short, consisting solely of the obligatory “how to use this guide” and a series of photographs labeled with the parts of the bird. A “Quick Alphabetical Index” is printed on the front inside cover flap. This is a handy feature that should be standard on all field guides. There is also a bonus CD with 150 tracks, in MP3 format, sampled from the Stokes bird songs CD set

Issues

This may or may not be a problem, depending on your needs. At 5.5 x 8.5 inches (14 x 21.5 cm), this is one of the larger field guides, though it’s not all that much larger than the National Geographic guide. But when you combine that with its thickness and weight (it’s heavier than the “big” Sibley!), it becomes unwieldy to use in the field. It would fit only in the largest pocket or, preferably, a bag or backpack.

Here are a few additional issues that I had with this guide:

• Related families are grouped together with color-coded lower page borders. This helps navigation, and isn’t a problem. But each of these sections has an introduction page that simply lists the families covered. This is a colossal waste of space. Some boxes with general information and identification tips are included for some families, but these are interspersed throughout the accounts. It would seem to make more sense to move these to the mostly-blank intro pages. This would either allow a few pages to be trimmed from this thick book, or more photos and text to be included.
• As previously mentioned, one of the guide’s main strengths is the amount of variation shown. This makes it all the more disappointing when some important plumages are not illustrated. Immature Saw-whet and Boreal Owls, for example, are conspicuously absent.
• Wingspan measurements are not given for any bird.
• Measurements are only given in inches. It would be nice if the metric equivalent was also included.
• The order of species could have been further tweaked to give a better comparison of similar birds. The swallows, for instance, could have been rearranged to have Cliff and Cave Swallows, and Northern Rough-winged and Bank on facing pages.

The only outright error I’ve noticed is that the Red Knot is listed as monotypic, when there are three subspecies that breed in North America (and six total). Even though other sources (such as Handbook of the Birds of the World) consider the Red Knot as a complex of five or six subspecies, Pyle does not. Since the Stokes guide uses Pyle as its source for subspecies information, it is thus correct in listing the knot as monotypic.

Recommendation

The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America contains an extensive collection of photographs and useful information not included in other field guides. Even if you don’t plan on using it in the field, it makes an ideal compact reference to keep in your car or close at hand at home.

The following is a guest review by Frank Lambert.

Colombia has in recent years become a much safer country to visit, and is indeed now becoming an increasingly popular country for keen birders. With a bird list that is now a staggering 1,879, of which 76 are endemic and another 109 near endemic, this is hardly surprising. Hilty and Brown’s A Guide to the Birds of Colombia was published some 24 years ago and although it is still possible to find this fantastic piece of work, the taxonomy is now very dated and there have been very many new discoveries relating to the distribution and occurrence of birds in Colombia since 1986 – clearly then, there has been a need for an updated or new field guide for this amazing country for many years, and this book has been published with the aim of filling that niche. It is up-to-date, following the latest SACC taxonomy (American Ornithologists’ Union’s South American Classification Committee) and has distribution maps and illustrations of all the species currently known from Colombia including many not illustrated by Hilty & Brown, and is so compact (12.5 x 21cm) that it will probably fit into most coat pockets: Colombia’s rich avifauna has been packed into a mere 225 color plates. A Spanish version is promised soon.

The introductory pages say very little about Colombia and its birds, but unlike many field guides, contain six different maps. I often find maps inadequate in field guides but in this case I was pleasantly surprised. The maps here cover topography, political boundaries, natural vegetation types, rainfall, Endemic Bird Areas and protected areas. The last of these highlights the fantastic network of 18 (and increasing) reserves that have been purchased for bird and wildlife conservation by the Colombian NGO ProAves –together they support a staggering 1,130 bird species. I have visited 11 of these reserves during the last few years and have been very impressed with all of them and ProAves deserves huge praise and support for its ongoing efforts to conserve the birds in this species-rich country. For anyone planning to visit this superb, friendly destination, it is worth visiting the ProAves website.

With such a compact book it has obviously been impossible to include a huge amount of information and the authors have had to be ruthless in leaving out information that most field guides would usually include – they have taken an unusual approach in having no plumage descriptions or behavioral notes. Instead, each species is illustrated next to a detailed color-coded distribution map and provided with a concise habitat description. In addition, altitudinal ranges, short voice descriptions or other very brief identification notes are given for some species. In general, each species is depicted by an adult or a pair (if sexually dimorphic) though where distinctive subspecies occur one or at most two of them may be depicted. Voices are described for relatively few species (tapaculos, owls, selected nightjars, selected tyrant-flycatchers, antpittas, Chamaeza ant-thrushes, some pigeons), and I found it a little surprising that voices were not mentioned for some groups for which such descriptions would have been very useful, such as the trogons, woodcreepers and selected antbirds. The maps seem very good, though for the few species with very restricted range the localities where they occur can be quite difficult to see (near impossible in poor light) on the small maps (e.g. for the undescribed Alto PisonesTapaculo Scytalopus sp.) and the use of arrows would have been a useful edition. I like the “Index of Generic Names in English”, all on one page, which enabled me to find all the species I was looking for very rapidly. There are also lists of birds that are found on Colombia’s more important offshore islands; San Andres and Providencia, and Malpelo.

