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HBW alive (1 Viewer)

Well, Ads is right in that respect. For the overwhelming majority of families, HBW plates only depict perched adults. Not much use for identifying, eg, juveniles, or raptors in flight... HBW is unquestionably a hugely valuable resource, but it could never claim to be a detailed ID guide. And despite the general excellence of the photographs in the family accounts, a casual reader would probably conclude from the relative dearth of flight images that birds very rarely fly! Rather than celebrating flight as one of the defining characteristics of class Aves, HBW seems to treat it as a rather inconvenient (difficult to capture) lifestyle choice, better largely ignored. ;)
 
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Family accounts

Since subscribing, I've largely concentrated on looking at updated species accounts. However, I've recently examined the contents of the family accounts more closely. Although these include the full text from the printed volumes, it's only just fully dawned on me that the HBW photographs are not available in HBW Alive.

The nearly 7,000 photographs in the family accounts represent one of the most stunning features of HBW – mostly of superlative quality, with many depicting important behaviourial aspects. The HBW Alive family accounts (like the species accounts) instead rely on the inclusion of embedded hyperlinks to IBC. Although many of the IBC images are of high quality, they're not always in the same league as the HBW photographs. Presumably the HBW photographs couldn't be published on the internet for technical and/or copyright reasons?

[The Aves class account, and the extensive forewords to the printed volumes on various ornithological themes, are also not (yet?) available within HBW Alive.]

On the positive side, it's quite reassuring to confirm that there's still real value in owning the printed volumes in addition to subscribing to HBW Alive.
 
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Richard Klim said:
a casual reader would probably conclude from the relative dearth of flight images that birds very rarely fly! Rather than celebrating flight as one of the defining characteristics of class Aves, HBW seems to treat it as a rather inconvenient (difficult to capture) lifestyle choice, better largely ignored.
Click to expand...

I seem to recall that Peter Harrison (#seabirdinglegends) took the opposite approach, when, in the first edition of "Seabirds", he painted a Titicaca Flightless Grebe...in flight.

cheers, a
 
Richard Klim said:
Presumably the HBW photographs couldn't be published on the internet for technical and/or copyright reasons?
Click to expand...

From the FAQ page:

Do I really get all the contents of the Handbook of the Birds of the World Series in HBW Alive?
You get all the texts, illustrations and maps. Please note that the photographs of HBW are not included as we only hold the rights for the print version usage. However, HBW Alive is linked to multiple sources of bird photographs and the content is also enriched with links to bird videos, sounds and other resources.
 
Question: how is the geographical filter supposed to work?

I wanted just now to see which becards are present in Panama, so I entered the geographic filter of Panama and typed Becard into the search field and hit enter. Result was a long list that included such obvious Panamanian birds (NOT) as Jamaican Becard. Obviously I was doing something wrong or the filter malfunctioned.

Niels
 
I actually did, and the upper left corner now reports "geographic filter - filter by Panama"

Niels
 
It works fine for me. Filtering on Panama, both the taxomic tree, and species search for either genus Pachyramphus or common name Becard, give seven becard species (all of which occur in Panama):
  • Barred Becard (Pachyramphus versicolor)
  • Cinereous Becard (Pachyramphus rufus)
  • Cinnamon Becard (Pachyramphus cinnamomeus)
  • White-winged Becard (Pachyramphus polychopterus)
  • Black-and-white Becard (Pachyramphus albogriseus)
  • Rose-throated Becard (Pachyramphus aglaiae)
  • One-coloured Becard (Pachyramphus homochrous)
 
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I have observed one more thing: when I follow a link to a species registered in Panama there is a header saying:
You are currently filtering the contents with Panama. This species is present there. Clear filter
Click to expand...
, while if I follow a link to a species not recorded there (such as Jamaica Becard) it says
You are currently filtering the contents with Panama. The species you are currently viewing is not present there. Clear filter
Click to expand...

It seems the filter does not take action on searches, which is a strange behavior!

Niels
 
Richard Klim said:
It works fine for me. Filtering on Panama, both the taxomic tree, and species search for either genus Pachyramphus or common name Becard, give seven becard species (all of which occur in Panama).
Click to expand...

I have tried again, same result: about 3 pages with results from becards, 5 pages of results from the genus name.

I am using the search panel just above the taxonomy tree, is there another search method that is different?

Niels
 
njlarsen said:
I have tried again, same result: about 3 pages with results from becards, 5 pages of results from the genus name.

I am using the search panel just above the taxonomy tree, is there another search method that is different?
Click to expand...
OK Niels. Now I see the problem: I get the same result as you with the taxonomic tree search.

I was using the advanced search facility (under 'Species'), which seems to work OK.

Also, the taxonomic tree itself (Passeriformes: Tyrannidae) is correctly filtered for Panama.
 
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Thanks Richard,
I had not used enough time on the site yet to even discover that there was an advanced search :eek!:

Niels
 
I've just signed up but could not get the Amex payment to work (suspect the proform doesn't do 15 digit card numbers..) so used Mastercard.

cheers, alan
 
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Most recently updated species

Something strange has happened to the most recently updated species log today – it seems to be in a rather random non-chronological order. Hopefully a temporary aberration.

PS. Seems to be back in chronological order now, but with all update times rounded to midnight...
 
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Out of curiosity, are the new species descriptions in HBW 17 and Jon Fjeldsa's introduction to that volume available via HBW Alive?
 
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