Lynx fieldguide poll (1 Viewer)

Andy Adcock · Jan 22, 2019

Lynx sent out a survey to it's customers who were asked which countries were most in need of a new field guide. This is the result in order presumably of which got the most votes.

Can't believe Australia is on there even in last place with so many guides available already?

China
Brazil
Argentina
Russia
New Zealand
Colombia
Bolivia
Philippines
Mexico
Australia

RobinD · Jan 22, 2019

I'd agree with China, then the South American countries.

Andrew Whitehouse · Jan 22, 2019

Wonder why I missed this survey, as I'd like to have voted. Having said that, I'd have probably voted to the ones at the top of the list anyway.

DMW · Jan 22, 2019

Australia does seem odd - it probably ranks with South Africa in having too many field guides! Russia also seems a slightly odd choice, since the WP part is already adequately dealt with in Collins etc, and the eastern half by NE Asia or Japan guides.

Another region that desperately needs a good field guide is West Africa. I might be in a minority of one here, but I find Borrow and Demey highly unsatisfactory.

Jim M. · Jan 22, 2019

Don't understand New Zealand either. It's got a good guide now, not that many birds, and most of the birds are easy to ID.

pbjosh · Jan 22, 2019

Argentina and Brazil are by far the two greatest needs in the Western Hemisphere. Though dated, Howell & Webb is still a very good guide for Mexico, though I would suggest Mexico needs a more modern guide much more than Colombia or Bolivia.

Colombia has two new guides, both quite good, just not internationally published:
http://selva.org.co/en/2018/04/buy-the-new-illustrated-guide-to-the-birds-of-colombia/
https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Birds-Colombia-McMullan/dp/958896962X

Bolivia has a modern excellent guide that will purportedly soon be available internationally in a second printing.

Andrew Whitehouse · Jan 22, 2019

DMW said:
Australia does seem odd - it probably ranks with South Africa in having too many field guides! Russia also seems a slightly odd choice, since the WP part is already adequately dealt with in Collins etc, and the eastern half by NE Asia or Japan guides.

Another region that desperately needs a good field guide is West Africa. I might be in a minority of one here, but I find Borrow and Demey highly unsatisfactory.

Australia is a strange one - it has an excellent and fairly new guide. Russia I can understand in terms of having one field guide for the whole country. The East Asia guide (Brazil) covers most stuff in Siberia but it's a fairly average guide in my view.

DMW · Jan 22, 2019

Andrew Whitehouse said:
Australia is a strange one - it has an excellent and fairly new guide. Russia I can understand in terms of having one field guide for the whole country. The East Asia guide (Brazil) covers most stuff in Siberia but it's a fairly average guide in my view.

True that. I just wonder what the market is for an all-Russia field guide. It's such a vast country, and with so many impediments for foreigners, it's hard to imagine many visiting birders needing a single field guide to the entire country. Maybe there is a significant domestic market?

MJB · Jan 22, 2019

DMW said:
True that. I just wonder what the market is for an all-Russia field guide. It's such a vast country, and with so many impediments for foreigners, it's hard to imagine many visiting birders needing a single field guide to the entire country. Maybe there is a significant domestic market?

There is an up-to-date checklist (post USSR revisions), but mostly in Russian, and I wonder if a domestically-produced Field Guide is in the offing?
MJB

Andy Adcock · Jan 22, 2019

DMW said:
True that. I just wonder what the market is for an all-Russia field guide. It's such a vast country, and with so many impediments for foreigners, it's hard to imagine many visiting birders needing a single field guide to the entire country. Maybe there is a significant domestic market?

Not a chance, people casually feed birds at home or in parks but in 8 years here, I'm yet to meet another birder in St Petersburg and if anyone wanted a field guide here, they'd want it in Russian.

DMW · Jan 22, 2019

andyadcock said:
Not a chance, people casually feed birds at home or in parks but in 8 years here, I'm yet to meet another birder in St Petersburg and if anyone wanted a field guide here, they'd want it in Russian.

I thought that might be the case. Could be a rather thin market for a Russian field guide, then.

Andrew Whitehouse · Jan 22, 2019

I wonder if the interest in a Russian field guide is coming from European birders who want a good field guide that covers all the potential Siberian vagrants.

Warixenjalka · Jan 23, 2019

I voted for Caribbean guide. When I was in Cuba two years ago, I had this https://www.nhbs.com/birds-of-the-west-indies-book-2?bkfno=140250
Maybe there is already something better on market?

mjh73 · Jan 23, 2019

Australia and New Zealand seem like strange choices. Several guides in Oz. The recent Australian Bird Guide is hugely comprehensive, it's only slight failing is being a bit bulky to be a true 'field' guide, and including too many 'vagrants that once turned up 20 years ago or have never turned up but might one day'. I'd still put it way down the needs list and nowhere near top 10!

