Customer Reviews

The Birdwatcher's Guide to Hawai'I (Kolowalu Books)

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

 

 

This is not a field guide with pictures to help you identify the birds. It is a wonderfully insightful reference to the diversity of birds that may be found within the state of Hawaii. It is far more than just a birdwatching guide. It gives one a feel for the plight of the native Hawaiian birds and the beauty of the state and its avifauna.

Before our first visit to Hawaii I searched to find something that would serve as a useful guide for a trip that would permit only casual bird-watching. This book is really best for someone able to dedicate time to exploring the recommended hikes. Having said that, my main complaint about the book is that the illustrations are of little use to someone from the North American continent who is unfamiliar with Hawaii's birds, as the majority of readers probably are. After all, which would be more useful, good color photos of Northern Cardinals, or a photo of the 'Apapane? A photo of a Black-crowned Night Heron, or a photo of the 'I'iwi? The Birdwatchers Guide has very good photos of a male and a female cardinal and the heron, which are close to ubiquitous in the mainland USA, and none of the latter, which are totally unfamiliar to mainlanders. There are lots of black and white photos of things like people looking through binoculars, road signs, and trails, none of which are terribly useful to birdwatchers trying to ID unfamiliar species...

Rick Soehren knows Hawai'i and its birds, and this site guide is a great help to visitors. Soehren describes, island by island, where to find Hawai'i's birds, and in the process gives the reader some of Hawai'i's avian history. The book is illustrated with good black-and-white photographs. I have used the book on Hawai'i and Kaua'i and have found it clear, accurate, and very useful.

This is an excellent guide to birding LOCATIONS in Hawai'i. If you would like a field guide to identify birds, I recommend Jim Denny's "A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Hawai'i: The Main Islands and Offshore Waters," which is an identification guide that is well-illustrated with color photos and provides more useful descriptions than the more compact guides (although those are decent).

"The Birdwatcher's Guide to Hawai'i" is more useful for planning a trip. On a recent trip to the Big Island, we managed to visit most of the sites mentioned (except those closed due to fire danger). The book was useful in giving us ideas as well as a guess as to which bird species we would see.

The only problems I had with the book were some areas where it was out of date or did not provide much information. For example, Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park was NOT crowded with nude sunbathers--this has apparently been cracked down on in recent years. During the week, it is not crowded at all--we went five times during a week, at different times of day, and saw only a handful of people, but an excellent assortment of indigenous shore and wetlands birds (Pacific Golden-Plover, Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone, Wandering Tattler, Black-crowned Night Heron, Hawaiian Stilt, Hawaiian Coot, ducks, and I believe a tern) as well as spectacular scenery.

In the section on Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, a wonderful site, but indeed difficult to access, Rick Soehren does not mention their annual open house--the only opportunity to see certain areas of the park, and for free with knowledgeable guides. It's true that this will probably not be something the casual birder plans their vacation around, but it would be good information to include.

At the end of the Big Island section, Soehren mentions other locations, providing a scant paragraph for each. I would have liked these to be expanded more, and also found the South point paragraph frustratingly vague. Soehren describes it as a good place to see indigenous seabirds; I saw a scant two introduced species (Common Myna and Yellow-billed Cardinal). Does one have to take a boat to see the seabirds, perhaps? Soehren doesn't say, or provide much other useful detail here.

Accessibility has also changed in some places.

All in all, this is a fine book, although many of the sites described are not going to be for the casual birder. This is simply the nature of Hawai'i, which is a low-biodiversity, severely damaged ecosystem. Some sites, particularly those in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, can certainly be done by the casual birder who was already planning to hike in the park. However, it has been nearly 15 years since "The Birdwatcher's Guide to Hawai'i" was published, and I think it would be beneficial to publish a revised and updated edition.

Probably a good book for a professor perhaps but I'm just a traveler who wanted to see pretty color pictures of Hawaiian birds so that I could identify them on my trip. The majority of black & white pictures in this book left me feeling...."unprepared" for the wonderful world of colorful Hawaiian fauna.

(I have already made a review for this purchase, but I can say it again: It was a very prompt delivery, with a next-to-unused book! I am very satisfied.