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Best bird guides by region...Central and South America (1 Viewer)

More about South America?

I think this thread has so far mostly concentrated on Central America only. With some few exceptions. So what do people think are the best books for the South? It used to be, there was virtually nothing, then came the early versions of the Colombia and Venezuela guides. In 2000, there was still nothing for further south. Now there are books for Ecuador, Peru, a number of possibilities for Brazil, a compact book for Chile, and an antiquated - but better than nothing - one for Argentina. Which, by the way proved surprisingly useful, much more so than the van Perlo Illustrated Checklist for all of southern South America.
One major problem is the "heftiness" of many of these books. The authors often created some kinds of handbooks instead of true FGs. Even in the case when they split the work into what they called a Fieldguide and a Companion Volume.
Another problem is that some books have been promised for decades (literally in the case of Argentina), thus blocking others to even get started.
Brazil used to be pretty much "terra incognita" before a whole lot of books "suddenly" emerged. Some for certain regions only, some for the whole country. The only country now that still does not have a printed FG is Bolivia. Though there has been a CD ROM around for a long time. But that's not very practical in the field, as far as I'm concerned.

To me, the van Perlo FG to the Birds of Brazil would be the type of book we'd need for each country. Minus some of the excess blank rims that make that book larger than it needs to be.

The countries between Venezuela and Brazil are covered by the hefty FG Birds of Northern South America. Are there slimmer books for that restricted area of Surinam and the Guyanas? There is, of course also the FG for Trinidad and Tobago that has been around for a long time.
 
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I think this thread has so far mostly concentrated on Central America only.............

Adding to the Central American topic in this overview thread: the Costa Rica book by Garrigues and Dean has since come out in a revised and much improved second edition.

And the similarly patterned Birds of Panama FG by Angehr and Dean has not been mentioned here yet. It's a great book as well, covering over 900 species, usually with fine range maps.
 
Robert,
I am currently planning my trip to Ecuador in August. I have both the older Ridgely and Greenfield and the "fieldbook" (McMullan and Navarrete). While I think the drawings are mostly better in the first of these, It is also 4x the bulk, and having updated ranges (in the second book) might offset that advantage. I have tried using both for photos here in BF, so that is what I build my impression off. I additionally hope that the somewhat nature-oriented places we are going to stay would have a copy of the older book if I come across something that I cannot handle with the newer book. (Some thread here on BF says that a similar size fieldbook is available for Colombia, with relatively poor drawings)

There is talk about making extracts of the BNSA (Restall) book for Columbia and/or Ecuador. I have the similar extract for Trinidad and Tobago where it works well (as well as for the ABC islands), but there certainly is a certain lack of "like to life" in the original, which I think would be a detriment for areas with a high birdlife diversity.

I have yet to hear about a good book for much of Bolivia.

Some people still swear to the Ridgely and Tudor: Songbirds volume and the non-passerines volume by Erize, Mata, Rumboll (in some order).

Niels

PS: I cannot stress enough that the Chile book by Jaramillo is excellent.
 
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Adding to the Central American topic in this overview thread: the Costa Rica book by Garrigues and Dean has since come out in a revised and much improved second edition. And the similarly patterned Birds of Panama FG by Angehr and Dean has not been mentioned here yet. It's a great book as well, covering over 900 species, usually with fine range maps.

A new addition to the collection of Central American guides is the bilingual A Guide to the Birds of Nicaragua (Martinez-Sanchez, Chavarria-Duriaux & Munoz, illustrations by Augusto Silva Gomez), a truly bilingual guide (Spanish & English) issued by a German publisher. The species accounts suffer a bit in comparison to those found in the comparably sized Costa Rica & Panama guides you mention, but they work well enough in conjunction with the nice illustrations. Each account includes a description of the habitat and range within (but no map), status, and distinctive physical characteristics. Very few descriptions of vocalizations or mechanical sounds. The introductory chapters offer brief but informative overviews of topography and habitats, conservation and birdwatching in Nicaragua.

I suspect that most birders traveling in Nicaragua (and perhaps Honduras) could manage without any supplemental guide.

Gary H
 
To me, the van Perlo FG to the Birds of Brazil would be the type of book we'd need for each country. Minus some of the excess blank rims that make that book larger than it needs to be.

Rather than van Perlo style guides for each country, I'd prefer guides along the lines of the Wildlife Conservation Society's "Birds of Brazil: the Pantanal & Cerrado.” In other words, guides with great plates and detailed text that are nevertheless easily portable because they are limited in scope. I think the Schulenberg et al. Peru guide could have benefited from this approach; it could have been split into two guides: one for Amazonia and one for the rest of Peru. It is not as bulky as some other South American guides, but still less than ideal. (Unfortunately, we have yet to see a hint of any further volumes in that series for Brazil since that one was published in 2010.)

The countries between Venezuela and Brazil are covered by the hefty FG Birds of Northern South America. Are there slimmer books for that restricted area of Surinam and the Guyanas?

