Customer Reviews

Birds of Australia: Seventh Edition (Princeton Field Guides)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This guide covers all the bird species known to occur in Australia - not an easy task in a continent with as rich an aviafauna.
I found it very good - the illustrations are excellent quality and often cover distinctive subspecies separately.
The maps, conveniently placed opposite the illustrations also show boundaries of the various subspecies' distribution - something few field guides seem to bother with!
All the essential information about appearence, size, voice and habitat is also found along with the maps right opposite the pictures.
These pages make up the bulk of the book, followed by a "Vagrant Bird Bulletin", breeding information, checklists for off-shore island territories and excellent lists of local oganisations and recommended further reading - complete with the competing field guides!
Once you remove the color cover, the book is bound in a sturdy but flexible plastic one - making it ideal for carrying in the field without getting it torn or soaked.
All in all, this is an excellent book that served me very well on my first trip in Australia.
However, on the latest one I have used Morcombe's Field Guide to Australian Birds: Complete Compact Edition which, incredibly, manages to be even better - check it out!

Basics: 2003, 7th edition, flexcover, 382 pages, 132 color plates of 760 species, range maps

Succinctly, this is an excellent field guide and is the best selection from the several other Australian guides available for three reasons. One, the plates have the best quality of artwork. Two, the various plumages and races are shown and presented better. And, three, this book is smaller than the other two, making it more manageable in the field.

Starting with the first edition, the plates are great and have only improved over the past 20 years. The colors, patterns, and detail are more striking and - to me - more realistic and accurate. The birds are also shown positioned in more angles, reflecting natural behavior. I like this versus showing each bird in the same, standardized pose. Another 900 black-and-white illustrations are included to point out important identification details. These address tail, beak, or wing patterns; facial markings; or postures and behaviors.

The text for each bird is found across from the plate. The amount of information is variable, ranging from a short to a long paragraph. About 1/2 to 2/3 of the text focuses on describing the bird with concise identification notes. The subspecies are also described. Sometimes, this is too brief and I found myself wanting a few extra pieces of information when using this book in the field. Additional, but very brief, notes are given for size, voice, and habitat. The descriptions of the voice are okay, but thin. Much better descriptions are given in Morcombe's book. The identification material is probably a bit better in Morcombe's book, too. A 21-page section at the back includes information on the breeding periods of hundreds of birds along with information on their nesting and eggs.

The range maps are very informative. They include the various races and use a variety of symbols. These maps offer more detail than the other books by zooming in when the bird has a restricted ranges. The movements of migrating birds are done very well, too. A weakness of these maps is potentially their greater complexity than what's found in most range maps. This could be either a positive or negative feature for the different readers. I found them to be very helpful. A definite weakness is the small size of these maps, with Australia at 1.5 x 2 cm. The size of the font used within the maps is also very small and might be a challenge for some people to read.

Serious birding in Australia should be done with either this book or, with one of the others by Morcombe or Pizzey (7th ed.). This Simpson/Day book has the superior artwork, Morcombe's the better text material, and Pizzey's has the cleaner plates. You cannot go wrong with any of these books.

1) Field Guide to Australian Birds by Morcombe
2) The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, 7th ed. by Pizzey
3) Photographic Field Guide: Birds of Australia by Flegg
4) Australian Birds: A Concise Photographic Field Guide by Trounson
5) The Atlas of Australian Birds by Blakers
6) Birds in the Australian High Country by Frith
7) Complete Book of Australian Birds by Reader's Digest
8) A Photographic Guide to Birds of Australia by Rowland
9) The Birds of Prey of Australia by Debus
10) A Field Guide to Nests & Eggs of Australian Birds by Beruldsen
11) Where to Find Birds in Australia by Bransbury
(written by Soleglad at Avian Review or Avian Books, October 2008)

This is a really good book for people who are into bird watching. I looked at several guides and I'm really glad that I got this one. The book is logically laid out and the colour plates are great. It is a bit big Aprox 16cm x 22cm but the way it is laid out justifies it. This is a great reference book that will give bird watches many years of enjoyment.

There is an impressive amount of information that fills the pages of this guide. All species are covered, many subspecies, juvenile plumage and variations. The illustrations are clear sharp, very nicely done and well organized on each plate. BUT this leads to very busy plates with with a large number of illustrated birds per plate, I guess this could be the only criticism I could think of for this guide, but considering the scope of whats included, I feel it's unavoidable. The range maps are included next to the species accounts as well as a small black and white illustration relating to species identification. A very, very useful guide in the field.
There is a very nice section included in the back on vagrants, with maps and small colour illustrations. and another nice section on breeding information including nest and egg descriptions for each family. I suppose it could be said there is TOO much information, But for both beginners and experienced birders this is a well rounded and highly useful guide to the birds of Australia.

Thorough field guide, easy to use, compact and suitable size to truly call itself a field guide. Well illustrated.

I haven't had a chance to use this guide in the field yet (unfortunately...) but the book looks excellent. Other reviewers have already commented on the informative content and I can only confirm that the positive reviews all seems to be spot on to me. The artwork is very good, although not as outstanding as, say, Jonsson's or Svensson et al's Birds of Europe.

One piece of information you will want to be aware of is that this same book (and the SAME edition, the 7th) is also available from a different publisher. You can purchase this other edition here on Amazon, just look for a book with the same title published by Christopher Helm Publishers Ltd; 7th edition (June 7, 2004), ISBN 0713669829. As another reviewer pointed out to me (thanks again for the tip, Soleglad!) the book really is the same, but this other edition is significantly cheaper, at least at the time of writing this review. I don't understand why some sellers are selling the Princeton edition at $400 or more... Or, I can see that you will want the Princeton edition if you are perhaps a collector, but otherwise you may want to purchase the Helm edition. Just keep in mind that most copies will ship from the UK, so you will likely receive the book in a couple of weeks (so don't order it a week before your one-in-a-lifetime trip to Australia!!!).

This book was my constant companion for just under 3 weeks birding in Oz. It's a very nice book, but a field guide it is not. The huge size (about 6 x 9 inches) means it won't fit in any pocket, so I had to carry it in a backpack--hardly convenient for field use. I also looked at every other book on the market, at B&B's, bookstores, and wherever I went. All but two are much too large to be field guides, even though many are labeled as such. Of the two truly pocket-compatible books, one is clearly superior: Michael Morcombe's Field Guide to Australian Birds: Complete Compact Edition (not to be confused with his earlier, larger sized books). This one is about 4 x 9 in and the illustrations are annotated with labeled arrows to diagostic features of the birds. Alas, I found this book in a bookstore only on my last day in Australia after having searched intesively for it after first running across it in a B&B library. I bought it anyway, hoping some day to return to Oz.