Customer Reviews:
Needs reformatting.......2007-01-11
This field guide has excellent sketches of birds but the layout is quite awkward. This guide like most if not all guides breaks down the birds by family groups. This works well for most areas but not Hawaii. As an example, on the first page for Crows and Honeycreepers there are six birds listed, three are extinct, the other three birds all exist on seperate islands, so if I am birding on Kauai and I look on this particular page there is only one bird I would have any chance of seeing but I still have five other birds on the page as a distraction. On the other pages there are on average 8-10 birds per page but once again some are extinct (and not boldly labled as such) while there may only be one or two birds from each island on the pages. My recommendation to make it easier to ID birds in the field would be to put all the extinct Hawai'ian endemic birds on two or more pages (since there are so many of them) for emphasis and then have seperate pages for each island. Since there are so few birds to be found on each of the Hawaiian islands versus say the tropical forests of Costa Rica, I beleive my recommended format would be much less frustrating than the current format of the book to use in the field.
Good and complete birding book.......2007-01-10
If ou go to Hawaii and you want to go birding, I can recommend this book. It is a comprehensive guide, with clear and accurate drawings, and checklists for each island. The only thing missing is a list of buirding sites.
The indispensible Tropical Pacific field guide........1999-07-11
Pratt, Bruner, and Dickinson have produced a superb field guide completely covering all the islands of the tropical Pacific from Hawai'i west through Micronesia. This is a true field guide: it gives the field marks of every species, notes problems in identification with special emphasis on distinguishing similar species, and wastes no space on matters not related to identification. (The exception is that Pratt, a significant ornithologist as well as an expert in identification, summarizes controversies in classification whre appropriate.)
The text is organized by order and family, not by region, so the flycatchers of Tahiti appear next to the flycatchers of Palau rather than near other Tahitian birds. But the illustrations are grouped by region: Samoan land birds appear together, regardless of relationships. This greatly facilitates use in the field.
The illustrations are paintings, not photographs, which allows the authors to show similar birds in identical poses as well as eliminating the accidental marks which appear in even the best photographs and can confuse the user.
The authors have chosen to include the extinct birds of the region as well as the living ones. This puts a certain amount of "deadwood" on the illustration pages, which may be detrimental. But, considering that more than one "extinct" bird has been found after being missing for nearly a hundred years, it is probably worth the minor inconvenience.
I have used the book extensively in Hawai'i and believe it to be the best guide Hawai'i's birds. I would not consider being without it anywhere in its area of coverage.
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- A Gem
- silence of the birds
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And No Birds Sing: A True Ecological Thriller Set in a Tropical Paradise
Mark Jaffe
Manufacturer: Barricade Books
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Vertebrate Biology
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A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America
ASIN: 1569801096 |
Customer Reviews:
A Gem.......2001-02-18
This account of efforts to understand and deal with threatened exotic-caused extinctions on Guam is a gem. The paper back's blurbs focus on Jaffe's "ecological detective thriller." But it's the seamlessness of the book's widely-informed joined elements -- including biographical and political sketches of great pith, accessible population biology, and How Modern Science Works to try to save avian species -- that's most compelling. This deftness in weaving many individually fascinating threads recalled for me Neal Ascherson's astonishing "Black Sea."
The paperback's Index lists only passing references to DDT -- on pages 26, 27 and 72. Because the bad guy is not a chemical, not one of our products. No, he's one of us. And after the paucity and untimeliness of the legislative response to the Guamanian situation had sunk into my consciousness, it was ironic that in the end, an air force base on the island established the 50-acre "environmental reclamation experiment" Jaffe hopes could begin to turn it all around. Like the ending of William Golding's little masterpiece, with the navy warship rescuing the tribe of island-stranded boys from themselves.
silence of the birds.......1998-10-30
My God! You won't find any birds singing in this masterpiece! Rachel Carson has nothing on this guy! The DDT chapter broke my heart!!!