There supposedly has been a guide to the Guianas in the works since at least 2012, but no idea if it will ever become a reality. There are only about 30 species in Guyana that are not in Brazil or Venezuela, respectively. So guides to those countries (i.e. Hilty and van Perlo) provide pretty good coverage. And there is a Field Checklist to the Birds of Guyana that provides status and habitat information and is available as a free download.
 
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I have both the older Ridgely and Greenfield and the "fieldbook" (McMullan and Navarrete). While I think the drawings are mostly better in the first of these, It is also 4x the bulk, and having updated ranges (in the second book) might offset that advantage.

IMO, the separately bound Ridgely & Greenfield plates make an excellent portable field guide for Ecuador, provided you research ahead of time what birds you're likely to see in a particular region (which can be readily done with trip reports/eBird). Though of course I know some people are squeamish about cutting books apart.;)
 
Some people still swear to the Ridgely and Tudor: Songbirds volume and the non-passerines volume by Erize, Mata, Rumboll (in some order).

I will agree with that combination for Argentina, also adding the Narosky & Yzurieta field guide (a proper field guide) that even though some poor drawings, it has great identification keys and with the new acquisition of pictures it has improved a lot.

We are all waiting for the long promised Pearman book for Argentina, but I am quite sure that it will not be precisely a field guide more than a thick library book for consulting (but I have to admit that the plates from Aldo Chiappe I have seen are magnificent)

Best regards.

Julián.
 
IMO, the separately bound Ridgely & Greenfield plates make an excellent portable field guide for Ecuador, provided you research ahead of time what birds you're likely to see in a particular region (which can be readily done with trip reports/eBird). Though of course I know some people are squeamish about cutting books apart.;)

Its more a question of if I can find a place to do the binding on the island where I live ...

Niels
 
Robert,
I am currently planning my trip to Ecuador in August. I have both the older Ridgely and Greenfield and the "fieldbook" (McMullan and Navarrete). While I think the drawings are mostly better in the first of these, It is also 4x the bulk, and having updated ranges (in the second book) might offset that advantage.............. (Some thread here on BF says that a similar size fieldbook is available for Colombia, with relatively poor drawings) ..............

Niels, I have just received my copy of the Ecuador Fieldbook (from NHBS), though no plans for another trip in the near future. But I figured such a compact version is always handy, just in case. Well, I also have the Colombia equivalent you mention. I actually have both the first and the second edition. The latter is supposedly much improved, but it is still waiting for me in the US. So I can only compare the first edition with the Ecuador book. And I think the two are pretty much on the same quality level. My main complaint for my copy of the Ecuador Fieldbook is that the birds look a bit less than crisp. And as this same complaint holds for my first edition version of the Colombia FG, I presume that lack of crispness is not just an artifact of some copies. But there are also considerable variations within the book. I find some depictions of the seabirds particularly terrible. In fact, I doubt that I would be able to identify a Sooty Shearwater from the pictures in the book. But over all, that compact book should be adequate most of the time. It'll be interesting to get to know about your experiences.

Enjoy your trip!
 
Thanks Robert, I have since been able to have the Ridgely & Greenfield plates separately bound, and may still bring it to Ecuador (depending on the total weight of my luggage).

Crispness might have more to do with printing than with drawing quality.

Niels
 
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Crispness might have more to do with printing than with drawing quality.

Niels

I agree, that's why I hope the second edition of the Colombia FG will be better. Looking at the publication date of the Ecuador one, it must be earlier than the second edition for Colombia. So there is hope. A fair number of pictures, by the way, are the same ones in the first editions of both countries.
 
The problem of suggesting books for a thread like this is that the thread becomes outdated pretty quick.............Niels

Reply to post #1: Niels, I think these threads have remained very much worthwhile, thanks to the continued activity and updates by many here on BF. So let's just hope it remains like that. :t:
 
Kind of hidden in the history: this was not the first post in its original thread, and the original thread tried to include the whole world in only one thread (that is why there is a reference to Lars Jonsson in that post! :eek!: :-O )

Since that thread was split into smaller areas, the threads have become much more useful and worthy of sticky status.

Niels
 
Kind of hidden in the history: this was not the first post in its original thread, and the original thread tried to include the whole world in only one thread (that is why there is a reference to Lars Jonsson in that post! :eek!: :-O )

Since that thread was split into smaller areas, the threads have become much more useful and worthy of sticky status.

Niels

Thanks for the correction, Niels. I had forgotten about that splitting, but you are correct.:t:

Lars Jonsson really did not make sense there, but I took it as a reference to what type of illustrations you'd prefer. I like him a lot as well, though not as a FG illustrator all that much.
 
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Do you think we can expect an update to 15-year-old Guide to the Birds of Mexico (Howell & Webb)? I assume it is still the one to take there?
 
There has been no rumors about any update that I have heard. And it is certainly the one I am taking when I visit Mexico.

Niels
 
Do you think we can expect an update to 15-year-old Guide to the Birds of Mexico (Howell & Webb)? I assume it is still the one to take there?

What do people think about E.P Edwards 'Birds of Mexico and adjacent areas' which also covers Belize, Guatemala and El Salvador?

Andy
 

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