Decent photos of 75% of the Caribbean endemics
A Photographic Guide to Birds of the West Indies by G. Michael Flieg and Allan Sander (ISBN 0883590506)
Basics: 2000, softcover, 144 pages, color photos of 251 species, no range maps
This compact pocket guide contains color photos for 251 species found among the many Caribbean islands. This represents just less than half of the nearly 560 birds found across all the islands. I was glad to see nearly 75% of the 180 or so Caribbean endemics included in the photographs.
Although the compact size of the book requires smaller photos, a good job was done to zoom or crop-in to the birds to make most of them larger within the photo. The photos are typically well lit and show the bird clearly. Some of the photos could be improved (warblers, flycatchers) and it would be nice to see the parrots photographed outside of captivity.
The text is a brief paragraph that gives general information about the bird's appearance, habitat, and behavior. This information is acceptable for an introductory understanding of these birds but is not really useful for field identification.
This photo guide is a nice tool to be used for learning some of the Caribbean birds, but a true field guide will be required regardless of which island you visit. Several good books are available that focus on some of the specific islands. The best all-encompassing book for the West Indies is by Raffaele et al.
1) A Guide to the Birds of the West Indies by Raffaele
2) Birds of the West Indies by Raffaele
3) A Field Guide to the Birds of the West Indies by Bond
4) A Birder's West Indies: An Island-by-Island Tour by Wauer
5) Oiseaux des Petites Antilles by Benito-Espinal (ISBN 2950228453)
6) Oiseaux des Petites Antilles et Leur Nid by Benito-Espinal (ISBN 2912300223)
7) Birds of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands by Hallett
8) Birds of the Cayman Islands by Bradley
9) Birds of the Dominican Republic and Haiti (Princeton Field Guides) by Latta
10) The Birds Of The Turks & Caicos Islands by Ground
11) Birds of Cuba (Helm Field Guides) by Garrido
12) A Guide to the Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands by Raffaele
Great book -- all my friends want one.
I bought this book to check out local birds in the US Virgin Islands, as well as several similar books that were recommended to me. Not only do I really love it but, during a recent hurricane when our house was filled with folks, our guests raved about the quality of the book, great pictures, etc. And this was after they got a chance to compare it to other books on the same subject. Of all the Virgin Islands birding and wildlife books we have, this is the one our guests all want. It is easy to use, the pictures are accurate, and I recommend it.
Photographic guide to the Birds of the West Indies
This pocket guide contains photos and descriptions of virtually all of the endemic birds of the West Indies. It also covers introduced species and water birds of the Caribbean. It is an exceptionally usuable pocket guide for the birder to take along on a cruise or holiday to the islands.
