A Guide to the Birds of Venezuela (Paperback)

by Rodolphe Meyer de Schauensee (Author), William H. Phelps (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
The book can be thoroughly recommended; a must for anyone visiting any part of the Neotropics. -- Review

Review
The book can be thoroughly recommended; a must for anyone visiting any part of the Neotropics. (Natural History Book Reviews )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press; 1st Edition. edition (May 1, 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691082057
• ISBN-13: 978-0691082059
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,173,868 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best Neotropical bird guides available, January 8, 2003

By	Christopher J. Sharpe "Chris Sharpe" (Caracas, Venezuela) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Birds of Venezuela (Princeton Paperbacks) (Paperback)

I believe the earlier reviewers are mistakenly referring to the 1978 First Edition of this field guide (Meyer de Schauensee and Phelps 1978). As the first modern field guide to a South American avifauna, the original Birds of Venezuela is certainly now showing its age though it is still a remarkably useful field aid to the world's sixth largest national avifauna. The new edition - practically an entirely new field guide - is a very different kettle of fish. What makes this new edition different?

First of all, the new guide is twice as thick and the text is much more closely packed. The book now weighs in at over 1.8 kg (4 lbs) and is more along the lines of the field guide volume of the Birds of Ecuador (Ridgely and Greenfield 2001). Nearly a hundred new species are treated, taking the country total to 1381. Far more species are illustrated and more colour plates have been used, though eight black and white plates have been retained to depict flying raptors and swifts. We now have 67 plates compared with the previous 53 - a 25% increase. Twenty-five of the plates are entirely new with beautiful artwork primarily by John Gwynne. The new plates cover a range of taxa, with Cracids, owls, nightjars, toucans, tanagers, Fringillids, Emberizids and Icterids particularly well covered. A further four have been adapted from Birds of Panamá (Ridgely and Gwynne 1989) and one from Birds of Colombia (Hilty and Brown 1986). The remaining 37 are basically the same Guy Tudor plates (and one by John Gwynne) from the old edition with some modifications.

To my mind, though, it is the text which has really benefited from this new edition - so much so that this should really be thought of as an entirely new field guide. The format follows and improves on the standard set by Birds of Mexico (Howell and Webb 1995) and Birds of Ecuador. The type-setting and text layout have allowed far more text to be included than, say, Birds of Ecuador and Hilty has also been precise and economical with his words. This comes as no surprise to those familiar with Hilty's earlier Birds of Colombia.

The text is far more oriented towards identification than in the old edition - the main requisite for a field guide. The first section contains information specifically on identification and this is followed by a section on similar species, where further comparative text is merited. The voice section is new and seems to be very well compiled with - to my taste - excellent transliterations of songs and calls. Much natural history information and further aids to identification are included under a paragraph on behaviour. A detailed appraisal of status and habitat preference is included before the final discussion of range. The text retains the custom established by the earlier edition of separating range information by subspecies, a feature which is particularly welcome in these times of ever changing taxonomy. Range maps are another new feature and they make use of points corresponding to specimen and sight records as well as the customary shading to indicate overall range. In short, they are similar in format to those provided in Birds of Ecuador.

Finally there is a good selection of references at the end of the book and some very nice colour habitat photographs at the beginning. A well annotated locality map of the country is also provided together with colour relief and vegetation maps.

Any drawbacks? With a work of this magnitude there are bound to be some errors and omissions and I quickly found a number of minor inaccuracies too petty to mention here. Perhaps the guide could have a benefited a wee bit more from external review of status and range of some species - there are gaps in the known range of a number of species. Many will also carp about the dimensions and weight of this new guide, though this is an inevitable product of the diversity of the avifauna in question and nothing that cannot be remedied with a pair of scissors and a certain degree of irreverence.

In resumé, an essential buy for all who are interested in Neotropical ornithology and truly great value for money too. I can't wait to get the book out into the field!

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilty's book is not a second edition, March 19, 2003

By	R. RESTALL "Robin Restall, movie buff" (State College, PA, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Birds of Venezuela (Princeton Paperbacks) (Paperback)

There are a couple of risks of misunderstanding with regard to this book that must be made clear here. Firstly it is in no way a second edition. The only things in common with the first guide to the birds of Venezuela, by Meyer de Schauensee and Phelps Jr are the familiar old plates by Guy Tudor, the title, and the publisher. In all other respects it is completely new. Secondly, the "Grand-daddy" review here, clearly refers to the original book and not this one.

Having said that, there is little one can add to Chris Sharpe's comprehensive review except to say that I have already used Hilty's book extensively for research this year, along with the other current guides for other countries, and have found it to be the best. In my opinion it sets a new standard. The only small weakness worth noting here is the plates, but has there been a guide that is perfect in this respect?

For anybody birding in Venezuela, the book is an essential item to have along.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An essential book for Venezuelan birds, September 17, 2006

By	J. Hargrove "The Other Jim Hargrove" (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Birds of Venezuela (Princeton Paperbacks) (Paperback)

Steve Hilty has done an outstanding job of making sense of the incredible diversity of bird life in Venezuela. This is by far the best guide to that area that you can buy. The only shortcoming is the arrangement of the plates -- they are all grouped together separate from the text -- with a bewildering array of numbers to cross-reference to the facing page of names. If you want to read the complete text and check the range map, you have to go to another page. Fortunately, the page numbers included on the page facing the plates are accurate, simplifying the process.

The only downside for this book: it is much to bulky to carry around in the field, but there is probably nothing to be done about that given the number of birds involved. Be sure to bring a backpack if you plan to use this in the field.