An excellent pocket-size reference and field identification aid to the 252 species of birds found in Costa Rica. Over 250 full-color photographs.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good book,
By Ann (NY, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Photographic Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica (Paperback)
This is a good bird book for Costa Rica. It uses the Stiles and Skutch classification system. Uses real bird photographs. It does not contain every bird but the 252 species within the book are the ones most likely to be seen. It is easy to read and helpful and does not weigh a ton like the other Costa Rica birding books. I highly recommend it. You can buy it in the Juan Santamaria airport and in some resorts.
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great pocket guide!,
By bookarts "bookarts" (Somewhere in CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Photographic Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica (Paperback)
I didn't want to lug around a big book for our trip to Costa Rica, so I ordered this small guide, hoping it would do. It was terrific - in fact, all our Costa Rican guides coveted it. Almost every bird we saw was in it. There is only one hummingbird and one egret I couldn't find in it, and we saw at least 45 different species. It fit in the pocket of my cargo pants, and it was easy to pull it out and quickly find each bird. I highly recommend this guide if you will be visiting Costa Rica.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good practice photo guide,
By Soleglad (Arizona, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Photographic Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica (Paperback)
Basics: 2005, 144 pp, softcover; 299 color photos of 252 species; brief overview of 12 birding locations; map with habitats and 15 birding sites; no range maps
Of the many photo-guides in the series, this book has one of the better selections of good photographs. The birds are slightly larger in this book than in most of the other guides; and, nearly every photo is in focus and well lit with the bird unobscured by foliage or suffering from a bad pose. In all, there are 299 color photographs of 252 (28%) of the 890+ species found in Costa Rica. There is a good sampling of families shown in these photos. The most prominent family is the flycatchers with 25 species. Keeping in mind the difficulty of many of the flycatchers, these photos will be helpful when the shown bird is seen in the field. Since most birds are shown with only one photo, there will be many plumages encountered that are not in this book. There are also 26 species from the combined groups of trogons, motmots, jacamars, toucans, and woodpeckers. My one knock against the selection of photos is more a personal preference. Of the 252 species shown, 55 (22%) are birds expected to be seen in the US. Yes, these birds are typical of Costa Rica, but there are other notable birds of Costa Rica that aren't featured as frequently. There are already so many books with these birds illustrated. How many more photos of the Great Egret, Turkey Vulture, Red-winged Blackbird, or Summer Tanager are needed? Of course, this viewpoint is biased by my familiarity with US birds. For non-US birders, this book would be very useful because these in-common birds are common in Costa Rica and will be seen. The text given with each photograph consists of a single short paragraph. About 1/3 to 1/2 of this is dedicated to descriptions of the bird. The material is not strongly detailed, but it does provide a decent general description of the bird. Some species are also accompanied with brief notes as comparison to a similar species. The remainder of the information consists of brief notes on the bird's habitat or behavior or other natural history comments. Many of the birds have a note recording the maximum elevation at which the bird can be found. Two nice additions in the beginning pages are a map of Costa Rica and a brief listing of birding locations. A dozen sites are listed along with a very brief overview of what may be seen at each. The map does a nice job of identifying the five major eco-types. Within the map are the location of 15 popular birding areas. This is a handy practice guide with good photos to practice for a trip to Costa Rica; however, it is not a complete field or identification guide. For that purpose, the book "A Photographic Guide to Birds of Costa Rica" by Garrigues is highly recommended. -- (written by Jack at Avian Review / Avian Books, December 2009) 1) The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide by Garrigues 2) A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica by Stiles/Skutch 3) A Guide to the Birds of Panama by Ridgely/Gwynne 4) Aves De Costa Rica by Skutch 5) Field Guide to the Wildlife of Costa Rica by Henderson 6) Hummingbirds of Costa Rica by Fogden 7) An Illustrated Field Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica by Soto
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