Birds of Venezuela (Helm Field Guides)

I’m not a very informed bird watcher but used to go on many wonderful trips with SCAV (Sociedad Conservacionista Audubón de Venezuela) when I lived in Venezuela many years ago. I understand they are still running trips despite national struggles. A Google searching will suffice. That was how I found out that there were two recent books on Venezuelan birds.A 1917 bird book that has no Amazon reviews? Mystifying.The introductory pages are excellent and include “How Many Bird Species Are There in Venezuela?“ maps of Venezuelan states, Offshore islands, National Parks, Major tepuis and mountains of southern Venezuela, and 13 wonderful pages with color photos and descriptions of the different habitats.What absolutely floored me is that nowhere do I see the local Spanish names for any of the birds. I discovered this while trying to tell friends in Venezuela how there were three cattle egrets perched on my fence in Miami. I knew they were garzas but wanted to be more specific. I know that the mockingbird is called a Paraulata LLanera so we need Venezuelan Spanish names.I visualize users of this book trying to communicate with the average Venezuelan and upon being given the local name are unable to go to the index and find it. One star deducted because of what I consider a major flaw.“Birdwatchers and scientists” are invited to report their bird sightings/observations to the Aves de Venezuela website.Email [email protected]

Complete and informative book of Birds of Venezuela with new species and good information in each species, with this book it would be a lot easier for you to recognise many species of birds from Venezuela.

The illustrations and printing quality are excellent, as are the distribution maps. The habitat information is a bit general, but adequate for such a habitat rich country.

Excelent book, easy to read and find the information about birds

This was a new book. It arrived in a bubble mailer. It has excellent illustrations for bird-watching.

This long-awaited new book replaces the out-of-date de Schauensee published in the 1970's. Having said that however, the de Schauensee book was very useful for my last visit and only lacked range maps. Additionally, the artwork by Guy Tudor was more to my taste even though the first 13 plates of the old book were black-and-white. There have of course, been many changes in taxonomy since the 1970's so the new book will be very helpful in that respect and would certainly be the book of choice to take on our next tour especially as it has range maps.

perfecto

Llegó mucho antes del tiempo estimado. Excelente guía actualizada con la información más reciente sobre la avifauna de Venezuela.Excellent updated guide with the most recent information about Venezuelan avifauna.

Excellent guide anglais pour cette partie d'Amérique du Sud. Plus de 1400 espèces sont représentées, toutes en couleur, avec le texte descriptif (incluant également le chant et les espèces similaires) ainsi que la carte de distribution en face des planches. Les illustrations sont superbes et très détaillées: sexe, juvénile ou adulte ainsi que variations du plumage. Certes un ouvrage un peu lourd (592 pages), mais très complet.