Customer Reviews

A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago (Comstock books)

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

 

 

Sadly, this book is a disappointment. Using it was commonly an exercise in frustration and futility.

Unlike other books in the same series, there was a noticeable lack of information - particularly Plates - on even the most common birds. The Plates that were available often showed marked errors e.g. colouring, from the actual birds (eventually) identified.

I found quite quickly that my poor view of this book was widely shared by the local guides - it was universally criticised as below the required standard.

I wished I'd taken my "Birds of Costa Rica" instead - I would have been better off!

The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago has long been a mecca for visiting birders eager to conveniently experience the sights and sounds of South American birds. This book, which is essentially a hybrid between a manual and a field guide, is exceptionally well written, packing in more natural history information than most bird guides. The introductory chapters provide an excellent overview of Trinidad and Tobago. The greatest asset of the book is the natural history information provided in the species accounts. The extensive coverage of the literature makes this book an excellent reference, but few recent sources are cited. Although the taxonomy is outdated, it is familiar to the older generations. Information on the status and distribution of birds--which birders lust--is often vague, but usually accurate. The biggest drawback is the illustrations, which depict only species not illustrated in the North American guides, and are poorly organized. Despite these shortcomings, this is an excellent, authoritative book which must be purchased by any serious birder who plans to visit Trinidad and Tobago. I hope a more compact revision is forthcoming...

I used ffrench's guide for a month of birding on Tobago, and found many mistakes. The plates are incomplete and inaccurate (the chachalaca, Tobago's national bird, is not given a color plate), the "range and subspecies" descriptions are confusing, the English names are not up-to-date with current ornithological classifications, and it is just plain difficult to use. I give it two stars instead of one because it is pretty much the only guide for Trinidad and Tobago birds available, so if you plan to do any bird watching on Trinidad or Tobago, you're better off with this book than without it. One of the biggest problems is that ffrench often does not include plates of common North American birds (the broad-winged hawk, for example), so if you are not familiar with North American birds, I suggest you also bring another field guide, such as Sibley's or Peterson's.

I got really shafted on this purchase. This is apparently the 1991 version of this field guide (which is not that great), recently reprinted in Britain. I could have bought the same version printed in the US for half what I paid for this version printed in Britain. The 2003 date on the description in Amazon is a reprinting date, not a revision date, which I thought it was. False advertising.

While this may be a good book, my copy did not have any of the illustration plates. None in color, they were missing. Therefore the copy was completely useless.

I purchased both the Ffrench and Kenefick books for birding in T&T. I much preferred birding with the Kenefick guide. Better photos and easier to manage in the field. Ffrench book has more detailed text but not as good for an in-the-field guide. Ffrench book better left at home for more in-depth info on each species. Didn't like the way the color plates were arranged, either.

If you are interested in Trinidadian birds this is a good purchase. The plates are not very good (the author wanted new plates for the new edition) but the text, with descriptions and distributions is very helpful.

I read this, and looked at the pictures in Hilty's "Birds of Venezuela"

I took this book to T/T on a bird watching trip and found it mildly useful. I am not a professional birder, so take that into account. The colors in the plates are not very true in many cases and the separation of plates from descriptive info is not helpful. Compared to such books as The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America it is a not very useful. Apparently not much else is available.

An excellent field guide to Trinidad & Tobago's avifauna, the ffrench has been around long enough, & loved well enough, in its various editions, to be considered a classic of its kind. I've used it everywhere from Port of Spain's Botanical Gardens to the forests of the Northern Range to the Pointe-a-Pierre Wildfowl Trust to my own back garden & never failed to identify the specimen in question (& I am no more than an enthusiatic amateur). This book, for me, is the model of a natural history field guide.