Customer Reviews

Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia: A Guide to Field Identification (Princeton Field Guides)

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Being a shorebird enthusiast, I have had this title in my sights for a while and planned to purchase it as soon as I could find a copy to look through. I have owned the old Helm guide since it came out but, for portability, in the field I tend to use Sibley or the Collins Bird Guide as a shorebird identification supplement to whatever national guide I am using (that is here in the Western Hemisphere). I felt it was about time I got my library up-to-date with this new volume which promised to supersede all my guides. However, when I finally managed to look over a copy I have to say I found it a little disappointing. For me at least, the illustrations do not match those of Killian Mullarney, Peter Hayman or David Sibley and the text does not seem to add much to the older Helm guide - indeed, I prefer that pioneering guide. It just shows how much care went into the preparation of those older guides - Shorebirds is 21 years old now and still hard to beat! This may be a personal view - and admittedly based on a short perusal - but I could not justify adding the book to my library.

Chris Sharpe, 25 September 2007. ISBN: 0691126720

Many shorebird species can occasionally be seen in other continents than where they normally occur, more so than any other bird group. Thus, for birders who like to see rarities (which is nearly all of them), these birds are very special. But they can also be difficult to identify to the species level. Hence, it's a good idea to bring out this field guide specifically for shorebirds for the whole northern hemisphere.
The drawings are very good, and larger than in most other field guides, thus showing more details of the plumage. Also, there are several plumages per species.
Cleverly, the species are grouped according to resemblance in plumage rather than in a strict systematical order. Very handy also is that all flight drawings are grouped separately. The distribution maps are large, thus showing exact occurrences (inasfar known).
This is a book to have at hand when visiting coastal areas in the migration season, or when making birding trips to one of the other continents.

This guide is split into two sections. The first covers waders at rest, 45 plates of shorebirds with the facing page covering key Id features, behavior, habitat, plumage both breeding, non-breeding and juvenile, and confusion species. The plates are quite good but most of the shorebirds seem a bit plump for my liking. Plates 46-77 covers the same species but in flight with range maps and text covering key ID features, behavior, flight action, voice, distribution and confusion species. There are three appendices in the back cover upperpart flight patterns, underpart flight patters and a systematic list. This book misses out on shorebird species found in South America, Africa and the Pacific and it's all well and good if you have your shorebird on the ground to be able to study it but if it takes flight then you have to flip to the corresponding plate in the flight section or vice versa. Would have been nice to incorporate flight and ground images together which would also have all the text about flight and ground descriptions in one place. That said both text and plates are good but I'll stick to Haymans Shorebirds.

The book proved to be very useful, the drawings are very clear, the text are informative and detailed with special emphasis on the differences between similar bird species. Also it is small enough to use it in the field---very important!