New Titles

 

1) Cofta, Tomasz. Flight Identification of European Passerines and Select Landbirds: An Illustrated and Photographic Guide. 2021. Princeton University Press/WILDGuides. Flexibound: 496 pages. Price: $45.00 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Opening up new frontiers in birdwatching, this is the first field guide to focus specifically on the identification of European passerines and related landbirds in flight. Showcasing 850 stunning and remarkably lifelike colour illustrations from acclaimed bird artist Tomasz Cofta, produced using the latest digital technology, backed up with more than 2,400 photographs carefully selected to show typical flight profiles, it provides detailed and unsurpassed coverage of 205 European passerines and 32 near-passerines. This cutting-edge book brings a new dimension to birdwatching, the concise and authoritative species accounts presenting novel yet essential information on the flight manner of individual birds and the structure and behaviour of flocks―features that are key to identification. It also includes precise transliterations of flight calls, supported by sonograms, and links to a unique collection of hundreds of online audio recordings. Beautifully designed and written in an accessible style, this book will appeal to birdwatchers of all abilities. It presents the latest knowledge on flight identification of a group of birds that is poorly covered in the literature and is therefore a must-have for all professional ornithologists and scientists involved in migration studies.

• The first field guide to flight identification of European passerines and related landbirds
• Covers 205 European passerines and 32 near-passerines
• Features 850 stunning colour illustrations
• Includes more than 2,400 photos showing typical profiles of each species in flight
• Provides detailed information on flight calls, with links to online recordings

RECOMMENDATION: A MUST have for anyone birding Europe! I wish there was something like this for North America! 

 

2) Paulson, Dennis R. and William A. Haber. Dragonflies and Damselflies of Costa Rica: A Field Guide. 2021. Cornell University Press. Paperback: 401 pages. Price: $34.95 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Among the largest of all insects, dragonflies and damselflies are conspicuous. Active during the day, often brightly colored, and extremely photogenic―something about their appearance and dashing flight suggests a primeval world of tree ferns and dinosaurs.

     The first guide of its kind, this book includes an in-depth introduction with an overview of Costa Rican biodiversity and illustrated morphological terms. The species accounts show males and females of most species, detailed illustrations and close-ups of key distinguishing features, and descriptions of habitat, behavior, and range. Dragonflies and Damselflies of Costa Rica gives readers the information they need to identify nearly every species in the country. Experienced dragonfly fans and new enthusiasts alike will find it an indispensable resource.

RECOMMENDATION: A must have for anyone with an interest in the Odonata of Costa Rica!

 

3) Newman, Doug and Gordon King. Southern African LBJs Made Simple. 2021. Struik Nature. Paperback: 152 pages. Price: $16.50 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Southern African LBJs Made Simple is a useful guide to the cryptic little birds that are universally known as ‘little brown jobs’. With the help of color coding and careful design, the reader is systematically guided through successive sorting stages: from family group, to ‘visual group’ within the family, and finally to the species. Each step takes one closer to identifying the bird in question.

     Carefully labeled illustrations, distribution maps, concise text describing key ID criteria (such as size, habitat, habits, call and similar-looking and -sounding birds), and characteristic features summarized in an 'At a glance' box all help pinpoint identity. Calls play a critical role in identification of this challenging group of birds, and a major innovation is the use of barcodes alongside each species to scan and play individual calls and comparative tracks by means of a free downloadable call app.

      This enhanced and updated new edition will be an invaluable guide for anyone who wants to be able to tell one LBJ from another.

RECOMMENDATION: Two titles cover this topic: this one and Chamberlain's LBJs by Faansie Peacock (2012, reprinted 2021). Of the two, this one is more compact thus easier to use in the field, but  Chamberlain's LBJs has more details and better artwork.

New Titles

 

1) Martínez Piña, Daniel E. and Gonzalo E. González Cifuentes. Field Guide to the Birds of Chile. 2021. Princeton University Press. Flexibound: 224 pages. Price: $29.95 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: With its diverse range of habitats, Chile boasts a remarkable variety of breeding and visiting birds, from penguins to hummingbirds, making the country one of South America’s top birding destinations. From the Chilean Tinamou and Juan Fernandez Firecrown to the Magellanic woodpecker, this comprehensive and authoritative field guide covers every one of Chile’s 468 recorded species, including vagrants. All are illustrated in superb detail in 89 color plates, which feature every major plumage variation. Concise, facing-page species accounts describe key identification features, status, range, habitat, and voice, and accurate distribution maps are also provided for every species. The result is an essential field guide to the birds of this fascinating and beautiful country.

• Covers all 468 species recorded in Chile, including vagrants
• Features 89 color plates illustrating every species, with text and distribution maps on facing pages for quick and easy reference
• Includes concise species accounts describing key identification features, status, range, habitat, and voice  

RECOMMENDATION: A must have for those birding Chile!

 

 

2) Weidensaul, Scott. A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds. 2021. W.W. Norton. Hardbound: 385 pages. Price: $32.00 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: In the past two decades, our understanding of the navigational and physiological feats that enable birds to cross immense oceans, fly above the highest mountains, or remain in unbroken flight for months at a stretch has exploded. What we’ve learned of these key migrations―how billions of birds circumnavigate the globe, flying tens of thousands of miles between hemispheres on an annual basis―is nothing short of extraordinary.