Similarly New Zealand has hardly any land birds and half of them are British! A lot of seabird diversity, but Onley & Scofield or the Shirihai Antarctic guide cover the seaward side pretty well.

I voted Argentina, I lost kilos lugging around Erize, Mata & Rumboll and (especially) Ridgely & Tudor for six weeks....

Andy Adcock · Jan 23, 2019

DMW said:
I thought that might be the case. Could be a rather thin market for a Russian field guide, then.

Russia would have to be done in at least two parts, East and West, you could also argue for North and South. If you've never actually looked properly at a map of Russia, check it out, it's monstrously big. You can get Canada and the USA in there and still have room for some of Australia and it was much bigger as the Soviet Union!

I can't personally see the point of a single country guide for Russia.

temmie · Jan 24, 2019

I can see the point in a Russian guide if only for having a guide in that part of the world but only if it has good maps!
A Russian guide could be interesting if it includes all former USSR republics, but I don't know if that would involve too much politics...

Regarding Cuba, that one will be soon covered by a Lynx guide (with a Blue-headed Quail-dove on the cover) so no need to vote for that one... Moreover, there already is another good Cuba guide published by Lynx but under the Helm name: https://www.lynxeds.com/product/field-guide-birds-cuba

Andy Adcock · Jan 24, 2019

temmie;3810367[B said:
]I can see the point in a Russian guide if only for having a guide in that part of the world but only if it has good maps! [/B]
A Russian guide could be interesting if it includes all former USSR republics, but I don't know if that would involve too much politics...

Regarding Cuba, that one will be soon covered by a Lynx guide (with a Blue-headed Quail-dove on the cover) so no need to vote for that one... Moreover, there already is another good Cuba guide published by Lynx but under the Helm name: https://www.lynxeds.com/product/field-guide-birds-cuba

Maps are irrelevent in large parts of Russia, there are no roads!

No modern publisher will produce a guide that is effectivelly for the USSR, whatever they called it. It would be far too great an area to cover in one book, like carrying a field guide to the whole of Africa.

James Eaton · Jan 24, 2019

andyadcock said:
Russia would have to be done in at least two parts, East and West, you could also argue for North and South. If you've never actually looked properly at a map of Russia, check it out, it's monstrously big. You can get Canada and the USA in there and still have room for some of Australia and it was much bigger as the Soviet Union!

I can't personally see the point of a single country guide for Russia.

Why would it have to be done in two parts? There's only about 800 species on the Russian list, and with them being largely Eurasian in origin, diversity is fairly low, and far less subspecies and cryptic diversity to deal with than compared to the tropics + historically well-covered so novel research is limited compared to other areas of the world.
I spent some time in Sakha last year, and though roads are sparse, there are certainly plenty of roads that can get you into most general areas of the remoter central and north-eastern areas of the country. We also found a handful of species breeding away from the mapped areas in HBW, so an up-to-date guide would also be useful for gaining a greater knowledge for the real distribution for a lot of species.

I think a field guide for Russia would be absolutely superb and much-needed. It would undoubtedly create more interest and hopefully bring an increase in foreign birders to the country. I found it to have some of the most enjoyable general birding I've had anywhere in Asia during my few weeks there.

James

dalat · Jan 24, 2019

Agree. 800 species on the Russia list, thus less than the Vietnam book, which is fairly handy. There are usable field guides covering almost 2000 species, e.g. Birds of Peru.

As Lynx writes that they also aim at local language editions later, a book covering the whole former Soviet Union, including Central Asia and the Caucasus, would indeed a good idea. It would not make the book much bigger, but more Russian speakers could be interested in buying it.

A challenge would be to make useful maps for such a big area...

I have the old "Birds of the Soviet Union" and its quite interesting selection of birds to have in one book, sth. like the northern Palearctic...

Andy Adcock · Jan 24, 2019

dalat said:
Agree. 800 species on the Russia list, thus less than the Vietnam book, which is fairly handy. There are usable field guides covering almost 2000 species, e.g. Birds of Peru.

As Lynx writes that they also aim at local language editions later, a book covering the whole former Soviet Union, including Central Asia and the Caucasus, would indeed a good idea. It would not make the book much bigger, but more Russian speakers could be interested in buying it.

A challenge would be to make useful maps for such a big area...

I have the old "Birds of the Soviet Union" and its quite interesting selection of birds to have in one book, sth. like the northern Palearctic...

That's book is usefull to have just for the Russian names.

Regarding language, don't forget that all the ex Soviet countries have their own languages, were pretty much forced to learn and speak Russian and may not take kindly to having it imposed on them again, especially in parts of the Baltic.

I still think that given the area, two volumes is more practical regardless of the number of species, they did it for the USA.

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