Field Guide to Birds of Mexico (1 Viewer)

I may be going to Mexico this up coming summer, and would like to know which field guides are good. I would be visiting the Yucatan peninsula region, so if there are any books for that region let me know.

Thanks.

Howell and Webb, Birds of Mexico (and northern Central America) is the standard

BrightonBirder said:

Howell and Webb, Birds of Mexico (and northern Central America) is the standard

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I totally agree. There are other guides to the region, but any serious birder would want this excellent field guide. Its one big limitation for many visitors is that it does not illustrate all the migrants, but for an American birder this is not likely to be a problem. In any case, the descriptions of all the migrants are included and, in my opinion, they are on par with the descriptions in any of the North American field guides. Steve Howell also wrote an excellent site guide to Mexico that you may want to check out. I used it when I travelled around the Yucatan a few years ago and it was very useful.

Tom

Everything that Tom said about the Howell book is true. It is an excellent guide to the birds of Mexico. The only problem with that book is that it is very large and heavy to carry around with you in the field. A good option is Peterson's Mexican Birds. The trade-off there is that, while it includes discriptions of many U.S. birds, it does not include illustration of those birds.

Bird Books For Mexico

I bought the Howell book ; it'a great guide ;

however , as told before by others , the drawings do not cover all the birds you may encounter ;

that can be a problem , specially for an European ;

In the attachment you can find a list of books with relevant prices ;

kindly check the list ; is there anyone that can give an opinion on these books ?

best regards

MACASING said:

I bought the Howell book ; it'a great guide ;

however , as told before by others , the drawings do not cover all the birds you may encounter ;

that can be a problem , specially for an European ;

In the attachment you can find a list of books with relevant prices ;

kindly check the list ; is there anyone that can give an opinion on these books ?

best regards

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Hi,

You have brought up a somewhat old thread. There is actually a more recent thread on this topic. See here: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=105426

There are so many species of birds in Mexico (I believe over a thousand), that it is difficult for any single guide to cover all of them. You are going to have to combine the Howell guide with another for birds also found in the U.S. The most compact recent one is probably the fifth edition of the National Geographic "Field Guide to the Birds of North America"; the most sophisticated but larger is the well-known "The Sibley Guide to the Birds".

I have the Peterson guide to birds of Mexico (one of the guides on your list), and while it filled a big hole when it first came out in the 70s, it has been outclassed by more recent guides. Many of the Mexican birds only have their heads shown on the color plates. And the pictures of the birds are in a different place from the range information, unlike modern guides.

Hope this helps,
Jim

Howell discounted

As this other thread shows, the Howell book is apparently on sale by the publisher:

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=107744

Might this indicate a new edition to be in the offing?



Added: But hurry whoever is interested: sale ends February 24!

Thank you very much , J.Moore , for the informations

macasing

MACASING said:

is there anyone that can give an opinion on these books?

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My website (link below) has a section on books that reviews the relevant bird books for northern Central America, including the ones on your list.

Tom