Product Description

Vibrant photos and fascinating text bring Costa Rica's hummingbirds to life.

Hummingbirds of Costa Rica features 44 of the 45 species of hummers that inhabit Costa Rica. (The Plain-capped starthroat, the missing species, lives only in the highest treetops. The authors have never encountered one at a height low enough to photograph.) Each bird is depicted in its natural habitat and with the flower with which it naturally associates. Hundreds of detailed close-ups show each bird's unique features and allow the reader to fully appreciate these stunning marvels of nature.

Featuring the work of internationally acclaimed nature photographers Michael and Patricia Fogden, this richly illustrated guide covers: - Biology - Predators - The relationship between hummingbirds and flowers - Feeding strategies - A year in a hummingbird's life - Hummingbird site guide.

More than 90 plant species -- belonging to 34 families and over 60 genera -- are featured along with the hummers, so Hummingbirds of Costa Rica is also a useful guide to an astonishing diversity of Costa Rican flora.

Beautifully detailed photographs bring the exquisite creatures to life, and scientifically accurate and accessible text provides a comprehensive reference to Costa Rica, its hummingbirds and their ecosystem.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #688753 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 154 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781554071630
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
Hundreds of detailed close-ups show the birds' unique features. (Outdoor Photographer 200705)

Educational... simple to absorb the facts while feasting your eyes on the glorious images. (Shutterbug 200611)

A splendid documentation on American hummingbirds. (Alauda )

About the Author
Michael and Patricia Fogden are world-acclaimed nature photographers who have doctorates in zoology from Oxford and London Universities, respectively. They have been photographing Costa Rica for over 25 years and their work has appeared in books and magazines worldwide.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface

To those who have the happy ability to find adventure among little things, I recommend the hummingbirds. In no other warm-blooded animals, perhaps in no other living creatures of any kind, has nature managed to compress so much beauty, vitality, animation, and complex behavior into so small a compass.
- Alexander Skutch (1977)

Of all animated beings... the most elegant inform and brilliant in color. The stones and metals polished by art are not comparable to this gem of nature. She has placed it in the order of birds, but among the tiniest of the race... she has loaded it with all the gifts of which she has only given other birds a share.
- Compte de Buffon (1749)

This book is a celebration of the beauty, vivacity, and extraordinary biology of Costa Rica's hummingbirds. Our interest in these captivating birds began more than twenty years ago, when we came to live in Monteverde. Most mornings we breakfast on our veranda, overlooking a profusion of flowering shrubs that attract many hummers. We augment the nectar supply with feeders containing sugar water that are visited by hundreds of hummingbirds during the day. Sugar water is sometimes said to be bad for hummingbirds and also to make them neglect their role as pollinators of plants. Not so; sugar water is simply a quick energy source that allows them more time to search for insects. It is especially valuable in bad weather, when many flowers are damaged or produce little nectar. On wet, windy days, the feeders are crowded with a multitude of hummers arriving and departing in a steady stream. The feeders are also busy just before dusk, when birds come to top up before going to roost. Nectar is their preferred choice and the hummingbirds do not neglect the flowers around our house. As well as sugar, nectar contains trace amounts of amino acids and vitamins. In spite of the feeders, or perhaps because of them, our flowers get lots of visitors, have a high rate of pollination, and produce abundant fruit. Nor do the feeders affect the timing of the local movements or migrations of our hummingbirds. They continue to arrive and depart at their normal times.

Our interest in hummingbirds has taken us to lovely country throughout Costa Rica. But of all the places where we have watched and photographed them, the most spectacular is our rustic cabin in the Peñas Blancas valley on the Caribbean slope of the Cordillera de Tilarán. It is only 15 km from our home in Monteverde, but getting there involves a mule to carry our gear and a strenuous four- or five-hour trek along narrow precipitous trails that cross several mountain torrents. The scenery is stunning, with incredible vistas of misty ridges receding into the distance. Clumps of flowers grow right up against the deck of our cabin, enabling us to watch hummingbirds at distances down to a few centimeters. Our windows lack glass, so hermits and sicklebills often fly through the cabin, pausing to pick spiders and small insects from the numerous cobwebs. It is our favorite place to photograph hummingbirds.

We have restricted our coverage of Costa Rica's hummingbirds to the species that are resident and breed within the country. According to A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica, by F. Gary Stiles and Alexander F. Skutch, there are forty-five of these, of which we have photographed all but one. The missing species, the Plain-capped Starthroat, is not rare but tends to stay high in trees. We have never encountered one low enough to photograph.

Stiles and Skutch list an additional six hummingbirds that are known from Costa Rica but do not breed there. These include the migrant Ruby-throat, which is a common winter visitor to the dry northwest, and five others that are either of doubtful provenance (mislabeled museum specimens) or vagrants known only from a few old records. Even the most recent of the latter dates back almost fifty years, and most go back more than a century. The Indigo-capped Hummingbird, whose normal range is the Magdalena valley of Colombia, is the most interesting of the vagrants. Stiles and Skutch say that the only Costa Rican specimen differs too much in various characters to be a Colombian bird; nor does it appear to be an aberrant Steely-vented Hummingbird, nor a hybrid. The specimen was originally given subspecies status by the collector and has even been regarded as a separate species Alfaro's Hummingbird (Amazilia alfaroana). It seems that it was an endemic form that is now extinct.

