A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific [Paperback]

Phillip L. Bruner (Author), Delwyn G. Berrett (Author), H. Douglas Pratt (Author, Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

At last, a first-rate comprehensive guide to the birds of Oceania. All species (including those that have become extinct in historical times) known from Micronesia, Polynesia (except Easter Island and New Zealand) and Fiji are covered in the text; all but the accidentals and a few poorly known extinct forms are illustrated. The concise taxonomically arranged species accounts, emphasizing identification, are followed by the plates in a combined taxonomic and geographical arrangement. A "hypothetical list," regional checklists, and maps and a glossary are appended. Based on extensive field work in the region, this authoritative handbook is highly recommended. Paul B. Bors, Univ. of Wyoming Lib., Laramie
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

An excellent and much-needed guide to the region. -- World Birdwatch

Product Details

• Paperback: 520 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (June 1, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691023999
• ISBN-13: 978-0691023991
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,229 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #34 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Zoology > Ornithology

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 92 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The indispensible Tropical Pacific field guide., July 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific (Hardcover)

Pratt, Bruner, and Dickinson have produced a superb field guide completely covering all the islands of the tropical Pacific from Hawai'i west through Micronesia. This is a true field guide: it gives the field marks of every species, notes problems in identification with special emphasis on distinguishing similar species, and wastes no space on matters not related to identification. (The exception is that Pratt, a significant ornithologist as well as an expert in identification, summarizes controversies in classification whre appropriate.)

The text is organized by order and family, not by region, so the flycatchers of Tahiti appear next to the flycatchers of Palau rather than near other Tahitian birds. But the illustrations are grouped by region: Samoan land birds appear together, regardless of relationships. This greatly facilitates use in the field.

The illustrations are paintings, not photographs, which allows the authors to show similar birds in identical poses as well as eliminating the accidental marks which appear in even the best photographs and can confuse the user.

The authors have chosen to include the extinct birds of the region as well as the living ones. This puts a certain amount of "deadwood" on the illustration pages, which may be detrimental. But, considering that more than one "extinct" bird has been found after being missing for nearly a hundred years, it is probably worth the minor inconvenience.

I have used the book extensively in Hawai'i and believe it to be the best guide Hawai'i's birds. I would not consider being without it anywhere in its area of coverage.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Getting a bit dated, April 6, 2008

By 

Keet Kopecky (Kansas City, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific (Paperback)

Still the best field guide to the birds of the tropical Pacific, Pratt's book is now over 20 years old and in need of revision. The bird life of Hawaii is in a constant state of flux, with species arriving and becoming extinct every decade. One of the most common species today, the African Silverbill, was rare when Pratt's guide was published, so is completely missing from the book. Nesting information, feeding habits, and other aspects of natural history are given very little attention. So, while the serious birder will want to own the book and carry it in the field, it is now necessary to purchase a second book to fill in all the missing information that has come to light in the last two decades. For the birder visiting Hawaii, I recommend also carrying the Hawaii Audubon Society's Hawaii's Birds. It is a lightweight supplement that includes all the new species that one is likely to encounter as well as much more information regarding the habits of each bird.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Needs reformatting, January 11, 2007

By 

James G. Sasser (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific (Paperback)

This field guide has excellent sketches of birds but the layout is quite awkward. This guide like most if not all guides breaks down the birds by family groups. This works well for most areas but not Hawaii. As an example, on the first page for Crows and Honeycreepers there are six birds listed, three are extinct, the other three birds all exist on seperate islands, so if I am birding on Kauai and I look on this particular page there is only one bird I would have any chance of seeing but I still have five other birds on the page as a distraction. On the other pages there are on average 8-10 birds per page but once again some are extinct (and not boldly labled as such) while there may only be one or two birds from each island on the pages. My recommendation to make it easier to ID birds in the field would be to put all the extinct Hawai'ian endemic birds on two or more pages (since there are so many of them) for emphasis and then have seperate pages for each island. Since there are so few birds to be found on each of the Hawaiian islands versus say the tropical forests of Costa Rica, I beleive my recommended format would be much less frustrating than the current format of the book to use in the field.