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Birds of New Zealand NEW EDITION (1 Viewer)

Swissboy

Sempach, Switzerland
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Switzerland
I have posted this before in the summary threads above. But it seems those do not get all that much attention. So here is my question again, a bit more prominently placed this time:

There is apparently a new, the fourth, edition of FG to the Birds of New Zealand out since April. http://www.andrewisles.com/all-stock/publication/38116

Any comments on this one? It must be a major revision.

So far, the only place I found it listed is by Andrewisles. No info on NHBS, Wildsounds or Amazon.

Edit: a specific search provides a number of places from where this book could be obtained. But they are all either in New Zealand or in Australia. I have not found any reviews there, however. So my question still stands, whether someone can comment on it. Maybe BF members from NZ or AU?
 
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see this thread in BirdingNZ (where I have the user-name Byrd), ......................

Thanks a lot for providing this link. I had actually found the BirdingNZ web site, but somehow missed the fact that there was a forum. So this is what I was after. And quite a bit more than that. Most interesting indeed. And you have done a great job there, detailing the changes and the missed opportunities as well.
As I have only the van Perlo book that also includes NZ, I had been wondering whether it would make sense at this point to get the new book. No intentions for a visit any time soon, though. But then, one hobby of mine is collecting FGs. :eat: Particularly, if they include great art. So, not sure whether to get this volume. Need to see some plates first.

Edit: Found a sample plate, the one on Tomtit and Robins, and I like it. Not perfect, but nice. (It's from the previous edition, but apparently unchanged in the new one.)
 
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I haven't seen the van Perlo book in person, but I have heard there are a fair number of errors in it. I should imagine it would be annoying to try and use as an actual field guide as well, as it has so many species not found anywhere near NZ (or Hawaii, or Tahiti, or where-ever you are at the time).

In the BirdingNZ thread, Andrew Crossland says Derek Onley is the best bird artist in NZ, which is a major stretch. But he is good - seemingly better at individual paintings than when doing a field guide though. Overall they are fine, not great. Some are pretty awful though in my opinion, particularly the Brown Creeper and the kakariki. Oddly, I couldn't find any examples of the plates online.

I've seen a few of the van Perlo plates as well, and they don't really look so flash either.
 
......... Oddly, I couldn't find any examples of the plates online.

..........

The only one I found came up well hidden within lots of unwanted stuff when I entered "Field Guide to New Zealand Birds" into google. And then going to "Pictures". Essentially then I found this:
http://www.birdingisfun.com/2013/08/review-new-zealand-bird-books.html

Then scrolling down.

So its rather complicated. And it once again confirms my feeling that google is more and more going to pot, so to speak. It used to be one got pretty well focussed results, both for texts and for pictures. Nowadays, one gets lots of not really connected stuff even on the first pages.


As for van Perlo, I fully agree. He is a (too) fast painter. I have some of his "Illustrated Checklists", but mostly for getting some kind of overview. Like I know of no other book that covers virtually all of the Pacific. I had to use one of his books in South America when the only FG for Argentina was even worse. But even in combination, I could not always be sure about the species seen.
 
reading that review you linked to, I hadn't realised the van Perlo book was just an "illustrated checklist", I thought it was a proper field guide sort of book.

As you are probably aware, there are two versions of the NZ guide. The fieldguide is the thick book with lots of text, ideal for the bookshelf, while the handguide is a much thinner book with just the plates and their facing descriptive pages. Most NZ birders have both fieldguide and handguide; one stays at home or in the car and the other is carried with them. If you mainly want it for reference then get the fieldguide, but if you want to actually go birding with it but not carry too much weight then get the handguide (the new version of the handguide hasn't been released yet I don't think).
 
As you are probably aware, there are two versions of the NZ guide. The fieldguide is the thick book with lots of text, ideal for the bookshelf, while the handguide is a much thinner book with just the plates and their facing descriptive pages.

I wish they would do that with more "field guides". Right now I am planning for
Ecuador, where the old and well recommended field guide is probably 7-8 cm thick, with the plates taking up less than 1/3 of that.

