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Best guidebook, app and bird-finding book for Mexico and Guatemala? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter jurek
- Start date
I appreciate the dedicated app may not exist.
lgonz1008
Well-known member
Book wise for Guatemala, and most of the species are found in Southern Mexico bar a few endemics, I would recommend Birds of Central America by Vallely & Dyer, the book covers all of the birds found from Guatemala & Belize down to Panama. While some minor issues can be seen in the density used to color certain pages/species, the book overall is great and filled with up to date information and maps for all of the species in the region and it even says if the species has shared range in other regions. Only big typo I noticed in the book is the range map for two Motmot species is swapped, but outside of that, I took this book with me to Panama last year and I was able to get every species possible with no issues (even when birding alone).
App wise, I'd recommend the Merlin app from Cornell and get the bird pack for Guatemala and the one for Mexico (by the whole country or just the region you're planning to visit). It pretty much uses all of the simple bird ID pages seen in the eBird Explore Species page, and having the songs, calls and other facts of the species in the field without having to spend a lot of time downloading them in xeno-canto is always a plus as is the fact that the app is 100% free. One minor might be the fact that there are no ID information like traditional field guides or paid apps, but if you know more or less what to expect and have a good physical guide to back you up, I'd say that you could get most if not all of the birds you'll see in the region with the app.
Let me know if this is helpful, the Cornell app in particular is recently expanding and the packs are slowly covering most places around the world, so it's nice to know that eventually we can have a decent bird ID app in our phones without having to worry that the country we're traveling to has no recent guide (like Mexico or China currently are).
App wise, I'd recommend the Merlin app from Cornell and get the bird pack for Guatemala and the one for Mexico (by the whole country or just the region you're planning to visit). It pretty much uses all of the simple bird ID pages seen in the eBird Explore Species page, and having the songs, calls and other facts of the species in the field without having to spend a lot of time downloading them in xeno-canto is always a plus as is the fact that the app is 100% free. One minor might be the fact that there are no ID information like traditional field guides or paid apps, but if you know more or less what to expect and have a good physical guide to back you up, I'd say that you could get most if not all of the birds you'll see in the region with the app.
Let me know if this is helpful, the Cornell app in particular is recently expanding and the packs are slowly covering most places around the world, so it's nice to know that eventually we can have a decent bird ID app in our phones without having to worry that the country we're traveling to has no recent guide (like Mexico or China currently are).
I think my favorite for both countries would be the oldish Howel and Webb guide for Mexico and N CA. If by Mexico you only mean Yucatan, then you could get most by using the Fagan and Komar: Peterson FG to birds of N CA.
I have not used the Vallely & Dyer book mentioned above. The larger range and therefore more confusing species included would be a disadvantage.
Niels
I have not used the Vallely & Dyer book mentioned above. The larger range and therefore more confusing species included would be a disadvantage.
Niels
pbjosh
missing the neotropics
Certainly the three books to consider are Howell and Webb for Mexico, and either Fagan and Komar or Vallely and Dyer for GT (and the Yucatan). For the latter two, they're honestly both excellent books. Perhaps Vallely & Dyer has a bit more information available but on the flip side, as pointed out, Fagan and Komar is more compact and has less extraneous species.
I don't know of any apps that cover the area, unfortunately, and haven't ever used Merlin much, so can't comment on that.
For bird finding, the old Howell book to Mexico is still quite useful, though I am pretty sure it is out of print, and doesn't include some newer sites, while some older sites have changed/degraded/etc, of course. I think you are going to need to use eBird's target species feature, hotspot explorer feature, and trip reports to put together information. Fortunately there is a LOT of info for Mexico and there aren't really any top-secret species / hard to find info.
I don't know of any apps that cover the area, unfortunately, and haven't ever used Merlin much, so can't comment on that.
For bird finding, the old Howell book to Mexico is still quite useful, though I am pretty sure it is out of print, and doesn't include some newer sites, while some older sites have changed/degraded/etc, of course. I think you are going to need to use eBird's target species feature, hotspot explorer feature, and trip reports to put together information. Fortunately there is a LOT of info for Mexico and there aren't really any top-secret species / hard to find info.
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