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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

forthcoming Ecuador field guide (1 Viewer)

NHBS says "In stock".

They have one advanced copy it seems as does my supplier who has commented to me pers com that several plates seem to have colour issues.

Whether he's been sent a sub-standard 'freebie' or if people will have something to say about the plates, we'll have to wait and see.



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Received the book last week.

Looks great. Quite compact for a field guide with more than 1,600 species.

Didn't notice any color issues.

A great book and a must for everyone going to Ecuador.

It would be great to also have it as an app (not just an ebook) like the Collins Field Guide.
 
I got mine too last week, seems fine.

Apparently, a lot have been damaged en-route during the recent bad weather and have had to be returned by my usual supplier.

My shelves are now creaking even more under the weight of the five new titles..Blue Tit, Gulls, Ecuador, Canary Islands and HMW7

This year is a good year for books with spectacular looking Antpittas, the new African Raptor guide and Japan, still to come.


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The compactness is fairly impressive. It's only slightly bigger than the Collins Guide and smaller than (though a similar width to) the big Sibley. It's substantially smaller than the Ridgely & Greenfield guide but the plates are less crowded and have a lot more illustrations of some of the species. An extreme example of this is the Variable Hawk complex, which the new guide speculatively splits into Red-backed and Gurney's. The new guide includes a staggering 31 illustrations of this species (all of them of the whole bird) while R&G only has eight (some of which are partial or obscured). The layout is obviously far better than R&G, with illustrations, maps and text for each species all on the same double page (with the exception of additional plates for raptors in flight). The illustrations are fairly variable in quality, despite being by the same artist. Some are fairly good, some are not particularly impressive or life-like. Quite a few of the illustrations are the same as for Restall's 'Birds of Northern South America' so will be familiar to anyone with that book.

The text is good and clear, although it would be helpful to have brief taxonomic notes and alternative names - a useful feature of the recent Lynx field guides.
 
The compactness is fairly impressive. It's only slightly bigger than the Collins Guide and smaller than (though a similar width to) the big Sibley. It's substantially smaller than the Ridgely & Greenfield guide but the plates are less crowded and have a lot more illustrations of some of the species. An extreme example of this is the Variable Hawk complex, which the new guide speculatively splits into Red-backed and Gurney's. The new guide includes a staggering 31 illustrations of this species (all of them of the whole bird) while R&G only has eight (some of which are partial or obscured). The layout is obviously far better than R&G, with illustrations, maps and text for each species all on the same double page (with the exception of additional plates for raptors in flight). The illustrations are fairly variable in quality, despite being by the same artist. Some are fairly good, some are not particularly impressive or life-like. Quite a few of the illustrations are the same as for Restall's 'Birds of Northern South America' so will be familiar to anyone with that book.

The text is good and clear, although it would be helpful to have brief taxonomic notes and alternative names - a useful feature of the recent Lynx field guides.

Heavy though for such a book at 1.150kg but it will become the standard field guide now I'm sure.

R&G (1.52k) does have a lot more text per species but is minus range maps, leave a few pairs of underpants at home and take both :t:


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Heavy though for such a book at 1.150kg but it will become the standard field guide now I'm sure.

R&G (1.52k) does have a lot more text per species but is minus range maps, leave a few pairs of underpants at home and take both :t:


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I just amused myself weighing field guides. Results as follows:

Collins - 881g
Sibley - 1352g
Ridgely & Greenfield - 1606g
Freile & Restall - 1168g

So fairly heavy but it's closer to the Collins than the Sibley in weight (and dimensions too).

Ridgely & Greenfield does include maps in the text section but they're not in colour and aren't as clear as in the new guide.
 
I just amused myself weighing field guides. Results as follows:

Collins - 881g
Sibley - 1352g
Ridgely & Greenfield - 1606g
Freile & Restall - 1168g

So fairly heavy but it's closer to the Collins than the Sibley in weight (and dimensions too).

Ridgely & Greenfield does include maps in the text section but they're not in colour and aren't as clear as in the new guide.

Sorry yes, I overlooked that.

Paper in the new book seems to be of good quality, the only way to reduce the weight would have been to compromise with cheaper paper?


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Heavy though for such a book at 1.150kg but it will become the standard field guide now I'm sure.

R&G (1.52k) ..........., leave a few pairs of underpants at home and take both :t:


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I'm afraid most of us would end up with no underpants at all any more :-O
 
The illustrations are fairly variable in quality, despite being by the same artist. Some are fairly good, some are not particularly impressive or life-like. Quite a few of the illustrations are the same as for Restall's 'Birds of Northern South America' so will be familiar to anyone with that book.

I'm certain the new title is a valuable contribution and good for folks who don't already have Ridgley and Greenfield, but honestly the Restall art turns me off. I find Miles McMullan's compact field far better than Restall's Birds of Northern South America for use in the field, and I actually found his books brilliant for Colombia and Ecuador. The art and concise text and maps were good enough 98% of the time. The other 2% of the time you can consult Hilty for Colombia, Ridgely for Ecuador, and Ridgely's Passerines and the Non-Passerines of S America volumes to resolve anything else.
 
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