Niels
 
reading that review you linked to, I hadn't realised the van Perlo book was just an "illustrated checklist", I thought it was a proper field guide sort of book.

As you are probably aware, there are two versions of the NZ guide. The fieldguide is the thick book with lots of text, ideal for the bookshelf, while the handguide is a much thinner book with just the plates and their facing descriptive pages. Most NZ birders have both fieldguide and handguide; one stays at home or in the car and the other is carried with them. If you mainly want it for reference then get the fieldguide, but if you want to actually go birding with it but not carry too much weight then get the handguide (the new version of the handguide hasn't been released yet I don't think).

I have four of the van Perlo books, and three of them are called Illustrated Checklist. They are all soft cover books. The only one that runs under the Field Guide name is the one for Central America and Mexico. It is a hard cover book. One of the features that I don't like is when the range maps are separate from the illustration plates. Of my four books, only he one that we are discussing here for New Zealand has the range maps where they ought to be.

EDIT: I just found out, I have a fifth book by van Perlo, but that is a larger book, not fitting in his usual pattern. It's a Field Guide to the Birds of Brazil, and pretty much like a FG for a species-rich country should be. It's a bit less than half as thick as the Ecuador volume Niels complained about. Though it is about a centimeter higher and wider. Both only due to too much blank space left all around. Could these publishers not please have someone with field experience examine such a project at a time when such dimensional nonsense could still be corrected!?

Thanks for explaining the difference between the handguide and the fieldguide versions. I had read that the fieldguide was relatively heavy, which did not make sense for a book to be taken out into the field. On the other hand, usually a so called handbook is one that I link with a more voluminous version that goes more into details. So the term handguide did not quite fit anywhere. I had thought that it was a version that did not contain all the species. So it's good to have this clarification!
 
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I also have the Brazil guide by van Perlo. I believe several threads here on BF have concluded that is his best book so far.

Niels
 
..........(the new version of the handguide hasn't been released yet I don't think).

I have since seen the new version of the handguide advertised. Is that just an advance fishing for customers, or is it actually out? I think, I'll get the handguide eventually, as I already have the (dated) Readers Digest NZ book plus all the info that I can get out of HBW. But a quick overview on the updated level would be what I'm looking for. Are there range maps in the handguide?


EDIT: OK, I just found the info myself: http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780143570936/handguide-birds-new-zealand

So publication should be by the end of August. And yes, there are distribution maps.
 
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Yer I'm getting the Hand Guide. I've got the old field guide, which is to heavy to use in the field. though i don't need it in field.

I have seen the Birds of Hawaii, New Zealand, and the Central and West Pacific book but I don't like it and does not seem that accurate.
 
New Handguide out of print or not yet published?

I have tried to order the new Handguide through several of my usual suppliers. All without success. So I wonder whether this new book has been delayed or whether it is already out of print? Penguin's web site lists a publication date of 26 August 2015.

EDIT: I found suppliers, finally.
 
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Hand Guide has arrived, very pleased with it.

Got my copy of the Hand Guide today. I'm surprised how thin it is. But it is larger in both other dimensions than the customary field guides for Europe or North America. I wonder whether "Kiwis" have different size pockets.3:)

Compared to a paperback version of the "Collins", it is just a bit over 2 centimeters both higher and wider. The soft cover comes with a convenient protection by a transparent plastic sleeve.

I very much like the illustrations, as well as the concise text and the range maps for all species except the rare vagrants/stragglers/migrants. I particularly like the fact that each species has a classification in bold print as to its status, such as "Abundant European introduction", "Very rare native", "Rare Arctic migrant" etc. Not sure why extinct species show up in such a FG. Is there hope they might be rediscovered?
 
In the original version of the Raffaele field guide to West Indies, there was an explicitly stated reason to include extinct species. From memory it was something like making the casual user of the field guide aware of what has already been lost. In other words, to make birdwatchers (especially novice such) aware of the need for conservation.

Niels
 
I personally love the new ed. and hope to get the hand guide soon.

Nah, our pockets are no bigger. I think the think is we don't use our guide in the field much, not enough confusion birds.

Our exinct birds often seem to have quite a few recent reports, all of which get turned down, but hence why they have paintings in there
 
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