Customer Reviews

Birds of the Salton Sea: Status, Biogeography, and Ecology

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This is an excellent reference for anyone interested in the birds of the Salton Sea area. Very well written and researched, there is a ton of information to be found here. One reviewer lamented the lack of good illustrations, but the illustrations are not the reason you'll want to buy this book--it's not intended to be a field guide. It's a work on status and distribution, and on that score it's superb.

There is much information here specific to the amazing variety of birds to be seen at the bizarre world of the Salton Sea in Southern California. It is a very detailed volume, listing actual occurrence dates of some of the rarer species, along with specific locations, and times of year to be spotted. The main problem though, is the lack of plates. There are just 71 total plates, all black and white photographs- very poor ones at that. In other words, you need to bring along another guidebook if you are not completely familiar with all 400 plus species that may be found there!

The book does have a nice general background of the area and how it was formed, along with a great section chronicling the biogeography of the land. A few pages are dedicated to the controversies surrounding the ecological management of the area, which has burdened local politics for nearly a century.