The 'one' birdbook I should take with me to Mexico? (1 Viewer)

Hi
My wife and I have booked a holiday in July to Playa del Carmen in Mexico. With the restrictions on baggage weight I need to find a relatively lightweight and concise book on the birds I can expect to find in Mexico. It needs to have plenty of well illustrated pictures that reflect what the birds actually look like in real life. Any ideas?

Gwynne said:

Hi
My wife and I have booked a holiday in July to Playa del Carmen in Mexico. With the restrictions on baggage weight I need to find a relatively lightweight and concise book on the birds I can expect to find in Mexico. It needs to have plenty of well illustrated pictures that reflect what the birds actually look like in real life. Any ideas?

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There's the Howell and Webb field guide, which is available for £9.99 here. It's quite big though but does what you want.

I agree with Howell and Webb, I have used it myself and think it is an exellent field guide. The one caveat is that it does not cover species that a US person would know from home, which mostly would include the migrant warblers, gulls, shorebirds, raptors, etc that are mostly in Mexico for northern winter. You should therefore have relatively minor problems with that in July. If you can bring yourself to bring a second book, the National Geographic field guide to the US is smaller by quite a bit compared to Sibley's book.

There was another thread recently which stated that the Howell and Webb guide, even if not brand new, is still the best by quite a margin. The text is superb, in addition to the quite decent indeed drawings.

Niels

Thanks for your comments Andrew and Niels, I will check both books out.
Gwynne

If weight is a problem you could go with the newer Princeton Guide: Birds of Mexico and Central America by Ber van Perlo. It's a handy book, small and inclusive of all species even north American migrants unlike Howell. Howell's book is much better for information and illustrations.

I like Howell and Webb too since it also include Northern Central America...which will get you a great start on Central American in general....Sure it doesn't have US birds but I always take along my Kaufman (some use Sibley) ....I enjoyed Mexican bird watching!