I flipped through last night, and I too can't really recall all the splits that have happened since the last guide. The Scrub-Jay certainly stood out, as did Mexican Violetear. I think the Scripp's/Guadalupe Murrelet split is also new for the book
Got my copy today, and I tried to get an overview of the additions/changes. But due to the rearrangements in the sequence, I had to give up after a while. Just too tedious to do it all in one session.
Nevertheless, here are some first impressions. First to the outside. There is no way to tell offhand which is the new edition if you have the books (6th and 7th) filed in the bookshelf. The spines are identical (except for a more faded but also a bit more orange look of the older edition). Also, from the front, you have to really look closely. NG seems to really love that Bald Eagle as a cover.
Well, on the inside, things look very familiar as well, but then there are these various changes as announced. Some are obvious, many others only show themselves on closer inspection. I must say, I very much like this new edition, despite the rearranged groups. One thing I very much love are the extended range maps for some pelagic species. So one gets a much better feel for where they breed and what kinds of migrations they do. So suddenly, one gets to see Hawaii, or Africa, or the European shores on some maps. I really love this broadening of the scale.
The well publicized redoing of the hummingbirds is nice as well. But there are many small improvements, such as a more typical picture of the Roadrunner, or more telling flight pictures of the two gray cranes (Sandhill and Common). Among the oddities I stumbled across so far, there is the Limpkin on the last page with the hummingbirds. Of course, the horizontal line indicates the change in scale. But in this case, things look a bit odd for several reasons. For one, the size contrast of the two groups is such that I think the birds should not be placed together. But also from the habitat and I would assume relationship, I find it hard to justify to have the Limpkin where it is now.
The majority of the plates are actually unchanged, and where there are changes, they often come from the fact that an additional illustration was added and the illustrations had to be shifted a bit to create the needed space. A good feature is the fact that splits are usually showing the old name in the text. That definitely helps to find one's way through the changes.
A completely new element, though not very obvious is that each species comes with a four-letter abbreviation, like AWPE for American White Pelican, or HEGU for Herring Gull. Might allow quicker note taking once one is sufficiently familiar with the feature.
Well abbreviations can also be tricky. I have no idea what NU stands for! To be found in the text for Ross's Gull on page 184. Any help would be appreciated.
Edit: Just figured it out, must be Nunavut! Thus a Canadian province. I doubt, however, that many readers can tell what it means.