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Avian Malaria in the Asian Tropical Subregion
Marshall Laird
Manufacturer: Springer-Verlag Telos
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 9813083190 |
Book Description
Marshall Lairds Avian Malaria In The Asian Tropical Subregion will be only the second book to be devoted solely to the species of Plasmodium parasitising birds. The first, Redginal Hewitts Bird Malaria, Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, appeared in 1940, and was largely devoted to relevant laboratory investigations. A number of additional species of these parasites had been described by 1966, when the late Professor Cyril Garnhams classic Malaria Parasites And Other Haemosporidia was published (Blackwell, Oxford), eight of the fifty chapters of which concerned the true avian malaria parasites and have since remained the standard reference. The present book is particularly timely in bringing the whole subject up to date for a huge tropical part of the globe, which is at the same time at the heart of a widespread network of migratory bird species; many of which it demonstrates to carry important species of plasmodia in their blood. The authors findings, which demonstrate the presence of most of the valid species of bird malaria parasites and a single highly distinct new one in the Asian Tropical Subregion and its eastern and western borders, will serve as a source for the sure identification of these; illustrated as it is by high quality photomicrographs from many of the 536 individual birds of 180 species found Pl - +ve, thanks to MAPS.
Book Description
"
Birds of Tropical America offers a comprehensive look into the lives of some of the most fascinating birds in the world. The book will entertain and educate the amateur birder and professional ornithologist alike and would be a valuable addition to libraries at home and university."
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Condor
"Hilty, who has led birding expeditions to Central and South America and the Caribbean, supplies not a field guide to species identification but rather a natural history of tropical birds. He writes about tropical diversity, nesting habits, the structure of a rain forest bird community, biogeography, Andean genealogy, bird migration within the tropics, bird color and patterns, seed dispersal, foraging techniques, courtship rituals, and song patterns. This is a fascinating book for enthusiastic birders and stay-at-home naturalists alike."
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Booklist
"[Hilty] deals with such fascinating topics as why there are so many species in tropical America, why antbirds don't eat ants, why there are so many flycatchers, why tropical birds are so colorful (or not), how hummingbirds survive and even prosper in the Andes, and what makes manakins and cotingas do their curious songs and dances. He writes with knowledge, grace, and humor....After [Alexander] Skutch, Hilty is the finest synthesizer and popularizer of the life of Neotropical birds."
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Birding
Birds of Tropical America was published by Chapters Publishing in 1994 and went out of print in 1997. UT Press is pleased to reissue it with a new epilogue and updated references.
Customer Reviews:
First rate, fascinating, and engaging natural history book on neotropical birds.......2007-04-16
One might guess by the title of Steven Hilty's book _Birds of Tropical America_ that he has written an informative though dry field guide, one that lists a number of birds of Central and South America but is not really a book to sit down and read. In fact, Hilty has written an engaging and extremely interesting natural history work covering many aspects of neotropical bird behavior, breeding, and evolution and is one of the finest popular science books I have read in a while.
The book is organized into twenty different chapters, several illustrated with black and white drawings by artist Mimi Hoppe Wolf, and includes an extensive bibliography. Roughly half of the chapters deal with aspects of neotropical avian behavior and physiology that are applicable to most if not all of the region's birds, while the remainder deals with specific types of birds, such as antbirds, hummingbirds, and vultures. The focus is largely on birds of rainforests but Hilty also discusses birds of mountains, grasslands, and in one interesting chapter, islands of the Amazon River.
The first few chapters tackle common questions asked about tropical American birds, questions Hilty has encountered over his years as not only a researcher but as a leader of birding tours in Central and South America. For instance, why are so many tropical rainforest birds so spottily distributed when there appears to be many hundreds of square miles of suitable habitat? Hitly wrote that distribution patchiness is a basic structural component of tropical rainforests; in an area that might contain up to 500 bird species, a particular acre or so of forest will only contain 100 to 200 species. One answer to this question is the existence of microhabitats, areas perhaps not obvious to naturalists recently arrived from temperate latitudes, but quite obvious to the local fauna. Some birds are found only along the edges of tree fall openings, while others that live in the canopy avoid areas where the canopy is discontinuous with tree fall openings. Birds might be rare because of their place on the food chain (harpy eagles occur generally at low densities though might be widespread throughout neotropical rainforests), of the lower population densities of tropical birds (the populations of the most common Peruvian rainforests birds are one-tenth that of those in temperate forests), the secretive nature of many understory rainforest birds (making them appear rare), and the large territories of birds (when compared to temperate species). A later chapter adds additional information; Hilty noted the work of Jurgen Haffer, who proposed that during the Pleistocene epoch the rainforests of South America at times contracted into isolated units he called refugia and that this repeated forest breakup increased speciation and helped produce many often small and localized ranges of birds in South America. Another theory, proposed by among others biologist Angelo Capparella, noted the importance of the major rivers of the Amazon Basin, which fragment the ranges of many widespread species and can act as barriers to gene flow; in a later chapter, Hilty noted how big a barrier the river can be, at one spot in Colombia, nearly 2,000 miles from the mouth of the Amazon River, the river banks are nearly five miles apart, a huge barrier to many tropical species that scarcely like crossing even forest trails.
