Customer Reviews

A Guide to the Birds of Fiji and Western Polynesia: Including American Samoa, Niue, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Wallis and Futuna

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

 

 

Basics: hardcover; 16 color plates of 133 species; 172 species receive their own accounts in the text; 16 pages with 4 maps of birding locations amongst the islands

This is one of the few books that does a good job of covering the South Pacific islands, or at least a "small" sector of the Pacific islands composed of Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and other islands. It should be noted this "small" area is still considerably large, covering an area 1,000 miles tall and wide. In all, the region's birdlist contains 172 species. All of these are covered within the book's text; and, the expected 133 species are illustrated in the plates.

There are 16 plates of color illustrations in the center of the book. The artwork is good, but a notch or so below the better fields guide for the US, Europe, or Africa. However, it is certainly good enough to allow for identification of most of the birds, especially since there is a relatively small number of species that can be found on any one island. The plate with the shorebirds is the weakest group of birds. The plumages lack key identification points and the proportions (beak, head, necks) are not quite right.

Additionally, only the winter plumages are illustrated for the shorebirds. The lack of showing the vagrant species, but which are noted in the text, will leave the birder with doubts about which tattler, peep, or plover he is seeing. Most of the birds are shown with only a single illustration, except where there are notable differences between the male and female plumages.

The majority of the book consists of text which is divided into three sections. The largest part is dedicated to the species accounts, which covers all the birds recorded from these islands. Each bird receives up to a full page of material that reviews identification, voice, habits, distribution, special remarks, and conservation notes. This material is typically brief, but still provides the necessary information to identify the bird and to give the reader some nice tidbits on each bird.

An additional tool given for each bird is the inclusion of a type of distribution table. The presence or absence of the bird and whether or not it breeds on an island is shown by shading in the respective box containing the island's name. Also, within the margin of the page, up to 16 different symbols can be used to help define the bird's habitat as well as potential threats to its survival.

A 16-page section at the end of the book focuses on specific birding locations across the islands. This section provides four maps along with information on how to reach the localities and the potential birds to be seen.

The initial 52 pages of the book provide good reading on the profiles of the various island countries. Also presented are backgrounds on the avian biogeography, origins of the islands' birds, and conservation.

Next to Pratt's "A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific", this is the next best book to use for birding Fiji, Samoa, and the surrounding islands. - (written by Jack at Avian Review / Avian Books, December 2009)

I've listed several related books below...
1) Birds of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa by Watling
2) The birds and birdlore of Samoa by Muse
3) Guide to Birds of Vanuatu by Bregulla
4) Birds of the Solomons, Vanuatu & New Caledonia by Doughty
5) A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific by Pratt
6) Birds and Bats of Palau by Pratt et al.
7) A Field Guide to the Birds of Yap Island by Clements
8) SOUTH PACIFIC BIRDS. by DuPont
9) Oiseaux de Nouvelle Caledonie et des Loyautes - Tome 1 by Hannecart
10) Birds of the North Solomons by Hadden