Field Guide to the Songbirds of South America

[摘要] The real questions are, who was this book designed for, who is going to use this book, and is it worth owning? In my opinion, the book was clearly created for a birder visiting South America. The concept of a comprehensive guide for an entire continent, particularly one as complex as South America, seems like a throwback to a different era, when regional and country guides did not exist. In the early 1980s, I would have died for such a guide. Today, though, there are numerous excellent country guides (including Birds of Ecuador) that, I would contend, reduce the relevance of such a continent-wide guide. Today, this guide may be quite useful in a few countries that currently lack a good guide (such as Bolivia), but be forewarned that close to 20% of the passerines, as well as 100% of the nonpasserines, will be missing. The authors had the opportunity to rectify this major complaint against their earlier work, but for some reason chose not to. As a collector of books on South American birds, I would say that it is still worthwhile owning this book, particularly as an additional, quick reference that includes more of Tudor's excellent art work (although it is quite expensive), but from my experience, when visiting a country (such as Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, etc.), one will desire a field guide that has everything included—particularly in this day and age of weight restrictions on air flights. This is an attractive book with a wealth of (repackaged) information in a condensed form, but it has its limitations as a practical field guide.

[学科分类] 动物科学