Product Description

Venezuela has an immensely rich bird fauna, with 1,381 known species, many of them found nowhere else in the world. This spectacularly illustrated, comprehensive, and up-to-date guide brings together under one cover much of what is known about these species. Its users can identify all the birds in this vast country, from the Caribbean coast in the north to the Amazonian jungles in the south, from the Andes in the west to the Gran Sabana plateau in the east. With a completely new text by Steven Hilty, Birds of Venezuela is a greatly expanded and thoroughly reformatted successor to the pioneering Guide to the Birds of Venezuela (Princeton,1978). It includes sixty-seven beautiful color and black-and-white plates, most by the well-known artists John Gwynne and Guy Tudor, as well as numerous line drawings. The plates and drawings together - almost half of them never before published - depict most of Venezuela's bird species.Introductory chapters cover physical geography, climate, biogeography, vegetation and habitats, conservation, migration, and the history of ornithology in Venezuela. A gallery of forty-four stunning color habitat photos and color habitat and relief maps complete the opening section. Detailed range maps plot collection localities and sight records - a unique feature - for almost all species. Plumage descriptions are provided for each bird, as is extensive information on voice, behavior, and status. More than 800 bibliographic entries accompany the text, making this book an invaluable and broad-based reference to the avifauna of not only Venezuela but much of northern South America.Treating nearly 40 percent of the continent's bird species, "Birds of Venezuela" is the definitive resource for all birders with an eager eye on this splendorous country and the surrounding region. This is the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and best illustrated guide to the birds of Venezuela. It covers all 1,381 known species and their subspecies from the Caribbean coast to the jungles of the Amazon, from the Andes to the Gran Sabana plateau - nearly 40 percent of all bird species in South America. It includes completely new text accompanied by more than 800 bibliographic entries. It is strikingly illustrated with 67 color and black & white plates and numerous line drawings, along with 44 stunning color habitat photos and color habitat and relief maps, as well as detailed range maps for each species.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #741047 in Books
• Published on: 2002-12-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 928 pages

Review
This is a state-of-the-science field guide that will remain essential to birders, biologists and biodiversity workers for years to come. -- Adrian Barnett New Scientist An amazingly useful resource, indispensable in the field. -- John Kricher Birding

From the Inside Flap
"The Birds of Venezuela has come of age. The first edition was a marvel when it appeared back in 1978: the first book on a South American avifauna to be accurately and beautifully illustrated, by Guy Tudor. Now Steve Hilty has given us a text to match the quality of the plates, which themselves have here been substantially expanded by John Gwynne. Good succinct behavioral and vocal information, accurate and clear distribution maps, and lots of new ID information, all combine to be just what field observers and ornithologists have wanted. It was worth the wait." (Robert Ridgely, Director, International Bird Conservation, National Audubon Society)

From the Back Cover
"The Birds of Venezuela has come of age. The first edition was a marvel when it appeared back in 1978: the first book on a South American avifauna to be accurately and beautifully illustrated, by Guy Tudor. Now Steve Hilty has given us a text to match the quality of the plates, which themselves have here been substantially expanded by John Gwynne. Good succinct behavioral and vocal information, accurate and clear distribution maps, and lots of new ID information, all combine to be just what field observers and ornithologists have wanted. It was worth the wait." (Robert Ridgely, Director, International Bird Conservation, National Audubon Society)

Customer Reviews

The 2nd edition of is really an entirely new field guide
The second edition of Birds of Venezuela is really an entirely new field guide.

The new guide is twice as thick as the 1978 edition and the text is much more closely packed. The book now weighs in at over 1.8 kg (4 lbs) and its dimensions and format are similar to 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.

The text has been entirely rewritten. 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 with sections covering identification, similar species, voice, behaviour, status and habitat, and 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.

Perhaps the only drawback might be 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.

great guide, just what you might need
complete guide, just the book you must have if interested in birds of venezuela or surrounding countries. the illustrations are basically the same of Phelps guide, but some are new, including the owl's one. also the information about each bird is more extensive in this book comparing to Phelps one. each birds is described widely, including a map of its location, behavior and sounds.
i really recommend this book