Interestingly, many tropical birds migrate. No, not the famous temperate-to-tropics-and-back-again migrations, but migrations within the tropics, often quiet migrations that only involve some species and an aspect of the neotropics that took researchers many years to discover. These are short-distance migrations, perhaps a few miles or a few hundred miles. The quetzal and the bellbird for instance are fruit-eaters that breed in mountain cloud forests during the drier months of the year, but migrate downslope during the rainy season in search of drier conditions and more fruit. Even lowland forest species migrate to seek concentrations of fruiting trees, while others migrate to take advantage of the short-lived and unpredictable seed crops of bamboo, or in areas south of the Amazon Basin, are fire-followers, seeking out recently burned grasslands for breeding.
In a chapter on why there are so many more species in the tropics than in temperate areas Hilty noted the many niches unique to the tropics, for example antbirds, follow the swarms of raiding army ants, which flush small prey for them to eat, while other birds follow monkeys or the large peccary herds for the same reason (the latter of which are followed by the nimble, roadrunner-like ground-cuckoos).
Hilty discussed hummingbirds in two chapters, noting not only the many different hummingbird niches (some are nectar thieves, poking holes on the outside of flowers to get nectar, not aiding the plant in pollination one bit, others are territorial, while still others forage over large areas) but that they even have different niches at different altitudes (wing length and body weight have a huge influence in the type of flight and behavior a hummingbird is capable of and as higher altitudes have less dense air and produce less lift, some species have different ecological niches at different altitudes).
A number of chapters focused or dealt with breeding behavior. One interesting discussion analyzed why males might cluster together in lek assemblages when they are so extremely competitive. The "hotspot" theory of Jack Bradbury argued that leks form in areas where females forage widely for food and the males have a good opportunity to catch the attention of these wide-ranging females, while the "hotshot" theory of Bruce Beeler and Mercedes Foster argues that the success of a few dominant males attracts the attention of less successful males, who bide their time and try to move up the hierarchy.
Other interesting topics include the flycatchers (part of a group of birds called suboscines) which have been among the few animal groups to colonize northwards with the appearance of the Panamanian landbridge and the influence of environment on song (different terrains affect song propagation in different ways).
Essential for the curious tropical naturalist.......2005-12-05
Steve Hilty does a wonderful job of translating the results of published scientific papers into the language of the curious layman without compromising the fidelity of the original research. With a strong academic background, coupled with many years of field experience and a formidable talent for communication, he successfully transmits the joy of the natural historian and the excitement of the pioneering ornithologist.
The book consists of twenty essays on the ecology, behavioural ecology, biogeography and evolution of Neotropical birds, each based on three or four seminal scientific papers. The topics covered include flocking behaviour, species diversity, intra-tropical migration, seasonality, song, hummingbird foraging ecology, seed dispersal and much more. Many of the topics arose as answers to the questions posed to the author by fellow travellers, so they address a host of the main questions the curious naturalist will ask. The examples and original research come from all parts of the New World tropics making this book of direct relevance to those travelling anywhere in Latin America. Specific sites mentioned range from La Selva in northeastern Costa Rica to Manu in Amazonian Peru, and from Panama's Barro Colorado Island to the Oilbird Cave in eastern Venezuela. Species like the Yellow-rumped Cacique and Oilbird and key Neotropical groups like the Vultures, Hummingbirds, Antbirds, Tyrant Flycatchers, Manakins and Cotingas are treated in detail.
In sum, a great introduction to the biology and natural history of American tropical birds for those who are new to the region and a fascinating companion for tropical veterans. Whether your interest is birding, natural history or simply enriching your tropical travels, this book should be on your shelves - or, better still, in your backpack.
Recommended for tropical birders.......2001-02-21
It is a shame that this book is out of print, because as more birders discover the wealth and happy confusion of birding in the tropics this book would find a ready audience. Birders who take their first trips to Central or South America step into an alien world, where the rules of the temperate zone do not apply.
