Australian field guides - a bit of a review. (2 Viewers)

[jackobss]

...And now there's the Australian Bird Guide, Concise Edition (Davies, et al 2022). What do y'all think?

Does anyone have an opinion on "The Common Guide to Australian Birds." Although this contains photographs rather than illustrations or paintings, it appears to be quite extensive.

 

[Mike Earp]

Does anyone have an opinion on "The Common Guide to Australian Birds." Although this contains photographs rather than illustrations or paintings, it appears to be quite extensive.

Who is the author/are the authors? When/where was it published?

 

[jackobss]

This should have read, "Complete Guide to Australian Birds." Apologies for the typo.
Author George Adams
Published by Penguin Random House Australia (2018)
ISBN 978 1 76162 019 5

 

[Mike Earp]

This should have read, "Complete Guide to Australian Birds." Apologies for the typo.
Author George Adams
Published by Penguin Random House Australia (2018)
ISBN 978 1 76162 019 5

Thanks. Taht makes more sense. Not one I know but the reviewer here liked it a lot.

 

[jackobss]

Thanks for the link, Mike. I found the video of interest and also the more recent video that followed it.

 

[PeteFord]

Simpson and Day Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, 8th Edition.
384 pages, 740 grams.

S&D was originally published in 1984 and is regularly updated to reflect taxonomic changes and the arrival of species new to Australia. The eighth edition has some welcome improvements over the seventh: some of the plates have been repainted to give better views of important diagnostic features - sometimes these were covered up by superimposing one subspecies almost over another.
Overall, the plates are good, with some nice background illustration of habitats and the space on each plate is used well. A few plates are a little disappointing, such as the Fairy-wrens, which appear smudged. The range maps are good - subspecies are usually separated by black lines across the maps and the use of bold and faint colour marks common and uncommon ranges. Species that occur in limited regions have closer-scale maps, which is advantage over the other three books. Usefully, it has a fairly decent map of Australia at the front, although it doesn't mark many of the towns referred to in the text - I've lost count of the number of mentions of Innisfail and had to look it up on a different map.
The text can sometimes be maddeningly brief, with the bare minimum of detail for some species. The symbols for migratory habits and seasonal occurrence can be difficult to remember at first.
The introduction has a good section on birdwatching and identification tips, and there are bill comparisons for pelagic birds on the end papers. At the back, good descriptions of vagrant species are given, although with fewer and smaller pictures. A brief account of nesting habits and dates are given for families, with species calendars. There is also a guide to the different habitats found in Australia, which is useful as all the guides refer to specific habitat types (mulga, dry sclerophyll, etc). Another section at the back gives checklists for islands and dependent territories.
One thing to watch for is if you buy this guide as the Helm edition, it still has the note about the end papers being waterproof, which they're not as the sodden mass it became showed all too well...

In brief
Positive: useful field size and weight; good background information; good illustrations; very good maps; good separation of vagrant and more usual species; bill comparison charts and ruler on endpapers.
Negative: text can be too brief.

Hi Tony:
My daughter and her partner are working/living in Australia and the last time she and her partner visited us, they seemed to like joining me on my birding walks, so I pulled the trigger on a pair of binoculars to ship to them in OZ. I figured if I'm going to push my hobby on them, I should also grab them a book/field guide. I've been birding in Canada for about 20 years or so and I've flipped back-and-forth between National Geographic birds of North America and Peterson's field guides and stated there on my research. I came across this thread on your bird forum. Your insight and details helped me to make an informed decision on an appropriate field guide for newbie birders and really appreciated the work you put into this post. Thanks for that! Worst case scenario, if they don't enjoy the book and binos, I'll have birding gear when I visit OZ next year instead of lugging mine from the great white north🇨🇦!
Pete

 

[delia todd]

Hi Peter and a warm welcome to you from all the Staff and Moderators. I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time with all the new families of birds in Australia.

I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I look forward to hearing your news.