     Bird migration entails almost unfathomable endurance, like a sparrow-sized sandpiper that will fly nonstop from Canada to Venezuela―the equivalent of running 126 consecutive marathons without food, water, or rest―avoiding dehydration by "drinking" moisture from its own muscles and organs, while orienting itself using the earth’s magnetic field through a form of quantum entanglement that made Einstein queasy. Crossing the Pacific Ocean in nine days of nonstop flight, as some birds do, leaves little time for sleep, but migrants can put half their brains to sleep for a few seconds at a time, alternating sides―and their reaction time actually improves.

     These and other revelations convey both the wonder of bird migration and its global sweep, from the mudflats of the Yellow Sea in China to the remote mountains of northeastern India to the dusty hills of southern Cyprus. This breathtaking work of nature writing from Pulitzer Prize finalist Scott Weidensaul also introduces readers to those scientists, researchers, and bird lovers trying to preserve global migratory patterns in the face of climate change and other environmental challenges.

     Drawing on his own extensive fieldwork, in A World on the Wing Weidensaul unveils with dazzling prose the miracle of nature taking place over our heads. 16 pages of color photographs; 15 maps.

RECOMMENDATION: If you enjoyed the authors'  Living on the Wind, you should enjoy this book!

 

 

3) Blencowe, Michael. Gone: A search for what remains of the world's extinct creatures. 2021. Leaping Hare Press. Hardbound: 183 pages. Price: $25.00 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Dynamic naturalist Michael Blencowe has travelled the globe to uncover the fascinating backstories of eleven extinct animals, which he shares with charm and insight in Gone.
 
      Inspired by his childhood obsession with extinct species, Blencowe takes us around the globe – from the forests of New Zealand to the ferries of Finland, from the urban sprawl of San Francisco to an inflatable crocodile on Brighton’s Widewater Lagoon. Spanning five centuries, from the last sighting of New Zealand’s Upland Moa to the 2012 death of the Pinta Island Giant Tortoise, Lonesome George, his memoir is peppered with the accounts of the hunters and naturalists of the past as well as revealing conversations with the custodians of these totemic animals today. 
 
      Featuring striking artworks that resurrect these forgotten creatures, each chapter focuses on a different animal, revealing insights into their unique characteristics and habitats; the history of their discovery and just how and when they came to be lost to us. 
 
      Blencowe inspects the only known remains of a Huia egg at Te Papa, New Zealand; views hundreds of specimens of deceased Galapagos tortoises and Xerces Blue butterflies in the California Academy of Sciences; and pays his respects to the only soft tissue remains of the Dodo in the world. Warm, wry and thought-provoking, Gone shows that while each extinction story is different, all can inform how we live in the future. Discover and learn from the stories of the:
 
·         Great Auk. A majestic flightless seabird of the North Atlantic and the ‘original penguin’.
·         Spectacled Cormorant. The ‘ludicrous bird’ from the remote islands of the Bering Sea. 
·         Steller’s Sea Cow. An incredible ten tonne dugong with skin as furrowed as oak bark. 
·         Upland Moa. The improbable birds and the one-time rulers of New Zealand. 
·         Huia. The unique bird with two beaks and twelve precious tail feathers. 
·         South Island Kōkako. The ‘orange-wattled crow’, New Zealand’s elusive Grey Ghost. 
·         Xerces Blue. The gossamer-winged butterfly of the San Francisco sand dunes. 
·         Pinta Island Tortoise. The slow-moving, long-lived giant of the Galápagos Islands. 
·         Dodo. The superstar of extinction. 
·         Schomburgk’s Deer. A mysterious deer from the wide floodplains of central Thailand. 
·         Ivell’s Sea Anemone. A see-through sea creature known only from southern England. 
 
      A modern must-read for anyone interested in protecting our earth and its incredible wildlife, Gone is an evocative call to conserve what we have before it is lost forever.

RECOMMENDATION: Anyone with an interest in recently extinct species should read this book!

 

 

4) Falk, Seb. The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science. 2020. W.W. Norton. Hardbound: 392 pages. Price: $30.00 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: An illuminating guide to the scientific and technological achievements of the Middle Ages through the life of a crusading astronomer-monk.

     Soaring Gothic cathedrals, violent crusades, the Black Death: these are the dramatic forces that shaped the medieval era. But the so-called Dark Ages also gave us the first universities, eyeglasses, and mechanical clocks. As medieval thinkers sought to understand the world around them, from the passing of the seasons to the stars in the sky, they came to develop a vibrant scientific culture.

     In The Light Ages, Cambridge science historian Seb Falk takes us on a tour of medieval science through the eyes of one fourteenth-century monk, John of Westwyk. Born in a rural manor, educated in England’s grandest monastery, and then exiled to a clifftop priory, Westwyk was an intrepid crusader, inventor, and astrologer. From multiplying Roman numerals to navigating by the stars, curing disease, and telling time with an ancient astrolabe, we learn emerging science alongside Westwyk and travel with him through the length and breadth of England and beyond its shores. On our way, we encounter a remarkable cast of characters: the clock-building English abbot with leprosy, the French craftsman-turned-spy, and the Persian polymath who founded the world’s most advanced observatory.

     The Light Ages offers a gripping story of the struggles and successes of an ordinary man in a precarious world and conjures a vivid picture of medieval life as we have never seen it before. An enlightening history that argues that these times weren’t so dark after all, The Light Ages shows how medieval ideas continue to color how we see the world today. 8 pages of color illustrations.

RECOMMENDATION: For anyone with an interest in the history of science.