The scientific classification of hummingbirds is constantly being revised, with many recent changes at the genus and species level, but there has been little agreement in the latest publications on how to treat the more controversial forms. In all matters of taxonomy and nomenclature, therefore, we have again followed A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica, which is widely used, rather than the American Ornithologists' Union's Checklist of North American Birds (1998), Volume 5 of the Handbook of Birds of the World (1999), or the even more recent Official List of the Birds of Costa Rica (2002), published by the Ornithological Association of Costa Rica. We have, however, mentioned alternative names, both Latin and English, in the species accounts. Otherwise, except when discussing taxonomic matters, we have used only English names.

Given the close, mutually beneficial relationship that exists between hummingbirds and flowers, it is not surprising that flowers appear prominently in this book. More than ninety species are illustrated and identified, belonging to thirty-four families and sixty genera. They are listed and indexed on pages 148 and 149. English names are not available for most tropical flowers, so we have had to use Latin names. Our main sources for these are the lists of plants in Costa Rican Natural History (The University of Chicago Press, 1983) and Monteverde: Ecology and Conservation of a Tropical Cloud Forest (Oxford University Press, 2000), supplemented with identifications made by specialists.

Measurements and weights are given in the metric system. According to the United States Metric Association, this system is now used by every country except the United States, Liberia, and Myanmar. Where possible, we have tried to convey a visual impression of sizes by making comparisons between hummingbirds and other familiar birds.

Anyone writing a book on hummingbirds is deeply indebted to the researchers who have studied and written about their biology. We wish to make particular mention of Crawford Greenewalt, who did so much to elucidate the complexities of feather structure, iridescence, and flight in hummingbirds. He was a pioneer in hummingbird photography. We owe much to the ornithologists who have made Costa Rica a center for hummingbird research. We are particularly grateful to Gary Stiles, Peter Feinsinger, and their associates, for sharing with us their expertise. Their work on hummingbird communities has been invaluable and stimulating. We must also mention Alexander Skutch, who collected life-history information for many of these birds, and Robert Colwell, for his work on hummingbirds and flower mites.

For additional information about hummingbirds, identifications of plants, and other help, we thank John Atwood, Bill Busby, Eladio Cruz, Robert Dean, Luis Gómez, Bill Haber, Barry Hammel, Otto von Helversen, Liz Jones and Abraham Gallo of Rio Tigre Lodge, Alan Masters, Mario Mendez, Francisco Morales, Greg and Kathy Murray, Norman Obando, Dionisio Paniagua, Kurt Ranta and Kori Crane, Marco Saborio, Aaron Sekerak (and staff at La Paz Waterfall Gardens), the Tretti family of Rancho La Ensenada, Andres Vaughan, Roberto Wesson, York Winter, Jim Zook, and Willow Zuchowski. We are grateful to the Organization for Tropical Studies for providing access to facilities and other assistance. Specifically, we thank station directors David and Debbie Clark and Bob Matlock at La Selva, and Luis Gómez at Las Cruces.

We are particularly indebted to Angela Sheehan and David Featherstone for their helpful comments and corrections while editing the manuscript. Also to Stephen Johnson for his expert help with our digital images. Finally, we must thank John McCuen and Marc Roegiers for their enthusiastic support and for allowing us so much freedom in the production of this book.

Customer Reviews

One beautiful and essential book
I purchased this book (among other Costa Rica field guides) to prepare for a birding summer trip to Costa Rica. I was thrilled to find out how helpful this book was. I realize this is not meant to be a field guide, so the size did not bother me at all. This book certainly provided very helpful and detailed photographic views of the hummingbirds we would see in CR. I found this book to be absolutely essential to recognizing each hummingbird species. Currently, this seems to be the only book with real pictures (not drawn), that allows for easy hummingbird identification. And if you just want an interesting and gorgeous coffee-table book or gift for a fellow Hummingbird lover, this would be an excellent choice.

A new great book on hummingbirds !
This new book on the hummingbirds of Costa Rica deals with the 44 hummingbirds native to and breeding in this Central American country. It describes physical features of hummingbirds, flight, feeding, nesting, molting, migration and more. The superb photos illustrating this book not only show all aspects of the hummingbirds' daily life, but also more than 90 species of beautiful flowers on which they feed. The scientific information presented is correct and interesting. This book is a real must for all those ornithologists and bird watchers who love these little jewels of nature !

Fantastic photos plus great information!
Both authors have produced a great 'coffee table book'. Lots of facts that help people understand these tiny birds.
I agree with another reviewer that Plain Capped star throats are not only in Costa Rica, although they some of our most diligent visitors to our garden flowers in Costa Rica.