Wrens, Dippers, and Thrashers: A Guide to the Wrens, Dippers, and Thrashers of the World [Hardcover]

Prof David Brewer (Author), Mr Barry Kent MacKay (Illustrator), Dave Brewer (Author), Sean McMinn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2001

This is the first comprehensive guide to the closely related families of wrens, dippers, and thrashers. The book covers 75 wrens, 34 thrashers, and 5 dippers, almost all of which are New World species. The wrens (Troglodytidae) display great diversity, occupying almost every kind of habitat in the Americas. The family probably originates in Central America where the greatest number of species is to be found. The thrashers (Mimidae) include the mockingbirds, catbirds, and tremblers. The dippers (Cinclidae) are river specialists, although they usually exhibit no obvious features for an aquatic existence. The book describes the various forms within each group, their distribution and breeding biology, as well as their flight, moult, behavior, and ecology. The text is accompanied by maps, diagrams, and color illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Copublished with Pica Press.

About the Author

David Brewer is coauthor of Where to Watch Birds in Central America and the Caribbean. Barry Kent Mackay is a well-known Canadian bird artist whose work has appeared in many books and magazines.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (August 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300090595
• ISBN-13: 978-0300090598
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,405,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but less thorough than others in series, 3.5 stars, July 21, 2008

By 

Soleglad (Arizona, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wrens, Dippers, and Thrashers: A Guide to the Wrens, Dippers, and Thrashers of the World (Hardcover)

Basics: 2001, hardcover, 272 pages, 32 color plates, 124 species, range maps

Three different families of birds are covered in this identification guide and reference book. It's a good book, but is not quite as meaty or extensive in text and illustrations as some of the other books on families of birds. The odd mixture of bird families and the lesser information inside causes me to suspect a desire of putting out another bird-family book may have distracted from producing a more solid, complete reference on these families or, on just the wren family by itself.

The 32 color plates contain 5-15 illustrations each. The artwork is good, but I have minor disagreements with some of the colors. Some birds, such as the LeConte's and Curve-billed Thrashers, look too gray, almost to the point of having no brown or tan. Many other birds seem to be printed too darkly. Also, the illustrations for the Curve-billed Thrasher don't adequately display the subspecies. I also would like to have seen more illustrations included for many of the species. Only one drawing is provided for 41 of the 124 birds. In a welcome contrast, many plumages are shown for the House Wren complex and the Winter Wren. Alas, most of the Winter Wrens appear to be too dark.

The text ranges from 1-4 pages for each bird. Most of the coverage goes to identification, description, and geographical variations. Regarding the identification section, it is adequate but is typically no better than a localized field guide covering that particular bird. The variety of subspecies is addressed, giving brief descriptive and distributional notes for each. This coverage of subspecies is important for wrens such as the Marsh, House, and Winter. Additional text covers taxonomy, voice, habitat, habits, status, breeding, and food.

The range maps show good detail and include political boundaries for countries and states. However, the country boundaries can often be very faint and difficult to see. It would have also been helpful to distinguish the ranges of the various subspecies on the map.

This is a good reference book that should be added to your library of other family identification guides but, its quality is a notch below its counterparts.