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Birds of Melanesia (1 Viewer)

Papuan birder

- Lost in the Pacific -
Birds of Melanesia: Bismarks, Solomons, Vanatu and New Caledonia

This long-awaited Helm title by Guy Dutson is finally published. This book has been in preparation for many years and is the first field guide covering all the birds of Island Melanesia. The illustrations by Adam Bowley is totally amazing and the highlights of the book:t:

  • Dutson, Guy. Birds of Melanesia: Bismarcks, Solomons, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. 425pp. A&C Black.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Birds-Melan...5408/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318363404&sr=8-1
 
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Just checked here and there's two of my plates in the images tab.....

http://www.nhbs.com/birds_of_melanesia_tefno_176822.html&tab_tag=album

But the cuckooshrike plate has been concocted from other plates and if that's actually in the book like that I'll be totally pissed as the sizes are all wrong in relation to the birds on the plate, unless they've split the scale on the page...which then raises the question why bother working to a plate plan, taking ages to faff around getting the sizes to correlate on the page if they're just gonna swap them around anyway...? It'd be far easier for me just to paint single species and let them resize them I know that much!! Oh well, wait and see I guess.....
 
Just had a message from Jim stating that the book defintiely isn't out yet...never trust Amazon!! And, I don't even get a complimentary copy....sheesh!
 
Ah, hang on I think there's been crossed wires between myself and Jim - he thought I was talking about one of the other books I've done....! Apologies and hopefully I will get a comp copy!! ;)
 
Lovely looking plates whatever the faults introduced by the publishers - well done indeed. I know I'll never get there but I suspect I'll get a copy somewhen as an old pal is out there nearly as often as Mr Dutson himself.

But what's the other book?
 
Cheers John - did some bits for the Central Asia and the 2nd edition Indian Subcontinent guides which are due out..er, soonish! ;)
 
Adam won't want to plug himself here so I will - a lot of the original plates are for sale at his website. I know as I have the pittas on my wall at home.
 
Thanks Niels, and especially thanks Murray for that (I'll pay ya later ;))
My comp copies are en route now so I can't wait to see the damn thing actually finished...
 
Just checked here and there's two of my plates in the images tab.....

http://www.nhbs.com/birds_of_melanesia_tefno_176822.html&tab_tag=album

But the cuckooshrike plate has been concocted from other plates and if that's actually in the book like that I'll be totally pissed as the sizes are all wrong in relation to the birds on the plate, unless they've split the scale on the page...which then raises the question why bother working to a plate plan, taking ages to faff around getting the sizes to correlate on the page if they're just gonna swap them around anyway...? It'd be far easier for me just to paint single species and let them resize them I know that much!! Oh well, wait and see I guess.....

And I was just going to say that I though the cuckoo-shrike plate looked amazing before I read your comment on it. Still think it does.
 
Cheers Ed, but it bugs me when the original plates are mucked around with a bit as people see the plate in the book and (hopefully!) think, yeah I'd like that, and I have to shatter their illusion that it doesn't actually look like that in real life...unless they wanna buy them both....! ;)
I just hope they've maintained the size-ratios to the birds on the re-arranged plates then it won't be so bad.....
 
My copy fortuitously landed next to two bound volumes of American Museum Novitates with many articles related to the Whitney South Sea Expedition. That was when Melanesian ornithology really took off. I consider Guy Dutson's book another milestone in the study of this little known avifauna. Although several gaps remain in the knowledge of these birds, Dutson's first hand experience is mirrored in new insights in the distribution, taxonomy and conservation status of many species. The greatest strength of this book, in my opinion, is the high quality of the art work and the depiction of a large number of subspecies. I don't know any other field guide that has so many subspecies illustrated. And very well illustrated ! Of course this is necessary to convey the often subtle differences in colour and pattern. I counted a lot of taxa that had never been illustrated before. Not by HBW or any other book or magazine. There are also three undescribed birds making their first appearance in a book: the Malaita Rail, the Bougainville Swift and the Bismarck Flyrobin. It is great to finally see all the Melanesian Thicketbirds depicted in one book and all the races (?) of Woodford's Rail.
Reading this book you start to wonder what ever happened to all the ground living birds of Choiseul. We all know of the sad extinction of the Microgoura but every other species living on or near ground level seem to have disappeared with it. The island is hardly visited and I think it would be worth while to organize a major expedition to figure out the situation.
Finally one thing that I also found confusing. Dutson treats the Kolombangara and Roviana Rails as variants of one species. Although he doesn't spell it out it would mean that both phenotypes would coexist on New Georgia and Kolombangara. I find that hard to believe. I think both birds are well defined and living on their own seperate islands. Maybe he could elaborate on this matter in a future article and that would mean another piece of the Melanesian puzzle found.
 
I just hope they've maintained the size-ratios to the birds on the re-arranged plates then it won't be so bad.....
I think they did the intelligent thing and arranged the passerines by island (you don't really need to know what the cuckooshrikes on Makira look like when you're on Grande Terre). The sizes look OK to me.

Of course, this book is a must-buy. Well ahead of what was available for the majority of the islands, lavishly illustrated (all those Island Thrushes!) and with good descriptions. I have already advertised it elsewhere, so I hope I can be a bit critical...

To my taste, the plates ranged from adequate (plates 4 or 14 don't really work) to pleasing (I think plate 76 is the highlight). The lively depiction of many passerines is enjoyable. The waders are also nice, but who'd look at those plates? Depicting some confusing chicks is a good choice, mixing ground dwellers with cormorants is an odd one. I'd rather have seen smaller depictions of the ducks, hahaha! (I must add that I like the artwork on those two plates).
I have the feeling some of the passerines are a tad dark (compared to e.g. Pratt's plates in Birds of Northern Melanesia, the picture of the Odedi [sadly that name has been sacrificed] in Birds and Bird Lore of Bougainville and the North Solomons and my experience with Shining Flycatcher): especially the browns appear to have suffered this faith (then again, according to the photo the Bougainville Thicketbird really is that dark).
The (on the one photo I have very obvious) blue-grey eyering of Vanikoro White-eye is under-represented in the picture and its posture is completely different (in the photo it is not hunched at all!)

On the taxonomy front, I am guessing that the lowland grassbird from the Bismarcks may actually be Tawny, not Papuan, but with the sound unknown it's anyone's guess.

Finally, the invention of new, even if more descriptive, names for some species (Paradise Drongo, Pink-legged Rail, Golden Masked Owl) appears counter-intuitive when you want to protect localised species.

Literature:
Dutson G, Birds of Melanesia. The Bismarcks, Solomons, Vanuata and New Caledonia, 2011.
Mayr E, Diamond J, The Birds of Northern Melanesia: Speciation, Ecology, and Biogeography, 2001.
Doughty C, Day N, Plant A, Birds of the Solomons, Vanuatu and New Caledonia, 1999.
Hadden D, Birds and Bird Lore of Bougainville and the North Solomons, 2004.
Coates BJ, Peckover WS, Birds of New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago: A Photographic Guide, 2001.
 
Hey X,

Firstly cheers!!
Yep, they did pretty well with the resizing issue and the more I look at the book the more it doesn't bother me as much! I thought a couple of my plates came out a little dark too but that seems to happen quite a bit with certain colours it appears. Re the VWE, it never got picked up by Guy on the plate critiques so I guess he was happy with it! Having never seen one and only having a single specimen to work from I could only go on what he says
 
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