Birds of Northern South America: An Identification Guide, Volume 2: Plates and Maps (Paperback)

~ Robin Restall (Author), Clemencia Rodner (Author), Miguel Lentino (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Winner of the 2007 National Outdoor Book Award (NOBA) for Nature Guidebooks

The two companion volumes of this extensive and detailed guide make a groundbreaking contribution to bird guide literature: they not only provide detailed accounts of every known bird species in the vast region from Ecuador to French Guiana but also, for the first time, illustrate virtually every plumage variation in full color. The illustrations include adult males and females where different as well as intermediate plumages, juveniles, subspecies, morphs and other variants, and several hypothetical and unconfirmed species. In all, nearly 6,400 birds are depicted. Black-and-white drawings of significant aspects of plumage or behavior are also provided, as are color maps showing river systems, political boundaries and the confirmed distribution of all the species.
Volume 1 presents extensive species accounts, including information on habitat, vocalization, nomenclature, and the very latest taxonomy to subspecies level. An up-to-date discography lists all published CDs that contain recordings of birds of northern South America. Volume 2, designed for use in the field, contains complete range maps, Robin Restall’s immaculate and jewel-like paintings, and information about specific marks, habitat, and behavior to aid in identification.

About the Author

Robin Restall is executive director, Clemencia Rodner is research associate, and Miguel Lentino is scientific director at the Phelps Institute for Ornithological Studies, Caracas, Venezuela.

Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (February 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300124155
• ISBN-13: 978-0300124156
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #484,138 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #16 in

  Books > Outdoors & Nature > Birdwatching > Birds

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Third Nearly Perfect Field Guide for South American Birds, December 10, 2007

By	Brian Allen "neotropical birding" (Manistee, MI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The first question most potential buyers of this book might ask is just what is the author's definition of "Northern South America" as this qualifies the utility of the book? On page 10 of the guide there is a political map showing the coverage of the book. Northern South America is from a line just south of Chiclayo, Peru (therefore including the great destination Abra Patricia) and extending across the continent south of the Amazon River to about 47 degrees east in Brazil (near the city of Araguaina in the state of Tocantins) and then north to the eastern terminus of the Amazon on the Atlantic Coast. The northern boundry extends to Panama (Azuero Penninsula) and the islands north of Colombia and Venezuela (Aruba, Curacao to Trinidad and Tobago.)

There are an incredible 2,308 species included in the guide with 6,400 images on 306 color plates according to the back cover. The illustrations (done by author Robin Restall) are excellent and a special feature of this book is the inclusion of depictions of most known subspecies along with male, female and juvenile plumages.

This book joins the ranks of the best field guides for South America including Birds of Ecuador, and Birds of Peru (I haven't seen the new Venezuela guide yet) and like these books has only minor flaws. The Ecuador book is excellent and mainly is just too large for the field and the Peru book which is another great accomplishment has somewhat too large illustrations that could have been condensed. Both of these books have considerable information regarding their depicted species, the Peru book on the opposite page and the Ecuador book on a page referred to in the text. This book has almost no text and you would have to purchase the companion volume. What is included are excellent range maps and very brief comments about the birds habitat preference. For example the Roraiman Antwren on plate 163 has this mention: "usually among topmost leaves of upper canopy may sortie out after a flushed insect". Each species is tagged with a mark keying in an identifying feature.

Rangemaps are bicolored (green for terrestrial ranges, blue for coastal ranges) and are on the same or opposite page of the illustrations for easy reference. Maps include the size of the bird, a key for altitude range (eg LT= lower tropical, sea level to 800-900m), status (resident/migrant), abundance and threat status (CR critical, EN endangered etc.).

Unlike the new Princeton Guide for Birds of Central America and Mexico this book is too large to easily slip into a pocket for field birding and you would want to have the companion guide (or another more text filled book) back in the car or lodge to refer to during a trip. Despite this and the brief amount of text this is still an excellent addition to the guides for South American birds and works for many areas that until now had no field guide. If you could only have one guide for Northern South America this should be the one.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars never go birding without it...., June 20, 2008

By	Diego Calderón Franco (www.colombiabirding.com) (Medellín, Colombia) - See all my reviews

This book became available a year ago approximately in April 2007.. I arrived to Venezuela to the Neotropical Ornitholgoical Congress with it in my backpack, and sure it was useful... I took it to the Orinoco river delta and to the Gran Sabana/La Escalera endemics area... we (some people from Colombia, Argentina, Finland, Venezuela, Costa Rica, etc) were birding thoroughly and it was the right book to have handy... never "lost" a species and was very cool having all ssp and variation illustrated... of course, the book has mistakes and errors, but if you have been birding for some time and not a "juts-started birding yesterday" person, this book is going to be your perfect companion in the field !!!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Seems very comprehensive and usable, June 5, 2008

By	C. Spagnoli - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Having no experience with South American birds, I cannot speak authoritatively to whether this book is accurate in its coverage. However, it certainly seems comprehensive, and the plates are very good, with separate images for most known plumages of each bird. Unfortunately the book is intended to cover only those species occurring in the countries north of Brazil, so for travelers to the Brazilian Amazon - such as myself - it must be used in tandem with other works.

One minor criticism is that the images on the plates are rarely arranged in the same order as the short blurbs and range maps on the facing page, which makes it often a surprisingly difficult task to hunt down the image associated with the blurb or map you have just examined.

Overall, though, a very clear and useful work, and a welcome product to birders who have been waiting for a good field guide for this enormously diverse avifauna.