Extinct Birds (1 Viewer)

Melanie · Jul 25, 2011

4 years after Lost Land of the Dodo a new richly illustrated book by Julian Hume about extinct birds will be published in February 2012.

Michael P Walters & Julian P. Hume

Extinct Birds

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Extinct-Bir...=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311024995&sr=1-3

Here are the first illustrations from the book

http://julianhume.co.uk/?page_id=83&nggpage=3

Hidde Bruinsma · Jul 30, 2011

Michael Walters had planned a book entitled "Extinct and Hypothetical Birds" for years. It was supposed to be a much bigger book than this Poyser volume and it was going to be published by Chistopher Helm. It is still listed with these details as forthcoming on the NHBS site. I wonder if Mr Walters has dropped the hypothetical part (which would be very unfortunate) and jumped ship to finally put out something.

Melanie · Feb 13, 2012

The book is out now (some days earlier than previously proposed). After the first browsing through the book I must say that I am surprised. No book covers more holocene bird extinctions than this one and no book has more detailed accounts about extinct subspecies. The b/w illustrations by Julian Hume are really beautiful.

robmv · Feb 13, 2012

Hidde Bruinsma said:
Michael Walters had planned a book entitled "Extinct and Hypothetical Birds" for years. It was supposed to be a much bigger book than this Poyser volume and it was going to be published by Chistopher Helm. It is still listed with these details as forthcoming on the NHBS site. I wonder if Mr Walters has dropped the hypothetical part (which would be very unfortunate) and jumped ship to finally put out something.

Although dropped from the book title, the contents page (viewable on Amazon) includes a section on hypothetical birds, though it only 20 pages.

Jim M. · Feb 13, 2012

Looks like a very intriguing book. Cover art is dissapointing though. I guess it's supposed to be a flock of passenger pigeons, but they look cartoonish and not a serious attempt at an accurate depiction.

Jim

lewis20126 · Feb 13, 2012

J. Moore said:
Looks like a very intriguing book. Cover art is dissapointing though. I guess it's supposed to be a flock of passenger pigeons, but they look cartoonish and not a serious attempt at an accurate depiction.

Jim

From the illustrations shown, the colour plates are not up to the standard you might hope for. Disappointing.

cheers, alan

Jim Martin · Feb 13, 2012

Sorry Alan: the book doesn't actually have any colour plates. Is that what you find 'disappointing'? Maybe wait till you actually see the book.

Melanie is right - coverage of all extinctions, including all subspecies, is exhaustive. Its a truly epic work. JM

lewis20126 · Feb 13, 2012

Jim Martin said:
Sorry Alan: the book doesn't actually have any colour plates. Is that what you find 'disappointing'? Maybe wait till you actually see the book.

Melanie is right - coverage of all extinctions, including all subspecies, is exhaustive. Its a truly epic work. JM

Jim

My error - I was looking at the color paintings at the head of the website linked in Post 1 rather than the B&Ws at the end. The former are clearly not in the book and indeed only a few of those species are extinct. Those paintings are disappointing.

I'm sure the book is as epic as you describe.

cheers, alan

lewis20126 · Feb 13, 2012

As a matter of interest are you using BLI criteria including or excluding the new "critically endangered, possily extinct" label? There are probably at least 20 species which are extinct but not recognized as such by IUCN/BLI.

cheers, a

BrightonBirder · Feb 13, 2012

Amazon Canada says February 16 and the price is $78.88 CAN.

I will be interested to read about the large extinct birds. TO think that birds at one time dwarfed the great albatrosses.

flossiepip · Feb 13, 2012

Wonder how it will compare to Errol Fullers book 'Extinct Birds'. I Would guess it covers a longer time span?

Melanie · Feb 14, 2012

Many "hypothecial" birds can be find in the "Invalid and doubtful taxa" section. And it is much more exhaustive than Errol Fuller's Extinct Birds who has written the foreword to this volume.