Hilty's essays draw upon many years as a birding tour guide, kind of a "frequently asked questions" collection. He discusses answers to questions such as: Why do birds in the tropics migrate? Why are tropical birds often so colorful yet so hard to see? Why are tropical mixed flocks so large and varied (up to 50 or more species in a single foraging flock), and how can so many birds forage together? In the course of the essays, Hilty also provides a great deal of insight into tropical ecology. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the tropics in general, and tropical birding in particular.
Book Description
Crisp, accurate line renderings of 44 species from tropical habitats around the world. Green-tailed sylph, bird of paradise, scarlet ibis, rhinoceros hornbill, Mandarin duck, regal sunbird, many other exotic specimens. Captions provide common and scientific names, range, other data. Color illustrations of all birds on covers.
Customer Reviews:
Tropical Birds Coloring Book.......2000-04-21
I enjoyed this coloring book. The book contains 44 full page drawings of birds. Each bird wasn't too detailed, but it did contain appropriate background habitat and a small amount of information related to each bird. Colored versions are provided on/in the cover of the book for reference. I don't believe the drawings are detailed enough to be an artists reference, but for pure enjoyment of coloring it is perfect.
Customer Reviews:
Encyclopedic Information.......2007-02-25
The Lower Rio Grande Valley of southern Texas, the LRGV to any knowledgeable birding enthusiast, is THE place to witness the widest diversity and greater number of bird species anywhere in the United States including even Alaska. More than 500 different species have been seen at one time or another in the Valley including dozens of birds from Mexico that rarely if ever get more than a few miles north of that nation's boundary. Though there have been several interesting guides to the "where" of these birds--guides that highlight the best spots in the area to see the wonderful diversity that exists--there has not until now been a careful, encyclopedic examination of those birds. Timothy Brush, a biology professor at the University of Texas-Pan American, has filled that void in Nesting Birds of a Tropical Frontier.
No-one would argue that Brush's wonderful study is the type of book that anyone would want to curl up with in front of a warm fire on a cold night but for anybody interesting in the fauna of southern Texas, it is a proverbial gold mine. Brush provides an extremely thorough examination of each of the many birds which nest throughout the Lower Rio Grande Valley. His volume is filled with scientific data galore but it is never uninteresting thanks in large part to the many frequent personal asides which the author includes and which allow us to see not only a scientist but also an avid birder at work.
Unquestionably this relatively small volume will remain the authoritative study of southern Texas' birdlife for decades to come.
Status of South Texas Birds.......2005-11-25
An excellent overview of the breeding birds along the Rio Grande of South Texas. Covers historic status of most species unique to the region, if they have been documented to have bred there. Photos and artwork uneventful.
Book Description
This book examines behavioral adaptations of tropical birds in timing of breeding, life history traits, mating systems and parental care, territoriality, communication, and biotic interactions, and emphasizes the many gaps in our knowledge of tropical birds. We urge students and researchers in temperate and tropical regions alike to realize the potential they have for improving our knowledge of avian adaptations far beyond what is currently accepted as gospel. Time is running out.
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- More Great Essays from Alexander Skutch
- This Book Should Be Reprinted
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A Bird Watcher's Adventures in Tropical America (Corrie Herring Hooks Series)
Alexander F. Skutch
Manufacturer: Univ of Texas Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0292707665 |
Customer Reviews:
More Great Essays from Alexander Skutch.......2007-10-06
This is a collection of 14 essays that vary greatly in focus and scope from the narrow nearly academic "Study of the Woodcreepers of Tropical America" to the wide open view of "Mexico by Train" and Through Peruvian Amazon by Gunboat".
Skutch's training is as a biologist and naturalist but his talents as a writer and his enthusiasm in the field have combined to help produce these fascinating essays. As someone interested in the birds and natural history of Central and South America I enjoyed each chapter. The Epilogue:"The Appreciative Mind" resonated with some of my own thoughts on birds and nature. Here again Skutch has written something I wish I could write, a philosophy of the appreciation of nature. It is particularly enjoyable when reading to find an author that has already collected thoughts that you yourself have stumbled about on. Here Skutch writes so eloquently on the enjoyment of nature and birds and the imperative to protect what has taken millenia to produce what we see that I have the greatest admiration of him.
