Comments on: The Shorebird Guide

By: Looking for Least Bitterns at Altamaha | Birds on the Brain

Looking for Least Bitterns at Altamaha | Birds on the Brain — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:53:18 +0000

[...] explained, though, if the dike were the territory boundary with the tower at the corner. But both The Shorebird Guide and Pete Dunne mention that stilts will aggressively defend their territory against intruders, [...]

By: Jean

Jean — Sat, 02 May 2009 02:02:20 +0000

I recently purchased this book on the used-book market in anticipation of a trip to central Kansas in early May. My husband and I intend to improve our shorebird ID skills by catching migrants on their way north. We’re intermediate birders, but living in north central Texas, we get little opportunity watch shorebirds. Hence the trip to Kansas.

This book is worth its weight in gold just for the photos. Especially the photos of juveniles and non-breeding plumages. But the best are the photos of the target bird in relation to other shorebirds. After all, that’s how we’re going to see most of them. These photos highlight realtive sizes and comparative silhouettes. Also, there’s detailed information on migration times, paths, and what molts to expect to see.

The only drawback, is that it does not provide a strategy for shorebird ID. Not to worry, though. We have found that gap is filled by reading Jack Connor’s “The Complete Birder” book. Between these two sources, we feel armed for the task.

By: J. Moore

J. Moore — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 09:42:43 +0000

I agree this is an innovative and valuable book, as discussed in Grant’s review. But I think it could have been better. The main thing that is lacking is a summary, in the text section, of how to identify the bird and how to distinguish it from similar species. As it is, this information is contained only in the photographic section, spread through the captions of individual photographs over several pages. This is not a major problem when studying the book for the first time, but does make it of limited use as a tool for quick review of how to identify species, e.g. before a big trip. Other similar guides I have seen, e.g. Gulls of the Americas, put key information in the captions AND provide a detailed summary in the text section. I think this is the better approach.

I also did not like the mixing of quiz photos together with ID photos, with the answers hidden in the back of the book. I sometimes found that an answer to a quiz photo was important in forming an initial impression of how the bird can appear, and it was annoying to have to turn to the back of the book to confirm the answer. And often I found myself not even bothering to look, and studied my other field guides instead. Perhaps if the answers were printed at the bottom of the page instead it would not have been so annoying.