Product Description

This is the first comprehensive field guide to the birds of the West Indies to appear in more than fifty years. It covers all 564 bird species known to occur in the region (including migrants and infrequently occurring forms). Each species is represented by a full description that includes identification field marks, local names, status, habitat, voice, nesting, range, and comments about the bird. A map showing the bird's distribution accompanies each species account. Plumages of all species are depicted in eighty-six beautifully rendered color plates. Twelve of these plates feature individual endemics from each of twelve islands. Another seven plates feature the island endemics of the largest islands: Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico.

Because the region is known for its extraordinary variety of avifauna and because no other accurate modern account of its birdlife exists, this book is a landmark publication that will be widely hailed by serious birders and amateur birdwatchers alike. The authors pay particular attention to endangered and threatened birds. For each island or island group, local experts have been invited to provide a survey of efforts made to date to conserve birds and their habitats. For many years there has been a need for an up-to-date field guide that could satisfy local residents, vacationing tourists, and "armchair travelers." At last, that need has been met with this fully illustrated Guide to the Birds of the West Indies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #331727 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 512 pages

Review
One of the best of the recent publications finally eclipsing the old field guide . . . that in its various forms held sway for more than fifty years. . . . The illustrations . . . are exceptionally beautiful. -- Review

One of the best of the recent publications. . . . The illustrations . . . are exceptionally beautiful. -- Stephen Mills, Times Literary Supplement

Review
While paging through the new West Indian field guide . . . I lost track of several hours, completely captivated by the images before me. . . . [A Guide to the Birds of the West Indies] contains fully 86 color plates of surpassing accuracy and . . . striking beauty . . . [and t]he text . . . is accurate and highly readable.
(Tropical Audubon Bulletin )

One of the best of the recent publications finally eclipsing the old field guide . . . that in its various forms held sway for more than fifty years. . . . The illustrations . . . are exceptionally beautiful.
(Stephen Mills Times Literary Supplement )

About the Author
Herbert Raffaele is Chief of the Office of International Conservation of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. He is the author of A Guide to the Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Customer Reviews

A must for the serious birder in the West Indies
I am a wildlife biologist and the manager of a nature preserve in the northeastern US where I regularly lead bird walks. When travelling on vacation birding is a major interest; on a recent visit to the Dominican Republic this bird guide was indispensable. The illustrations were first rate and the text most informative. I was especially impressed with the "Locality Index" which helped immensely with the process of confirming the identification of several "life" birds. Having this local information at one's fingertips makes this book an extremely valuable and important work. I hope Mr. Raffaele's book will influence the format of future ornithological publications.

Problem with the book's scope.
This is an excellent book. There are many good-quality color plates and the information is current and accessible. My complaint about the book is the misleading title. The islands of Trinidad and Tobago are not included in the book's geographic coverage. Trinidad and Tobago are certainly in the West Indies. The reason they are not included in this book is actually the very reason that the bird fauna of these islands is so interesting: Trinidad and Tobago have a combination of more northern species found in the upper islands as well as South American species that have emigrated from Venezuela and further south. There is another book by Ffrench (strange spelling) that specifically covers the birds of Trinidad and Tobago.

More of a reference book than field guide
Just slightly smaller than 8.5 x 11 inch letter size with 500 pages and an inflexible, non-weather resistant cover, this book is too big and rigid to fit in anything other than a back-pack. It's not a quick reference field guide than you can quickly pop out of your coat pocket, and you'll ruin it if it gets caught in an otherwise lovely tropical drizzle. Additionally the way the book is organized does not facilitate quick on-the-fly identifications, the very kind that you most frequently need in the field. For instance, the first 200 plus pages contain color plates of the birds (86 full page plates in total, each containing between 1 and 15 species). If you open the book flat you're looking at the color plate on the right page and a numbered list of the birds on the left giving common name, biological name, size in centimeters and inches and a page reference number. It's this last point - page reference number - where A GUIDE TO THE BIRDS OF THE WEST INDIES really shows up its weakness in the field. The range and distribution maps, distinguishing characteristics, flight, voice, habitat and nesting information; basically all the data you'll need to pin down a firm sighting, are all on a different page than the birds picture. This information comprises the second half of the book.

Birders will have the same problem with this book as we do with all those guides that present illustrations and/or photographs of the bird on one page and it's range map and other vital information somewhere else. A typical example. The bird takes to the air. From the glimpse we get we know it's a hummingbird with green back and white underparts. The most likely candidate we come up with is a female Streamertail. Fine, except that once we flip to the back and read about range we realize the Streamertail in endemic to Jamaica and we're still in Puerto Rico; I guess it did look more like a female Antillean Mango afterall! It's worse with warblers, flycatchers, and especially vireos. There is much flipping back and forth between pictures and descriptions, particularly so for novice birders who may not be familiar with endemics and the very limited ranges that are major factors to be aware of when dealing with bird species in islands.

This book is very colorful and informative and very up to date. It's just not very well laid out for work in the field. I wish I could be more helpful by recommending another book but unfortunately there are issues with most of the regional guides. Rather than a West Indian guide you may want to use island specific ones (some available locally) for your field trips and leave this one in the hotel for detailed reference later.