A portable overview of Costa Rican wildlife that will be handy for those with a passing interest in wildlife. I rarely use it since I prefer the more detailed guides, but it’s popular with travellers.

My copy of the new Garrigues field guide is in the mail. More up-to-date than the older guide and - more importantly - weighs about two thirds as much. This will certainly be with me on my next trip!

However, this is the mammal guide I carry. I bought it for work in Nicaragua and fell in love with it. Great illustrations, hugely informative text and it covers the whole of Central America.

If you love your herps and really want to go the whole hog, then this book cannot be bettered. Useful far beyond the frontiers of Costa Rica - and makes dangerously addictive armchair reading too!

The first of two volumes that cover just a part of Costa Rica's butterfly fauna and are masterworks of taxonomy, identification and natural history. If you can afford just one, this is it!

This recent book now accompanies me on all my trips. Highly pictorial and especially useful for identifying the plants you'll see in the garden of the hotel or at the roadside. Gardeners will love it.

Not specifically Costa Rica, but this mini-encyclopedia helps prepare for a first trip to the Neotropics and will be much-consulted reference to all aspects of natural history during and after a trip.

A name synonymous with Costa Rican natural history, this book tells Skutch’s story. He made important contributions to ornithology, including readable books on various Neotropical bird families.