This Book Should Be Reprinted.......2004-11-30
Alexander Skutch traveled around much of Latin America as a USDA botanist in the 1930s and 1940s. His job involved such work as surveying the Amazon for rubber trees and studying the various plant life found in this remarkable region. However, his real love was the birds. It's difficult for birders to make their sport sound interesting to lay people but Skutch has a way with words that will capture the imagination of anyone with an interest in nature. He's a gentle soul who lived through interesting times, including the 1948 Costa Rican Revolution. His essay, "Birding during a Time of Revolution," is not only one of the most fascinating birding adventures I've ever read but it also perfectly captures the follies of man in this region, and throughout the world for that matter. My other favorite is "Birding on a Gunboat in the Amazon"-an essay about a military mission that Skutch made in the 1940s to survey the Amazon for rubber trees. While the times have changed in Central America, many of the birds remain the same. If you enjoy Latin America, and its culture, history, flora, and fauna, you will cherish this book and read Skutch's stories again and again.
Book Description
Sprinkled across the tropical Pacific, the innumerable islands of Oceania are home to some of the most unique bird communities on the planet, and they sustain species found nowhere else on earth. Many of the birds that live in this region are endangered, however; many more have become extinct as a result of human activity, in both recent and prehistoric times.
Reconstructing the avian world in the same way archeologists re-create ancient human societies, David Steadman—a leading authority on tropical Pacific avian paleontology—has spent the past two decades in the field, digging through layers of soil in search of the bones that serve as clues to the ancient past of island bird communities. His years of indefatigable research and analysis are the foundation for Extinction and Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds, a monumental study of the landbirds of tropical Pacific islands—especially those from Fiji eastward to Easter Island—and an intricate history of the patterns and processes of island biology over time.
Using information gleaned from prehistoric specimens, Steadman reconstructs the birdlife of tropical Pacific islands as it existed before the arrival of humans and in so doing corrects the assumption that small, remote islands were unable to support rich assemblages of plants and animals. Easter Island, for example, though devoid of wildlife today, was the world’s richest seabird habitat before Polynesians arrived more than a millennium ago. The forests of less isolated islands in the Pacific likewise teemed with megapodes, rails, pigeons, parrots, kingfishers, and songbirds at first human contact.
By synthesizing data from the distant past, Steadman hopes to inform present conservation programs. Grounded in geology, paleontology, and archeology, but biological at its core, Extinction and Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds is an exceptional work of unparalleled scholarship that will stimulate creative discussions of terrestrial life on oceanic islands for years to come.
Customer Reviews:
Tropical Pacific bird communities: Digging up the bones of evolution past .......2007-02-26
Oceania is one of the most fascinating biogeographic regions in the world, with a unique avian biodiversity which has risen over evolutionary time on a myriad of islands, of various sizes, spread across the western part of the Pacific. Characterized by a high degree of endemism, specialization, and unusual community composition, these contemporary avifaunas have been and continue to be at great direct and indirect risk from human activities - which have already caused widespread extinctions (Steadman 1995). Frequently, the only traces allowing the reconstruction of avian communities are bones: a silent language palaeontologists understand and use to gain insights into long-gone outcomes of selection in one of the most intriguing playgrounds of evolution.
In Extinction and Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds, David Steadman, a curator in the Division of Ornithology at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, presents the results of more than twenty years of digging, excavating, and measuring hundreds of thousands of bones from more than 25,000 specimens from Hawaii to New Zealand. It marks the final step of a research effort which has resulted in the discovery of dozens of extinct species, previously unknown to science, and many more awaiting description It has also yielded valuable new data on tropical Pacific island species' biogeography and diversity. We now know that many Pacific Island bird communities were much more species rich than previously thought, flightlessness was more common and widespread, and on many islands the arrival of humans was directly followed by a sharp decline in vertebrate diversity - a fact previously well-documented on only a few islands. Steadman has achieved his goal and provided a natural history account of tropical island bird communities, with more detail and depth than ever before and with a great passion and drive. At a time dominated by molecular techniques, he managed to find funds, field sites, establish cooperation networks to generate a wealth of unseen empirical data. The result is impressive and weighs heavily, not only in terms of the more than six hundred pages the volume mounts to.
