Birders who come to the American Southwest often keep an eye out for Mexican species that stray across the border. Many neotropical migrants of western North America winter in Sonora, and a host of hummingbirds make their home south of the border as well. This eagerly awaited volume by two respected authorities covers more than 500 species of birds and contains a vast amount of information not available elsewhere. The Birds of Sonora describes all the species known from that state and includes information on distribution, seasonal patterns of occurrence, abundance, and habitats. The first book of its kind in more than half a century to treat birds of this Mexican state immediately south of Arizona, it also contains details of nesting activity for breeding species, provides insight into factors influencing distribution, and notes historical changes in status. Each account is accompanied by a range map depicting the bird's range in Sonora—valuable information not available from any other source and useful to anyone interested in the distribution and ecology of North American birds. Drawings by internationally known wildlife artist Ray Harm enhance many of the entries. Because other books on Mexican birds don't treat Sonora in detail, The Birds of Sonora is an indispensable resource for birders, and its background descriptions of Sonoran geography, climate, and habitats also make it a key reference for conservation and land use planning. A useful companion to field guides, it is a narrative account that puts readers in touch with birds of this important biogeographic area.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"A work of impressive scholarship of fundamental use to either scientist or birder. . . . a well-constructed reference to a fast-disappearing avifauna of great scientific and aesthetic interest." —Ibis
About the Author
Stephen M. Russell is retired from teaching and research in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona and is well known as an authority on the birds of Sonora.
Gale Monson lives in Tucson, AZ.
Gale Monson lives in Tucson, AZ.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Occurence location guide for Sonoron birds,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Birds of Sonora (Hardcover)
Make sure your expectations are set right for this valuable book. Like Monson's "Annotated Guide to the Birds of Arizona" -- this book focusses on the occurence and location of bird sightings in Sonora. Valuable for determining the frequency and location of birds in Sonora, but no details on actual sites. NOT a Lane guide to Sonora by any means. Nor does it have any photos, descriptions, etc. My interest is the 'south of the border' occurence of Arizona vagrants, casuals, etc.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Indispensable,
By
This review is from: The Birds of Sonora (Hardcover)
This is the only recent treatment of a fascinating avifauna, an indispensable reference for all birders interested or active in Mexico and the southwestern US. A typical species account begins with a summary of the bird's abundance, distribution, and habitat preferences in Sonora; dates, observers, and citations are provided for records of rarities. Every species is given a large-scale, generally quite legible map, on which breeding, migrant, and winter occurrences are carefully distinguished.
These data constitute a clear and easily used source of baseline information for evaluating new sightings. Inevitably, in a region with a large and still relatively little-known avifauna, some of the information provided is out-of-date, with a number of species listed here as rare or even extirpated in fact still present. Careful observers will use this book in conjunction with more recent sources such as Russell's systematic treatment of the birds of extreme southeast Sonora (in: The Tropical Deciduous Forest of Alamos), the "Northern Mexico" reports in North American Birds, and the trip reports published on MexBirds. It may seem ungracious to carp that the authors have not done even more than they so meritoriously have, but the book could only have been improved by more extensive discussions of geographic variation in the birds treated here. Obviously, the precise status and distribution of certain polytypic species are considerably less well known in Mexico than they are in northern North America, but even a tentative sketch would have been tremendously useful.
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