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The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide

Author: Visit Amazon's Richard Garrigues Page | Language: English | ISBN: 080147373X | Format: EPUB

The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide Description

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"For the nature lover fortunate enough to vacation in Costa Rica—and for all lovers of beautiful birds—comes this up-to-date, comprehensive field guide to more than 820 native and migrant birds to be found in that country. From the distinctive pink spoonbill to the colorful trogons and toucans, Costa Rica is home to a remarkably diverse population of birds. Garrigues, a birding guide in Costa Rica, and Dean, an illustrator, provide information for both experienced and novice birds alike. Each page of this compact book is devoted to a different species, listing basic behavioral information and important physical features. Colorful corresponding images highlight plumage differences among juvenile, male, and female birds. Each set of illustrations is accompanied by text listing the species' name, scientific name, and identifying markings for a birder to look for. Also included is a range map for the species, indications of each bird's size, and a few words about the bird's habits and anatomy."—Science News

"The appearance of this new, compact guide to the birds of Costa Rica should spur even more international birders to come to this avian paradise. I congratulate author and artist on a job well done."—Robert S. Ridgely, World Land Trust, author of Birds of Ecuador, Birds of Panama, and Birds of South America

"This book is a must for birders visiting Costa Rica. It is compact, easy to carry in the field, and filled with useful information. I highly recommend it."—Victor Emanuel, Victor Emanuel Nature Tours

"Compact, attractive, easy-to-use, and accurate, The Birds of Costa Rica should be in the day pack of anyone roaming the forests of this birders' paradise."—Russell Greenberg, Director, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center

From the Back Cover

"The appearance of this new, compact guide to the birds of Costa Rica should spur even more international birders to come to this avian paradise. I congratulate author and artist on a job well done."--Robert S. Ridgely, World Land Trust, author of Birds of Ecuador, Birds of Panama, and Birds of South America

"This book is a must for birders visiting Costa Rica. It is compact, easy to carry in the field, and filled with useful information. I highly recommend it."--Victor Emanuel, Victor Emanuel Nature Tours

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Product Details
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Series: Zona Tropical Publications
Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Zona Tropical / Comstock / Cornell University Press; 1 edition (April 12, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 080147373X
ISBN-13: 978-0801473739
Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

For 95% of the traveler's going to Costa Rica, you'll want to take this book.

For readers interested in natural history, I think it's important to understand what this book is - and what Costa Rica needed. The new Garrigues and Dean field guide, The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide (henceforth the G&D field guide) will not be the new barometer for definitive field guides. Lucky for us, it doesn't need to be. The earlier Skutch and Stiles Field Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica (henceforth the S&S field guide) is a great field guide in its own right, but has no need to be duplicated. On the plus side, the earlier S&S guide has buckets of information about behavior and ecology, and it is highly informative about general natural history as well as birds. The problem has been that for nearly a decade now, the S&S field guide was just too much for nearly every traveler. The limitations become greater with every passing year. It suffers from an extremely heavy weight (especially when wet), has no visual range maps, and has color plates that are small, sometimes dark, and sometimes poorly placed.

Costa Rica simply doesn't need a bird field guide to compete with the S&S guide (who wants to compete with Alexander Skutch!). It needed a guide to solve the aforementioned S&S problem - a lighter weight, better plates, and good range maps. This book, by Richard Garrigues (Author) and Robert Dean (illustrator), solves that problem. It's easy to call the book "excellent" because of the overall mission. It didn't have to be the best ever ... it had to be the most useful for travelers (and, yes, birders) going to Costa Rica. Clearly the authors knew exactly what they were out to accomplish.

I got my copy today of this new FG to the Birds of Costa Rica. As I also own the older book by Stiles and Skutch, the first impression was how small this new field guide is, compared to the older one. Very unusual for a FG of a tropical country. The old book weighs in at 895 grams, whereas Garrigues & Dean is a mere 557 grams. A considerable difference for any traveller. It is clear that this comes at a price: There is VERY little text for each species. Not as little as in the ill-reputed Birds of Peru (Clements & Shany), though. The book's text is patterned more along the lines of Birds of Argentina & Uruguay (Narosky & Yzurieta) which I had come to appreciate very much on a trip a bit more than a year ago. Key characteristics are printed in bold face for a very fast orientation. There is some information on habitats, elevation, frequency and size. In some cases, voices are mentioned as well. Most welcome are the decent, i.e. not too small range maps. The general arrangement for each species follows well proven lines: text and range maps are facing the plates. There are usually four to six species per page. In general, there are two or three illustrations per species, often male and female and/or a flight picture. The plates, to me, look a bit inconsistent. Mostly, that is due to some faded looks of some of the plates (e.g. many, but not all of the hummingbirds, ovenbirds, and antbirds). This is why I give this book only 4 stars. I do not know whether this is due to the originals or whether these are printing problems. E.g. in my book, the Emerald Toucanet on the cover is considerably darker than the same species on page 153. If I recall it correctly, the cover is closer to the true bird. But it is too long since I have seen it in nature.

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