Steadman has structured his work into four parts, preceded by an introductory preface that sets the stage for the presentation of his findings. Part I (chapters 1-4) describes in detail the geography and geology, terrestrial flora and fauna, human history and availability of specimens, both dead and alive, on islands and in museums. It is very rich in detail, with regional and topographical maps, geological sketches, reflections on aspects of human geography, including photographs of archaeological artefacts and excavation sites, even detailed lists of field trips can be found. Part II (chapters 5-8) is concerned with species diversity in the four focal regions covered by the book: Melanesia, West Polynesia, East Polynesia and Micronesia including remote central Pacific islands. Again, rich in maps, this part of the book provides lists, sometimes down to the species level, of the occurrence of birds in the different geographic regions, again occasionally resolved down to the archipelago or island level. In Part III (chapter 9-15), the information structuring changes to taxa, encompassing megapodes, rails, pigeons and doves, parrots, other non-passerine land birds, passerines and finally seabirds. The chapter is rich in tables down to the species level of occurrences of species, on archipelago to island levels, and generously illustrated with photographs. Finally, part IV (chapter 16-22) addresses topics revolving around the rich data assembled: extinction, dispersal, colonization, faunal attenuation, equilibrium and turnover, species-area relationships, community ecology, conservation biology. At the end, a concluding chapter is added. Analyses offered, and used to draw conclusions, include: species-area plots, over different time scales (pre-human to today); graphs describing the representation of different genera on islands and island groups; and also visual materials, addressing ecological key factors such as trophic niche occupancy. A very personal `final word' wraps up this last part.
Although sometimes lengthy to read, repetitive (e.g. most obviously, the same photograph, figure 1-14, appears three times throughout the book) and loaded with information from many other areas of science, to a questionable degree of necessity, the book's strengths clearly lie in the enormous level of detail and the amount of novel data presented that are now accessible to the scientific community. Its weaknesses, however, reveal themselves in the preface, and even more so in the last chapter. Instead of using his data to test current theories on island biogeography, proposed by previous authors - such as Edward O. Wilson, Robert MacArthur (MacArthur and Wilson 1967), Ernst Mayr and Jared Diamond (Mayr 1942; Mayr and Diamond 2001) - Steadman chooses to criticize the leaders in the field based on very shaky grounds. The level of analysis presented in this book is very superficial and crude, omitting thorough testing of assumptions of current theory for which previously data was largely missing. While it may be argued that it would be too far-reaching to address detailed predictions, one would at least expect basic conceptual points to be addressed. It is, for instance, known that the number of species (S) on islands is influenced by area (A), distance (D) and elevation (L), which are on a regular basis effects addressed by statistical analyses, and that incomplete sampling, as is the case in this work, necessitates possible correction by estimation before using data in any analytical context. None of this can be found for prehistoric data. This book is full of anecdotal evidence, specific examples, and detailed conclusions. However, proper links between them are largely missing.
`I see little value in reducing a complex biological situation to an equation ...' writes the author in the preface. Yet of what value are data gathered at an unprecedented level of detail if not used to derive general patterns and test current theories on how bird communities on islands evolve? To go beyond the descriptive accounts of natural historians was exactly what MacArthur and Wilson believed was necessary when they first published their `Theory of Island Biogeography' in 1967 (see back cover of MacArthur and Wilson 1967). A true large-scale understanding of ecosystem organization and evolution cannot be derived from a pile of bird bones - a historical perspective is certainly valuable, but without integration into a modern biological framework, the beliefs, expectations, speculations and predictions presented in this book are hardly useful. The transition from belief to conclusion in science requires the mandatory step of data gathering and statistical hypothesis testing - the latter of which Steadman has largely chosen to ignore. The most fantastic dataset is useless unless one knows how to analyze it in order to further knowledge. Steadman's approach to `... sit around the same campfire, pass the bottle and swap lies' may not be the appropriate answer to contemporary problems in particular of conservation biology, and I see little ground for the author to claim that the `trend in science away from natural history and toward specialization and theory is out of control', as Steadman seems to believe. Today's extinction crisis is highly unlikely to be effectively dammed solely by digging up bones of the ghosts of evolution past. Instead, we need to accurately interpret this valuable data, and use it to better understand the complex evolutionary processes structuring nature. In the long run, this will prove the only way to improve the survival of the fascinating bird diversity of the western Pacific.
In summary I would, despite shortcomings, consider the volume well worth reading and as presenting impressive data. Once completely analyzed, the findings of Steadman's work will noticeably improve our knowledge on the evolutionary history of island avifaunas and beyond and find integration into the history of island biogeography as a milestone of progress.
