More about South America?
I think this thread has so far mostly concentrated on Central America only. With some few exceptions. So what do people think are the best books for the South? It used to be, there was virtually nothing, then came the early versions of the Colombia and Venezuela guides. In 2000, there was still nothing for further south. Now there are books for Ecuador, Peru, a number of possibilities for Brazil, a compact book for Chile, and an antiquated - but better than nothing - one for Argentina. Which, by the way proved surprisingly useful, much more so than the van Perlo Illustrated Checklist for all of southern South America.
One major problem is the "heftiness" of many of these books. The authors often created some kinds of handbooks instead of true FGs. Even in the case when they split the work into what they called a Fieldguide and a Companion Volume.
Another problem is that some books have been promised for decades (literally in the case of Argentina), thus blocking others to even get started.
Brazil used to be pretty much "terra incognita" before a whole lot of books "suddenly" emerged. Some for certain regions only, some for the whole country. The only country now that still does not have a printed FG is Bolivia. Though there has been a CD ROM around for a long time. But that's not very practical in the field, as far as I'm concerned.
To me, the van Perlo FG to the Birds of Brazil would be the type of book we'd need for each country. Minus some of the excess blank rims that make that book larger than it needs to be.
The countries between Venezuela and Brazil are covered by the hefty FG Birds of Northern South America. Are there slimmer books for that restricted area of Surinam and the Guyanas? There is, of course also the FG for Trinidad and Tobago that has been around for a long time.
I think this thread has so far mostly concentrated on Central America only. With some few exceptions. So what do people think are the best books for the South? It used to be, there was virtually nothing, then came the early versions of the Colombia and Venezuela guides. In 2000, there was still nothing for further south. Now there are books for Ecuador, Peru, a number of possibilities for Brazil, a compact book for Chile, and an antiquated - but better than nothing - one for Argentina. Which, by the way proved surprisingly useful, much more so than the van Perlo Illustrated Checklist for all of southern South America.
One major problem is the "heftiness" of many of these books. The authors often created some kinds of handbooks instead of true FGs. Even in the case when they split the work into what they called a Fieldguide and a Companion Volume.
Another problem is that some books have been promised for decades (literally in the case of Argentina), thus blocking others to even get started.
Brazil used to be pretty much "terra incognita" before a whole lot of books "suddenly" emerged. Some for certain regions only, some for the whole country. The only country now that still does not have a printed FG is Bolivia. Though there has been a CD ROM around for a long time. But that's not very practical in the field, as far as I'm concerned.
To me, the van Perlo FG to the Birds of Brazil would be the type of book we'd need for each country. Minus some of the excess blank rims that make that book larger than it needs to be.
The countries between Venezuela and Brazil are covered by the hefty FG Birds of Northern South America. Are there slimmer books for that restricted area of Surinam and the Guyanas? There is, of course also the FG for Trinidad and Tobago that has been around for a long time.
Last edited: