James Eaton
Trent Valley Crew
Firstly, thanks for the kind comments, everyone, for the constructive comments. As there are a few unanswered questions, I will try to answer them in this post:
English names: As Alan points out, we have changed some of these (most notably in Muscicapidae) to reflect new taxonomic arrangements. Fortunately, in the last ~5 years we have been blessed with numerous studies using the latest genetic insights to a number of genera relationships. In many cases it’s not the scientific name that requires a change, but the English name to reflect this. For example, ‘Eye-browed Jungle-flycatcher’ is not even closely related to Cyornis (blue/jungle-flycatcher), Rhinomyias (no longer valid, previously jungle-flycatchers) or Eumyias (‘Verditer’s’, renamed Warbling-flycatcher to reflect their song with connects them all). Carrying on calling birds that a re more closely related to robins than flycatchers is just wrong, so might seem difficult for those of us familiar with them over a number of years, but is more confusing to newbie birders, especially local, non-native English speakers.
Same goes for Shrike-vireo/babbler. They have absolutely no relation to babblers, and are nestled right within Vireonidae (and we know flycatcher-shrike is not a shrike!).
Many names have changed to aid native and non-native English speakers, which might receive criticism in the short-term, but hopefully will be accepted by everyone, eventually!
The introduction goes more in-depth regarding this.
Text: I hadn’t realised this, fortunately my eyes are still young! Design/layout etc is usually down to the publisher, as they have their professional design team working on these aspects of books, so the authors can largely concentrate on the text (and maps).
Illustrations: I think there are over 350 new illustrations, along with a lot of minor adjustments. Every field guide (except Collin’s European guide?) always has a few dodgy ones for us to talk about!
Map with illustrations: Two points: Next to illustrations allows for quick reference and for more in-depth text. Also, notice the shape of the region - it’s a horizontal rectangle, from a designers perspective, try fitting that on the page with the text, it’s really messy and difficult - we did, and it’s not really feasible unless you limit the book to less species per page, and as the Field Guide is just that, we thought this was the best solution - as with all these things, it works for some, but not for all, keeping everyone happy with the layout is definitely an impossible task!
Map boxes: This is to ‘tick’ the species, whether it be as a lifer, or individual trips to the region.
Borneo: Excluding it would of made no sense, biographically, and we felt that there is a lot still to discuss about the endemics of the island (there is a revision of several endemic taxa from the island, including undescribed species that we recently discovered that are not covered in other field guides). Likewise, including Papua would have added hundreds of extra species already well covered in other field guides.
Garrulax rufifrons: well spotted Melanie, unfortunately it is an error that we noticed too late for change.
Sahul Pitta: They’ll have to evolve pretty quick for a split in v2, Alan!
Splitting the Field Guide into smaller regions: You never know what the future brings!
James
English names: As Alan points out, we have changed some of these (most notably in Muscicapidae) to reflect new taxonomic arrangements. Fortunately, in the last ~5 years we have been blessed with numerous studies using the latest genetic insights to a number of genera relationships. In many cases it’s not the scientific name that requires a change, but the English name to reflect this. For example, ‘Eye-browed Jungle-flycatcher’ is not even closely related to Cyornis (blue/jungle-flycatcher), Rhinomyias (no longer valid, previously jungle-flycatchers) or Eumyias (‘Verditer’s’, renamed Warbling-flycatcher to reflect their song with connects them all). Carrying on calling birds that a re more closely related to robins than flycatchers is just wrong, so might seem difficult for those of us familiar with them over a number of years, but is more confusing to newbie birders, especially local, non-native English speakers.
Same goes for Shrike-vireo/babbler. They have absolutely no relation to babblers, and are nestled right within Vireonidae (and we know flycatcher-shrike is not a shrike!).
Many names have changed to aid native and non-native English speakers, which might receive criticism in the short-term, but hopefully will be accepted by everyone, eventually!
The introduction goes more in-depth regarding this.
Text: I hadn’t realised this, fortunately my eyes are still young! Design/layout etc is usually down to the publisher, as they have their professional design team working on these aspects of books, so the authors can largely concentrate on the text (and maps).
Illustrations: I think there are over 350 new illustrations, along with a lot of minor adjustments. Every field guide (except Collin’s European guide?) always has a few dodgy ones for us to talk about!
Map with illustrations: Two points: Next to illustrations allows for quick reference and for more in-depth text. Also, notice the shape of the region - it’s a horizontal rectangle, from a designers perspective, try fitting that on the page with the text, it’s really messy and difficult - we did, and it’s not really feasible unless you limit the book to less species per page, and as the Field Guide is just that, we thought this was the best solution - as with all these things, it works for some, but not for all, keeping everyone happy with the layout is definitely an impossible task!
Map boxes: This is to ‘tick’ the species, whether it be as a lifer, or individual trips to the region.
Borneo: Excluding it would of made no sense, biographically, and we felt that there is a lot still to discuss about the endemics of the island (there is a revision of several endemic taxa from the island, including undescribed species that we recently discovered that are not covered in other field guides). Likewise, including Papua would have added hundreds of extra species already well covered in other field guides.
Garrulax rufifrons: well spotted Melanie, unfortunately it is an error that we noticed too late for change.
Sahul Pitta: They’ll have to evolve pretty quick for a split in v2, Alan!
Splitting the Field Guide into smaller regions: You never know what the future brings!
James