Stefan M. Klose, Ulm, Germany, and Brisbane, Australia
REFERENCES
MacArthur RH, Wilson EO (1967) The Theory of Island Biogeography. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ
Mayr E (1942) Systematics of the Origin of Species. Columbia University Press, New York
Mayr E, Diamond J (2001) The Birds of Northern Melanesia - Speciation, Ecology and Biogeography. Oxford University Press, New York
Steadman DW (1995) Prehistoric extinctions of pacific island birds - biodiversity meets zooarchaeology. Science 267:1123-1131
(submitted to Ecotropica as a book review in Jan 2007)
Amazon.com
A second revised edition of John Kricher's well-received 1989 text, A Neotropical Companion distills whole libraries of information on the Americas' tropics. Kricher explores the workings of a rainforest with admirable clarity, discussing matters such as regeneration pathways and ecological succession. He also takes a sidelong glance at current issues in evolutionary theory, using his deep knowledge of the tropics to add to the literature on speciation and various hypotheses surrounding it. Ethnobotanists in particular will want to have a look at Kricher's catalog of tropical medicinal plants, in which lie the promise of cures and reliefs for a host of modern illnesses.
Book Description
A^I Neotropical Companion^N is an extraordinarily readable introduction to the American tropics, the lands of Central and South America, their remarkable rainforests and other ecosystems, and the creatures that live there. It is the most comprehensive one-volume guide to the Neotropics available today. Widely praised in its first edition, it remains a book of unparalleled value to tourists, students, and scientists alike. This second edition has been substantially revised and expanded to incorporate the abundance of new scientific information that has been produced since it was first published in 1989. Major additions have been made to every chapter, and new chapters have been added on Neotropical ecosystems, human ecology, and the effects of deforestation. Biodiversity and its preservation are discussed throughout the book, and Neotropical evolution is described in detail. This new edition offers all new drawings and photographs, many of them in color. As enthusiastic readers of the first edition will attest, this is a charming book. Wearing his learning lightly and writing with ease and humor, John Kricher presents the complexities of tropical ecology as accessible and nonintimidating. Kricher is so thoroughly knowledgeable and the book is so complete in its coverage that general readers and ecotourists will not need any other book to help them identify and understand the plants and animals, from birds to bugs, that they will encounter in their travels to the New World tropics. At the same time, it will fascinate armchair travelers and students who may get no closer to the Neotropics than this engagingly written book. ^IFrom reviews of the first edition:^N "An intense and lively field guide ... compact and richly substantive."--Scientific American "The book is exactly what it says it is, a companion to take with you on your travels in the New World tropics.... The author has written ... with just the right amount of informality and humor."--Journal of Natural History
Customer Reviews:
really fun for the amateur naturalist.......2007-08-15
This is just a great book if you like this sort of stuff. The content is thorough but not overwhelming, and the author does a really good job making the complex science of neotropical ecology accessible for non-academics.
I purchased it before I traveled to birdwatch in Costa Rica and wowed my companions with little tidbits and facts that I pulled pretty much verbatim from the book. It opens you eyes to things in the tropics that you would most certainly miss otherwise and should be considered indispensable for anyone traveling there with an interest in nature.
Textbook.......2007-04-11
Well, this is a requirement for class, so I can't complain too much. Still, it looks to be chock full of useful tidbits.
A Neotropical Companion.......2007-01-10
Received the book in a few days and in excellent condition. Very pleased with my purchase.
Great overview of the tropics.......2006-11-10
I took this book along with me to Peru and read it during long boat rides on the river. If you have an interest in biology and ecosystems, this book is a great introduction. It covers a little bit of everything, from birds to mammals to plants. You can dip into one topic without having to read it linearly.
The book greatly enhanced my trip. Guides are great but they can't be experts in everything at once.
whet your appetite for a fascinating region of the Americas.......2006-07-02
Kricher's NEOTROPICAL COMPANION is not the kind of 'field-guide-for-dummies' that many of us depend on to find our way around Central and South America's flora and fauna. Rather, it's the next step for people who've become familiar with that kind of guide and want to understand at a deeper and occasionally more abstract level why the natural life around them is what it is.
Ours accompanied us through many years in Costa Rica.
The photos are stunning, but there are not many of them. Fairly dense, instructive prose dominates.
A fine book by a recognized authority. Buy the field guide and get it well-thumbed and into your mind. Then add Kricher's NEOTROPICAL COMPANION to it.
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