Customer Reviews

Birds of Venezuela (Helm Field Guides S.)

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

 

 

I believe the earlier reviewers are mistakenly referring to the 1978 First Edition of this field guide (Meyer de Schauensee and Phelps 1978). As the first modern field guide to a South American avifauna, the original Birds of Venezuela is certainly now showing its age though it is still a remarkably useful field aid to the world's sixth largest national avifauna. The new edition - practically an entirely new field guide - is a very different kettle of fish. What makes this new edition different?

First of all, the new guide is twice as thick and the text is much more closely packed. The book now weighs in at over 1.8 kg (4 lbs) and is more along the lines of the field guide volume of the Birds of Ecuador (Ridgely and Greenfield 2001). Nearly a hundred new species are treated, taking the country total to 1381. Far more species are illustrated and more colour plates have been used, though eight black and white plates have been retained to depict flying raptors and swifts. We now have 67 plates compared with the previous 53 - a 25% increase. Twenty-five of the plates are entirely new with beautiful artwork primarily by John Gwynne. The new plates cover a range of taxa, with Cracids, owls, nightjars, toucans, tanagers, Fringillids, Emberizids and Icterids particularly well covered. A further four have been adapted from Birds of Panamá (Ridgely and Gwynne 1989) and one from Birds of Colombia (Hilty and Brown 1986). The remaining 37 are basically the same Guy Tudor plates (and one by John Gwynne) from the old edition with some modifications.

To my mind, though, it is the text which has really benefited from this new edition - so much so that this should really be thought of as an entirely new field guide. The format follows and improves on the standard set by Birds of Mexico (Howell and Webb 1995) and Birds of Ecuador. The type-setting and text layout have allowed far more text to be included than, say, Birds of Ecuador and Hilty has also been precise and economical with his words. This comes as no surprise to those familiar with Hilty's earlier Birds of Colombia.

The text is far more oriented towards identification than in the old edition - the main requisite for a field guide. The first section contains information specifically on identification and this is followed by a section on similar species, where further comparative text is merited. The voice section is new and seems to be very well compiled with - to my taste - excellent transliterations of songs and calls. Much natural history information and further aids to identification are included under a paragraph on behaviour. A detailed appraisal of status and habitat preference is included before the final discussion of range. The text retains the custom established by the earlier edition of separating range information by subspecies, a feature which is particularly welcome in these times of ever changing taxonomy. Range maps are another new feature and they make use of points corresponding to specimen and sight records as well as the customary shading to indicate overall range. In short, they are similar in format to those provided in Birds of Ecuador.

Finally there is a good selection of references at the end of the book and some very nice colour habitat photographs at the beginning. A well annotated locality map of the country is also provided together with colour relief and vegetation maps.

Any drawbacks? With a work of this magnitude there are bound to be some errors and omissions and I quickly found a number of minor inaccuracies too petty to mention here. Perhaps the guide could have a benefited a wee bit more from external review of status and range of some species - there are gaps in the known range of a number of species. Many will also carp about the dimensions and weight of this new guide, though this is an inevitable product of the diversity of the avifauna in question and nothing that cannot be remedied with a pair of scissors and a certain degree of irreverence.

In resumé, an essential buy for all who are interested in Neotropical ornithology and truly great value for money too. I can't wait to get the book out into the field!

There are a couple of risks of misunderstanding with regard to this book that must be made clear here. Firstly it is in no way a second edition. The only things in common with the first guide to the birds of Venezuela, by Meyer de Schauensee and Phelps Jr are the familiar old plates by Guy Tudor, the title, and the publisher. In all other respects it is completely new. Secondly, the "Grand-daddy" review here, clearly refers to the original book and not this one.

Having said that, there is little one can add to Chris Sharpe's comprehensive review except to say that I have already used Hilty's book extensively for research this year, along with the other current guides for other countries, and have found it to be the best. In my opinion it sets a new standard. The only small weakness worth noting here is the plates, but has there been a guide that is perfect in this respect?

For anybody birding in Venezuela, the book is an essential item to have along.

Steve Hilty has done an outstanding job of making sense of the incredible diversity of bird life in Venezuela. This is by far the best guide to that area that you can buy. The only shortcoming is the arrangement of the plates -- they are all grouped together separate from the text -- with a bewildering array of numbers to cross-reference to the facing page of names. If you want to read the complete text and check the range map, you have to go to another page. Fortunately, the page numbers included on the page facing the plates are accurate, simplifying the process.

The only downside for this book: it is much to bulky to carry around in the field, but there is probably nothing to be done about that given the number of birds involved. Be sure to bring a backpack if you plan to use this in the field.

The book arrived on time and it's a great book to recognize birds in Venezuela, it's a heavy book to take to the field, but it's worth it!

I purchased this guide (book) for birding in Aruba as there are no field guides specifically for the island. Essentially, just about all of the birds listed for Aruba are included in this book. After all, Aruba is just 19 miles north of Venezuela.

For the most part, it's an excellent guide. The principle illustrators are really good, but the secondary illustrators leave something (and sometimes even more) to be desired. The second string illustrators just don't cut it and the differences are obvious. Perhaps the primary illustrators can/will redraw those illustrations done by their stand-ins for a future edition. The only problem with this book (and it's a pretty big one) is that with the number of birds in Venezuela being so large, this is really a huge book to tote into the field. It's HEAVY!. Too bad I couldn't just take the plate section in to the field. It would have taken several pounds from my load of cameras, lenses and binoculars. However, it's really useful and otherwise functional.

Until another field guide that is much smaller and lighter, or just contains illustrations, comes along, this will have to do for the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao). I'll deal with this one as it does have just about all the information needed to identify birds there.

This is a beautiful book. A wealth of information and easy to use. The illustrations are very true to life. My best buy!!!

This is the granddaddy of excellent neotropical guides. This was first good guide and the one that almost all other quality neotropical guides have copied (including Birds of Colombia and Costa Rica). As such, it is not up to the standard of those later books, but it is still excellent. Very worth having in your library and in the field. Just watch out, the plates in the middle fall out in humid climates (like most of Venezuela!). I had my guide rebound and it now is just fine.

The order was delivered very fast, within 2 1/2 weeks after ordering the book arrived in the Netherlands! Packaging was very good. The book arrived in excellent condition. This seller is in my eyes a guarantee for fast and correct delivery. For this order he's earned five stars.

Book was right on for Aruba. Would have rated as a 5, however some graphics (although precise) were black and white.

I used this book while visiting Venezuela, and I was able to identify quite a few birds. However, I found that some of the color plates are inaccurate, which made identification rather difficult at times. Several species (such as the Green Jay, some tanagers) are depicted with improper coloration- some were too pale, some too brightly colored and/or with incorrect markings. The book was very useful and I'm glad I bought it, but be aware that the bird you see may look significantly different in the book.