One of the things that I think this book falls short on is adequate coverage of distinctive subspecies, and apart from selected gulls, terns and raptors, there is little on immature plumages, though in the majority of cases this probably does not matter. Although the authors have included plates of subspecies where splits are likely merited, they seem to have missed some (e.g. Black-crested Antshrike Sakesphorus canadensis – the illustration of the male of which looks more like Collared Antshrike S. bernardi rather than of one of the subspecies of Black-crested Antshrike that occurs in Colombia) and for anyone interested in subspecies I would recommend taking along the much heavier but excellent Birds of Northern South America (2006, Robin Restall, Christopher Helm, London) as an additional reference. To illustrate the difference, whilst Restall lists nine subspecies of Blue-crowned Motmot Momotus momota occurring in Colombia and illustrates eight of them, the ProAves book only illustrates two of these forms, one of which (the Amazonian birds) they split as Whooping Motmot M. subrufescens following recent taxonomic revision of the group (Stiles 2009). Considering the incredible variation in Blue-crowned Motmot, it seems quite likely that some of the other taxa may also merit splitting.

Despite these inadequacies, which are quite understandable given the small size but huge scope of the book, I would definitely recommend taking this book with you to the field in Colombia. As a quick and easy reference it will certainly allow you to identify the majority of species you encounter. There will be exceptions, and I doubt if this book alone will enable you to be confident of distinguishing some of the more difficult look-a-like birds such as some of the woodcreepers or antwrens, but even with a more comprehensive guide you may still have problems. For such species you often need to rely on vocalizations which anyway cannot always be transcribed adequately. Overall then, I think the authors should be congratulated on producing a much-needed compact field guide at a critical juncture for Colombian birding. If you are in doubt about birding in this marvelous country, I hope this book will encourage you!

References:

• Hilty, S.A. and Brown W.L. 1986. A Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Princeton University Press.
• Stiles, G.F. 2009. A review of the genus Momotus (Coraciiformes: Momotidae) in northern South America and adjacent areas. Ornitología Colombiana 8: 29-75

For more information and some sample plates, or to purchase, visit Proaves’ field guide page.

Costa Rica. To a birder like me, those words conjure visions of an avian paradise: cloud forests bejeweled by Resplendent Quetzals, Scarlet Macaws flying over the rain forest, and hummingbirds flitting around flowers. However, Costa Rica is home to more than just birds (gasp!). There are butterflies, poison dart frogs, iguanas, lizards that run across water, sloths, and monkeys, just to name a few. In fact, though I was primarily looking for birds, many of my most memorable sightings in Costa Rica involve animals other than birds.

The Wildlife of Costa Rica is a field guide to many of the mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and arthropods you may see there. Seeing as Costa Rica boasts over 800 species of birds and God-only-knows how many arthropods, by necessity this is more of a sampler than comprehensive guide. Most of the species were selected because they are easy to see, while others were chosen for their beauty or distinctiveness.

For the species that are included, you get a relatively extensive text account and one or more painted illustrations. The bird images have been taken from the excellent field guide by Richard Garrigues and Robert Dean (also from Cornell University Press). Oddly, it does not seem that the mammal have likewise been taken from their Mammals of Costa Rica field guide. For the most part, all look good and are very consistent. Some of the mammals and snakes look a little awkward to me, but they’re the exception.

Text accounts cover description, status, distribution, habitat, habits, diet, and vocalizations. It’s a nice mix of information needed for identification and other interesting tidbits. Disappointingly, no range maps are included, even though at the very least maps for birds and mammals could have been taken from their respective individual field guides.

Interspersed throughout the book are 24 sidebars, or “natural history vignettes”. Some focus on single species, such as Brown-throated Three-toed Sloths, while others describe general phenomena like frog calls. These make for fascinating reading and are good supplements. There is also a short general introduction, covering the country’s geography, habitats, and weather. Taxonomic groups each have their own intro, from a full page for the classes (mammals, birds, etc) to single paragraphs for orders and families.

Unfortunate design leaves too much white space, while keeping some illustrations too small.

I think the root of the problem may be that the illustrations on each set of facing pages are in scale (except where noted). This is usually a good thing in field guides, but it works best when the illustrations are gathered together and the species are similarly sized. But that’s not always the case here, especially among the birds. This constraint forces some of the bird illustrations to be ridiculously small, while others occupy more of the page than they need to, precluding other birds from being included.

Some may find issue with the species selection or the amount of coverage that each group receives. Granted, I’ve only been to Costa Rica once, but I think they did a commendable job. Most of the birds and other animals I saw are included here. Roughly, half of the guide is devoted to birds, but that’s about right given their popularity and conspicuousness.

Comparison to Other Guides

Costa Rica is a popular destination for ecotravelers and others interested in wildlife, so it’s no surprise that this is not the first guide of its kind. Here are two other popular choices and, in brief, how they compare to this guide.

The Travellers’ Wildlife Guides Costa Rica, by Les Beletsky, also uses paintings to illustrate the same groups of animals, minus arthropods. It includes fewer species from even the groups it does cover, though, and much less species-specific text. There are, however, relatively extensive family-level accounts.

Carrol L. Henderson’s Field Guide to the Wildlife of Costa Rica covers the same groups as the Cornell book, but includes by far the fewest species of the three guides. It uses photographs instead of paintings, and has extensive, and often quite interesting, text accounts. It’s the largest and heaviest of the three, making the title a bit of a stretch.

Henderson has also broken down this large guide into three separate ones: Butterflies, Moths, and Other Invertebrates; Birds; and Mammals, Amphibians, and Reptiles of Costa Rica. These are intriguing because they offer greater flexibility than trying to include everything in a single volume. They are more comprehensive than the catch-all guides, but still not nearly enough so to use as primary field guides.

Recommendation

The Wildlife of Costa Rica is a good overview of the country’s diverse wildlife. Of the general guides, I think this one will work best due to its smaller size, yet greater number of species included. It should come in handy for any visitor who’s even slightly interested in the animals they will see there. I know it will for me when I go back.