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Field Guide to North American Flycatchers: Empidonax and Pewees (1 Viewer)

... depending on (that old chestnut) what you think 'North America' means... 🤔
No clue on the publisher's website - and you'd think they'd see the value of making it explicit if it did include Mexico?
 
It says it contains every species in N America but that is incorrect, it only contains species in the ABA area. The misuse of North America to include only two countries and exclude 7 others is plainly ridiculous at this stage. I don’t personally have interest in the book but at this point won’t buy more books that cannot even get a geographical descriptor correct.
 
Butty said:
... depending on (that old chestnut) what you think 'North America' means... 🤔
No clue on the publisher's website - and you'd think they'd see the value of making it explicit if it did include Mexico?
Click to expand...
I thought it was generally accepted that Mexico is Southern, North America
 
www.birdforum.net

Any bird guide for Mexico?

Hello everyone! Could you recommend me some books to identify Mexican birds? I am going to visit the states of Yucatán and Quintana Roo this month and I would like to have a good bird guide with me. Thanks in advance!
www.birdforum.net www.birdforum.net
 
Can anybody reconcile the number of distribution maps (19) with the number of species recorded in the region? I believe there are 5 species of "pewee" recorded in the ABA region (including Cuban), and 13 Empids.

As far as I can see extending the range of the book to cover Mexico would add just 1 extra Empid, and 1 pewee which occurs south of the Isthmus and arguably not a North American bird.

So, if Willow Flycatcher isn't split, I infer that the book does indeed cover all of the North American faunal zone - and if it is, it doesn't! 🤔
 
Three more in Mexico (White-throated and Yellowish Fly, Tropical Pewee). Central America is a political definition more than geographic if counting continents, but if included it would add one more Empid and two Contopus…
 
Geographically correct or not, the usual definition of North America = Canada and USA works for multiple reasons, including the fact that the dominant language in both regions is English, the target audience largely resides in these countries and makes only infrequent visits at best south of the border, and a book that tried to be a field guide to all of North America would just be unwieldy as hell. I mean, look at the size of the current Sibley's. Now imagine adding even just Mexico to that book!
 
Mysticete said:
Geographically correct or not, the usual definition of North America = Canada and USA works for multiple reasons, including the fact that the dominant language in both regions is English, the target audience largely resides in these countries and makes only infrequent visits at best south of the border, and a book that tried to be a field guide to all of North America would just be unwieldy as hell. I mean, look at the size of the current Sibley's. Now imagine adding even just Mexico to that book!
Click to expand...

The “casual definition” doesn’t work at all, it is just wrong. Having a field guide to the USA and Canada does work well, following your logic, but the use of “North America” to exclude Mexico is indefensible and should not occur any more.

i have no qualms with not including Mexican and Central American birds, up to the point that a book, organization, etc, is called North American.
 
My visits to BirdForum are increasingly infrequent, and this thread reminds me why that's true. North of Mexico works for me, and is generally understood. Certainly won't deter me from buying it. but I would have preferred the inclusion of every flycatcher genus, rather than two. How many "field guides" can one birder carry into the field?
 
Butty said:
You don't like people offering rational but opposing views in a well-tempered way? Your choice, of course.
Click to expand...
I've seen some rational but opposing views expressed here. I've seen some irrational views expressed here. For example, it's a bit over-the-top to suggest that any definition of North America that doesn't include Mexico is "indefensible and should not occur any more". I've got probably two shelves filled with volumes that define North America that way, and I don't fault Sibley or Kaufmann or Peterson or the Stokes or Dunn & Alderfer for doing so. Too often I find a perfectly useful BirdForum thread hijacked by someone making an entirely useless (and often unrelated) point. It's tiresomely predictable. So yes, it IS my choice
 
gdhunter said:
How many "field guides" can one birder carry into the field?
Click to expand...
Depends a bit on definition, and lots are not for birds, but I probably have around 100 currently. I probably consult about 10 fairly regularly (my phone's not especially new or capacious)
 
THE_FERN said:
Depends a bit on definition, and lots are not for birds, but I probably have around 100 currently. I probably consult about 10 fairly regularly (my phone's not especially new or capacious)
Click to expand...
The flycatcher guide isn't an app (though perhaps it may also be offered that way). Though it's called a field guide, I suspect that it will be more useful as a reference work used to help solve ID puzzles (much like the Peterson series warbler "field guide"). I'm kinda old school, with a preference for a physical book in the field, which makes comparison of similar species (often on the same plate) so much easier. To each his own
 
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