Customer Reviews

Peterson Reference Guides: Gulls of the Americas

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Yesterday I received the brand new, "Gulls of the Americas" by Steve N.G. Howell/Jon Dunn, Peterson Reference Guide. This is quite a book! -- hard cover, definitely not a field guide as it is quite a bit larger and quite heavy, and with lots and lots of color photos inside. There are pages and pages of each bird in each cycle, standing, and flying, both from above and below. There are almost 300 pages of plates, each page having 4-5 pictures per page. For instance, Glaucous-Winged Gull pictures start on page 235 and ends on page 243. There are a total of 41 pictures of this species. Pages 300-500 are the Species Accounts. This includes range maps, identification summaries, and field identification sections. The book's Introduction is 46 pages which includes sections on field identification of gulls, and a lengthy section on topography and appearance.

The front inside flap says the guide "...brings together identification criteria for the 36 species of gulls that occur in the Americas - 22 that breed in North America, 10 that breed in South America, and another 4 that have occurred as visitors from the Old World. The 1,160 photographs were selected to show a representative range of plumages..."

I'm far from knowing much about gull identification, that is why I purchased this book, and so I won't weigh in on how accurate this book is. For everyone who has a birder's library, this should be your next addition. And at $23.10 at amazon.com, it is a steal!

And, maybe by this winter I will have enough time to study this book so I can actually identify some gulls !!

"Gulls of the Americas" is packed with information, but this book isn't much fun. I suspect only hard-core gull watchers will want to use this book.

There is a very useful introductory section, and the authors encourage their readers to study the introduction before moving on to the rest of the book, but I suspect many readers will find their eyes glazing over before they get very far. The main part of the book is divided into a 251 page section of photos and a 192 page section of species accounts. The photos do a good job of illustrating the various plumages of the gulls, but the photos are small, and aren't really a lot of fun to look at. The species accounts are thorough and clearly written but rather dry. The photos and species accounts are separate, and it can be awkward to go back and forth between them. I expect this book will come in handy when I come across gulls that are difficult to identify, but I wish the people who put together the book had made it more user-friendly.

Gull identification is complicated and difficult. This book is jam packed full of many, many details about Gull identification. It has exceeded my expectations with its wealth of information and excellent photos. The authors are clearly experts and have dedicated a significant portion of their lives to the sometimes esoteric and always intriguing world of gull identification. The book also provides an excellent introduction (which is a must read if you are to get the most out of it) that gives a background on the details of molt cycles, feather tract terms, etc...

This book is not a field guide, it is truly a reference guide as the title clearly states. It is a large format hardcover (with dust jacket) book printed on high quality glossy paper. This is a book that you study at home and maybe keep in the car as a reference.

In summary it is a worthy addition to any birders library and a book that would make its namesake (that is Roger not Rodger) Tory Peterson proud.

All birders know: Gull ID is a tougher proposition than almost any other group. Without repeating what others have already written, I will say that this book was of immediate use to me. I had photographed a terribly confusing gull on the WA coast some time back, and there was a picture in this book of a gull that was a perfect match. It turned out to be a hybrid Glaucous x Glaucous-winged Gull. I cannot think of any other reference that would have had an illustration to help me solve that mystery.
Yes, it is a dense book. Learning Gulls is not like learning the birds at your feeder, and I cannot believe someone gave this book one star just because they could not understand it. Gulls are a bit beyond my abilities to, but shouldn't that make us thankful for such an amazing reference? The amount of work that went into this must have been incredible. And I was already a fan of Mr. Howell based on his excellent and ground-breaking Mexico books - both the field guide and the birding guide.
In short - this is a MUST for the shelf of any really serious birder.

Not much wriiten about these birds.Sure,you could surf the net but you wont find what your looking for.This Peterson's Reference Guide is a bible on Gulls.Mind you this only covers the Americas.I could only imagine what a complete world guide would look like.I highly recommend it if you love these birds as much as i do.

This book was extremely helpful for identifying a colony of gulls that were not in any of the other guides. It turns out they are a hybrid, which other guides don't seem to address. I also liked the fact that the chicks are shown in all stages of growth, which also helps in identification. Would very much recommend this book if you are a birder who likes to watch gulls.

This book was not what I expected or hoped for. Admittedly, I did not realize the Book is a Peterson *Reference* Guide, not a field guide. It covers all the gulls found in north and south America, providing a detailed account of each species on the basis of taxonomy, range, and identification.

What don't I like? It is a photo guide, no illustrations, and is full of dense technical prose. If you like word pictures in dry, technical, language reminiscent of geo chemistry texts,(think regolith, xenolith) and photos as opposed to illustrations, this is the book for you. For everyone else interested in Gulls, Grant's descriptions are more useful, and Harrison's Seabirds: An Identification Guide has decent illustrations. The Sibley Guide to Birds is good but not perfect for the field identification of Gulls. One other thing I don't like is the size of the book. It is oversized compared to most of my bird books and references, requiring me to put it on an oversize shelf.

When it comes to guides, I feel illustrations a preferable to photos in all circumstances. This is because an illustration is a composite of many individuals, while photos depict only one individual. The brilliance of Roger Tory Peterson, was to distill each species down to its essentials. Prior to Peterson, descriptions were overly complex, technical and based on bird in hand. Peterson changed that with simple, elegant, prose and concise illustrations, that gave the field observer the essential elements or "field marks" needed to identify a bird. Howell and Dunn, abandon all of these principals in Gulls of the Americas. Unlike their previous works: A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America (Howell), A Field Guide to Warblers of North America (Peterson Field Guides(R)), and National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Fifth Edition (National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America) (Dunn), this book has little value to a birder or bird watcher interested in field identification. Gulling is extreme birding, it appeals to a limited audience. But for instance: how does one separate a Little Gull, from several hundred Bonaparte's Gulls in a flotilla? I am certain the authors know what to look for, but they do not share that in a way I could easily understand. While there is useful information to be found, it is difficult to find. I think Roger Tory Peterson, might be rolling in his grave.

This is the best book on gulls ever! There are at least ten full color, extremely detailed photos for each species. On the captions for the photo it names the bird and gives what state of its life it is at, it describes the photo of the bird, and it gives the location, and date of the photo and the photographers name. On some photos there is a gull in the background and so that adds a little test to the book.

The species accounts are exquisite, and the range maps are amazingly detailed.

I recommend this book to every birder! Especially those of you who wish to go looking for rarities.

This book is a must for beginner birders and experts too!

This is a heavy book, so it will not be practical to carry as a field guide. Other than that, this is by far the most up to date, best researched guide to Gulls that you will find today.

I am an avid bird watcher and hopeless collector of bird guides, and this one sets the bar for a family specific guide. Outstanding photos and precise text make this guide a must have for any serious watcher of Gulls.

I ordered the book close to Christmas and was very pleased to receive it in good time to gift it to a neighbor who lives on the lakeshore. She was elated. I was impressed at the level of detail in the book and the price was right. Many thanks!