Field book (1 Viewer)

[miksik]

I am planning to go to New Zealand - to see nature, birds, take some photos .
Please can somebody suggests which field-book is better one:

The Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand
http://www.bookdepository.com/The-Field-Guide…/9780143570929

or

Hand Guide to the Birds of New Zealand

http://www.bookdepository.com/Hand-Guide-the-…/9780143570936


Authors are the same, as well as description of books but number of pages and price are different.

Or another one Guide?


Thank for any suggestion!

 

[miksik]

As I understand, Hand Guide: "A much smaller, cheaper book than the Field Guide, it will be attractive to a wider audience of less serious bird watchers as well as the more serious who want a more portable version...Ideal for use in the field"
when Field Guide "an additional handbook section that includes information on the distribution, habitat, population, conservation, breeding, behaviour and feeding habits of each species"

So Field Guide is more informative but in field is better to use Hand Guide

 

[miksik]

BTW http://www.bookdepository.com is really cheaper way to buy books! Sorry, it is not advertisement, I compared many possibilities for this New Zealand's birding book, such as Amazon, e-bay, NHBS, Penguin Books etc.

 

[GrahameNZ]

Hi,
You have it correct the Hand Guide is better if your travelling, there's a significant difference in size and weight.
For the technical info about the birds your interested in use the NZBOL website
http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/
Then you have the best of both worlds.

 

[Young Birder]

These guides, or should I say this guide, is the only one I'd use as my main guide for sure, but the Hand guide version is so much lighter. In fact you could take the "field" out of the field guide. I totally agree on using nzbirdsonline, Its a great site.