SVS · Feb 16, 2012

Book just received.
I must conclude that production and quality of paper is way below the usual 'Poyser' standards: thin paper, printing shining through from one page to the other, pages are very full, printing is smudgy on some pages, everything looks a bit cheaply produced.
All in all a bit disappointing.

The content is fascinating though!
It looks like the most complete gathering of information on extinct (or presumably extinct...) birds I have seen.

Steven

Swissboy · Feb 16, 2012

SVS said:
......., pages are very full, ........everything looks a bit cheaply produced.
All in all a bit disappointing.

Steven

That's the impression I got as well, just from looking at the extensive inside feature on Amazon.

Ficedula · Feb 16, 2012

SVS said:
Book just received.
I must conclude that production and quality of paper is way below the usual 'Poyser' standards: thin paper, printing shining through from one page to the other, pages are very full, printing is smudgy on some pages, everything looks a bit cheaply produced.
All in all a bit disappointing.

Steven

A subject that greatly interests me but am put off buying because in sample pages visible on Amazon pp 225 includes Ecuadorian Giant Antpitta, Grallaria gigantea hylodroma. I saw one of these about 5 weeks ago and it did not look extinct to me! Presumably this must have been written before discovery at Paz de las Aves and Tandyapa and not updated prior to publication.

lewis20126 · Feb 16, 2012

Ficedula said:
A subject that greatly interests me but am put off buying because in sample pages visible on Amazon pp 225 includes Ecuadorian Giant Antpitta, Grallaria gigantea hylodroma. I saw one of these about 5 weeks ago and it did not look extinct to me! Presumably this must have been written before discovery at Paz de las Aves and Tandyapa and not updated prior to publication.

N Krabbe must have found hylodroma about 20 years ago or so at Mindo (early article in Cotinga etc)! I hope the Dark-backed Wood-quails aren't (yet) extinct as I'll be there at Christmas.

cheers, alan

Ficedula · Feb 16, 2012

lewis20126 said:
N Krabbe must have found hylodroma about 20 years ago or so at Mindo (early article in Cotinga etc)! I hope the Dark-backed Wood-quails aren't (yet) extinct as I'll be there at Christmas.

cheers, alan

well they performed beautifully on 5 Jan and were also seen on 13 Jan. more reliable than the Antpittas which took some finding in the very wet conditions this Jan. I had to have 2 goes to see all 4 antpittas.

cajanuma · Feb 16, 2012

Ficedula said:
A subject that greatly interests me but am put off buying because in sample pages visible on Amazon pp 225 includes Ecuadorian Giant Antpitta, Grallaria gigantea hylodroma. I saw one of these about 5 weeks ago and it did not look extinct to me! Presumably this must have been written before discovery at Paz de las Aves and Tandyapa and not updated prior to publication.

I also looked at the sample pages and I too have seen at least one, and perhaps two 'extinct' birds: the book lists the carrikeri and nominate subspecies of White-mantled Barbet ('Northern White-mantled Barbet' and 'Botero White-mantled Barbet') as extinct, while in fact both are alive and kicking, and locally fairly common, in Antioquia, Colombia. I still need to figure out which of these two subspecies (or perhaps both) I recently saw in Anorì and Rio Claro.

In fact the very first bird listed in the book, 'Huila' Black Tinamou, is not extinct either, as recent records from Antioquia and Caquetà, Colombia, presumably refer to this ssp, as do the recent records in Ecuador. All these records have been published.

In spite of these errors, the book looks like fascinating reading, I wonder how many other 'extinct' subspecies actually lurk undiscovered somewhere.

Melanie · Feb 16, 2012

Well, Turdus olivater caucae is listed as extinct too, despite the fact that is was rediscovered in 2009. The same is with the Nechisar Nightjar (but with the note that the possible record in 2009 needs confirmation). Two possible extinct taxa which I have missed are the Cebu White-bellied woodpecker and Spizella wortheni browni.

lewis20126 · Feb 16, 2012

also Babar Stubtail is not extinct - seen in 2011 by Birdtour Asia tour.

cheers, alan

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