Comments on: Shorebird Guide Comparison

By: Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia

Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:42:31 +0000

[...] this narrow niche, The Shorebird Guide. Grant at The Birder’s Library composed an excellent Shorebird Guide Comparison matching up both of the books mentioned here along with a couple of less distinguished works. His [...]

By: John

John — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:07:24 +0000

Thanks for a nice concise review.

By: Grant McCreary

Grant McCreary — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:23:58 +0000

The paper certainly isn’t glossy, but I don’t see any problems with it. If you look at the pictures close enough, you can see the pixels, especially on the lower quality/resolution pics. But that would be the same for most any book.

By: Grant McCreary

Grant McCreary — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:00:15 +0000

I’ll take a closer look at the paper. I’m out of town at the moment, so it will be early next week.

By: vbe

vbe — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 10:09:23 +0000

about the paper, its is not as glossy as the shorebird guide, its real raw paper , you see the grain !!!

By: Grant McCreary

Grant McCreary — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 03:26:16 +0000

Daniël – Nice analysis. I totally agree. I noticed the tables and thought they were a nice addition, but assumed that they would not be as useful as the photographic comparisons in The Shorebird Guide. I’ll have to take a closer look at them.

vbe – What’s wrong with the paper? I didn’t notice anything in my copy. Mine is the one published in the US by Princeton. Is that the one you have, or do you have the one published by Oxford? I wonder if there is a difference?

By: vbe

vbe — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:28:58 +0000

i think that the chandler guide is not that good, and that is because the use of wrong paper for the photo’s !!

By: Daniël Schepers

Daniël Schepers — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:43:46 +0000

Hi, As a Shorebird-lover I own all four of these guides, and I must say that I agree with your recommendations. 'Both 'The Shorebird Guide'' and Chandler's guide are excellent guides and I would personally recommend both of them to people with an interest for Shorebirds. The other two guides in this review are, as you said, not bad. They're just not as good as ''The Shorebird Guide'' and Chandler's guide. There are however a few things that I think ''The Shorebird Guide'' is missing which Chandlers guide does have. The first thing is that the text and photo's of the species are on different pages. Chandler's guide does have them next to each other which makes it easier to use. On the other hand; the text in "The Shorebird Guide'' is more detailed and thorough. I also prefer the general lay-out of Chandlers guide over the lay out of ''The Shorebird Guide''. It makes it much easier to read. The comparison of different species is very well done in both guides. Chandler's guide using tables listing the characteristics that can be used to separate them, ''The Shorebird Guide'' using photo's with captions of the characteristics that should be noted. All together I prefer ''The Shorebird Guide'', but I think it won't do any bad to have both of them! Daniël Ps. ''But really, can you have too many guides to shorebirds?'' I totally agree with that!