Birds of Costa Rica (Helm Field Guides)

Product Information

Richard Garrigues has been birding since the age of sixteen, when a close encounter with a Black-and-white Warbler walking up a tree trunk just a few feet away from him in suburban New Jersey made a lasting impression. It is very well laid out, especially with the illustrations being on the opposite page to the description, this was something which made me choose this book over others. In April 2000, he published the first quarterly online Gone Birding Newsletter and has been keeping readers up-to-date on rare birdsightings, new distributional records, and other pertinent local birding news ever since. Birds of Costa Rica (2023) is beautifully illustrated and packed with in-depth, relevant information. 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 the native and migrant birds to be found in that country.

Anyway we managed to identify most of the fantastic birds we saw whilst on holiday but it was good to be able to name the few that we couldn't when the book arrived.Unlike many bird guides, some natural history details of the birds are teased in the text, giving greater ecological depth to the accounts.

G. Howell is an international bird tour leader with WINGS and is one of the world’s leading authorities on the birds of Mexico and Central America.Now, when I was in the Marquesas Islands last fall (French Polynesia) I saw many birds, beautiful ones too, but had no idea what they were and did not have a guide book.

The text itself is concise and stripped down to the bare minimum, but there is enough there to aid identification where the illustrations were not in themselves sufficient. These authors are “splitters” and have elevated a lot of what were previously considered “subspecies” to full species, that no major world lists recognize yet as such. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. Simply stated, it is a very fine book, meeting all the established criteria for a successful modern field guide, and in many instances exceeding them. Few people get to see these species but it would have been good to show them, even if just to raise awareness of them with the authorities.The choice to preemptively include some expected changes is wise, allowing better understanding of birds in the region, and will likely increase the longevity of this guide. I asked Birding Guide Extraordinaire, Rodolfo “ Rudy” Zamora which guidebook he prefers, and he immediately answered, “Oh, no doubt the Garrigues book, The Birds of Costa Rica. He has led birdwatching tours to South and Central America for many years, photographing and documenting the species he encounters.

Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item. The authors generally rely on the 2021 IOC taxonomy as a baseline, but attempt to include alternative taxonomic labels arising from scientific uncertainty or newly proposed species splits where appropriate. While they admit this to be somewhat cumbersome, we find it is a much better alternative than simply overlooking these uncertainties or exclusively relying on a single nomenclature which may be unfamiliar to users and potentially become outdated in the near future. There are some inaccuracies, especially with the range maps, and some of the text on species, particularly the abundance, range and status, is misleading in some cases. Dana Gardner's style was more typical of good field guides and benefited from deeper colour saturation, but the layout of this new book is a lot less confusing, so overall it is better for field use.Reading this book will give you a deeper appreciation and understanding of the world around you as you trek through the cloud forests of Monteverde or the lush tropical rainforest of the Osa Peninsula. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.