Call number
Collection
Publication
Princeton University Press (1987), Paperback
Pages
520
Description
This is the first field guide to the identification of the birds of the islands of the tropical Pacific, including the Hawaiian Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, southeastern Polynesia, and Micronesia. It is intended both as a reference for the expert and as an introduction to birding in the region for the novice. Small enough to be carried afield, it contains much previously unpublished information about behavior, vocalizations, ecology, and distribution. The forty-five color plates depict all plumages of all bird species that breed in the islands, as well as of those that regularly visit them and the surrounding oceans, and of most species believed to be extinct on the islands. Black-and-white figures show many of the rarer visitors. Introductory sections discuss the tropical Pacific as an environment for birds, problems of birding on islands, and bird conservation. Appendixes include maps of the island groups and a thorough bibliography.… (more)
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
520 p.; 7.2 inches
ISBN
0691023999 / 9780691023991
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Library's review
As the name suggests this guide covers Hawaii and the tropical Pacific -- the northernmost Hawaiian islands, extending north of the Tropic of Cancer, and a handful of Polynesian islands straggling south of the Tropic of Capricorn are the only exceptions. It thus includes, in its own words,
There is a lot of useful ancillary information, such as a description of island habitats (many of which are likely to be unfamiliar to non-tropical birders, like the "lowland dry forest" and "mamane forest" of Hawaii.) There are also two pages in the back of color photos of relevant plants (one of Hawaiian plants, one covering the rest of the Pacific), again useful for non-tropical birders like me who can recognize a pine tree when looking for crossbills but not an ohia tree when looking for honeycreepers. There are also six separate checklists for different island groups, with each of those further broken down by island. The maps of the island groups aren't directly useful, but it's nice to see the islands as more than just as list of disconnected names, and they could aid in the identification of potential vagrants.
The bulk of the book -- nearly 300 pages -- is devoted to the species accounts. These are in taxonomic order. They're quite detailed and include every species of bird reliably documented in the tropical Pacific, including those which haven't been seen since Captain Cook's voyage and are certainly long extinct. There isn't any noticeable North American bias in which rarely occuring birds are illustrated -- the book is just as likely to refer you to an Australian or Eurasian guide as a North American one for rare stragglers.
Illustrations, showing only birds which occur more regularly or which went extinct (or, rather, were thought to go extinct) a short enough time ago that they may still persist, are separate from the species accounts, and ordered sensibly, albeit inconsistently -- seabirds, shorebirds, and other widespread non-passerines are in taxonomic order, while the more geographically limited passerines are separated by island group, to minimize both duplicate illustrations and birds from different islands appearing together. Introduced birds are also illustrated all in a group. There is still some duplication, but not as much as if the authors had pictured White-tailed Tropicbird (or House Sparrow, for that matter) separately for every island group where it occurs.
The illustrations are clear and show male, female, and juvenile plumages when different, as well as showing geographic variation. The illustration style is strongly reminiscent of the NGS guide. This isn't surprising, since Pratt (who illustrated this volume) was a contributing artist to the NGS guide as well. There are a number of extinct birds illustrated -- personally, I'd prefer that they were left out and the remaining illustrations enlarged, though I can see the arguments in favor (that there still could be a few hiding out -- several species have been rediscovered, some after decades). At least they could have given a clear visual indicator, such as a differently-colored background, to show that a species is thought to be extinct. There are no distribution maps; almost all of the islands are small enough that naming the island and the habitat are adequate, and when this is not the case the region is described in the text (e.g. the Hawaiian Crow: "higher slopes of Mauna Loa above Kealakekua Bay".)
Field marks are not pointed out on the illustrations, and flipping between plates and text is necessary (though each indicates the page number of the other, making that pretty painless). My main quibble is that distribution isn't indicated on the illustration pages for the more widespread birds (the seabirds etc.), which I suspect will necessitate a lot of flipping pages. It may just be my impression, but it seems that birds with a global distribution, such as shorebirds, are not covered as well for identification purposes as birds limited to the tropical Pacific. This does make sense, but means that if you really want to be sure you can identify migrating shorebirds in the area you'd need another book.
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"tropical Polynesia, Fiji, and Micronesia". Easter Island is excluded (probably because it's covered by Chilean guides, and it's not tropical anyway), despite the fact that it would add only about four species.There is a lot of useful ancillary information, such as a description of island habitats (many of which are likely to be unfamiliar to non-tropical birders, like the "lowland dry forest" and "mamane forest" of Hawaii.) There are also two pages in the back of color photos of relevant plants (one of Hawaiian plants, one covering the rest of the Pacific), again useful for non-tropical birders like me who can recognize a pine tree when looking for crossbills but not an ohia tree when looking for honeycreepers. There are also six separate checklists for different island groups, with each of those further broken down by island. The maps of the island groups aren't directly useful, but it's nice to see the islands as more than just as list of disconnected names, and they could aid in the identification of potential vagrants.
The bulk of the book -- nearly 300 pages -- is devoted to the species accounts. These are in taxonomic order. They're quite detailed and include every species of bird reliably documented in the tropical Pacific, including those which haven't been seen since Captain Cook's voyage and are certainly long extinct. There isn't any noticeable North American bias in which rarely occuring birds are illustrated -- the book is just as likely to refer you to an Australian or Eurasian guide as a North American one for rare stragglers.
Illustrations, showing only birds which occur more regularly or which went extinct (or, rather, were thought to go extinct) a short enough time ago that they may still persist, are separate from the species accounts, and ordered sensibly, albeit inconsistently -- seabirds, shorebirds, and other widespread non-passerines are in taxonomic order, while the more geographically limited passerines are separated by island group, to minimize both duplicate illustrations and birds from different islands appearing together. Introduced birds are also illustrated all in a group. There is still some duplication, but not as much as if the authors had pictured White-tailed Tropicbird (or House Sparrow, for that matter) separately for every island group where it occurs.
The illustrations are clear and show male, female, and juvenile plumages when different, as well as showing geographic variation. The illustration style is strongly reminiscent of the NGS guide. This isn't surprising, since Pratt (who illustrated this volume) was a contributing artist to the NGS guide as well. There are a number of extinct birds illustrated -- personally, I'd prefer that they were left out and the remaining illustrations enlarged, though I can see the arguments in favor (that there still could be a few hiding out -- several species have been rediscovered, some after decades). At least they could have given a clear visual indicator, such as a differently-colored background, to show that a species is thought to be extinct. There are no distribution maps; almost all of the islands are small enough that naming the island and the habitat are adequate, and when this is not the case the region is described in the text (e.g. the Hawaiian Crow: "higher slopes of Mauna Loa above Kealakekua Bay".)
Field marks are not pointed out on the illustrations, and flipping between plates and text is necessary (though each indicates the page number of the other, making that pretty painless). My main quibble is that distribution isn't indicated on the illustration pages for the more widespread birds (the seabirds etc.), which I suspect will necessitate a lot of flipping pages. It may just be my impression, but it seems that birds with a global distribution, such as shorebirds, are not covered as well for identification purposes as birds limited to the tropical Pacific. This does make sense, but means that if you really want to be sure you can identify migrating shorebirds in the area you'd need another book.
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