Rating: 
Summary: A must for any level of birder in Costa Rica!
Review: A great field guide! After 8 days, my guide was well worn. The "human type" guides that we went birding with on two occasions used the same field guide. They would tell me what plate to go to, from memory, to find the birds we were viewing. My husband, a novice birder, ID'd as many birds as I did using this book. The printed information on the birds was excellent also, as it clinched several ID's.
Rating:
Summary: A must for any level of birder in Costa Rica!
Review: A great field guide! After 8 days, my guide was well worn. The "human type" guides that we went birding with on two occasions used the same field guide. They would tell me what plate to go to, from memory, to find the birds we were viewing. My husband, a novice birder, ID'd as many birds as I did using this book. The printed information on the birds was excellent also, as it clinched several ID's.
Rating:
Summary: The Bible for whoever goes Bird-watching in Costa Rica
Review: A guide with everything you'd possibly wish for. The only thing left after having read this book is go out and watch them, and use this book to easily identify them. You can tell the good (human) guides in Costa Rica from the bad guides by the use they make of this book: bad guides claim they don't need it; good guides now you can't do without it!
Rating:
Summary: Birding at its Best
Review: Costa Rica is a bird watching paradise. I ought to know - my wife and I wrote the guidebook, "Adventure Guide to Costa Rica," and we payed special attention to birding spots around the country. Please check our book out as well. Bird watching may be the perfect eco-tourism activity because of its low environmental impact as well as its benefit to the local economy. Gary Stiles title is a very helpful guide for both experienced and amateur birders and the color plates aids in identifying indigenous and transient species. Thorough.
Rating:
Summary: Birding at its Best
Review: Costa Rica is a bird watching paradise. I ought to know - my wife and I wrote the guidebook, "Adventure Guide to Costa Rica," and we payed special attention to birding spots around the country. Please check our book out as well. Bird watching may be the perfect eco-tourism activity because of its low environmental impact as well as its benefit to the local economy. Gary Stiles title is a very helpful guide for both experienced and amateur birders and the color plates aids in identifying indigenous and transient species. Thorough.
Rating:
Summary: Don't go to Costa Rica without it.
Review: Even if you're a rookie birdwatcher like me, make sure this book is always within reach. No matter where you go in Costa Rica, night or day, walking through a rain forest or driving down a dirt road, there are birds to be seen. Most you've never seen before and most can be identified with this book. (P.S. Wear your binoculars all the time!)
Rating:
Summary: The book was absolutely invaluable for my trip to Costa Rica
Review: Even though not all the birds were pictured on the plates in the book, I didn't run into any birds that were missed. The plates were generally of an acceptable quality and the write-up on each species was excellent. It was about time Costa Rica, a birding mecca for all serious birders, had its own field guide. The book was great and Costa Rica was even better! Together, they were excellent. One suggestion would have been to have a simple code with the plates to indicate which of the species (flycatchers in particular) were likely to occur only in one particular location (ie) upper Pacific Slope. With the help of the tour guides, this book was excellent.
Rating:
Summary: Working with birds in Costa Rica
Review: Excellent book, invaluable for field and in-hand identification of birds in Costa Rica. If I could offer criticism, we need a more up to date edition (many species' range information needs updating a little) and species with strong population clines need more plates (eg Caribbean versus Pacific races). For birders visiting in the winter an extra book for US species (I recommend The North American Bird Guide by David Sibley) will compliment Stiles & Skutch for many variable and eclipse plumage migrants.
Rating:
Summary: Don't leave home without it.
Review: Having lived in Costa Rica since prior to the publication of "the book," I can attest to what a joy it is to have all the bird life under one cover, so to speak. (We used to have to tote 3 different volumes into the field!) Still, some find this one book too much to be burdened with and (as another reviewer has mentioned) pull out the colored plates from the book's center. I wholeheartedly recommend this procedure, but with one difference: take the text into the field and leave the plates at home (no offense, Dana). While the paintings are of passable quality, the information contained in the text is nothing short of superlative. No one would ever be able to distinguish between, let's say, a Rufous Piha and a Rufous Mourner by looking at the illustrations. The text, however, gives some very useful pointers, including vocalizations, that just might solve your identification quandary. But the bottom line is, if you're going birding in Costa Rica, don't leave home without it.
Rating:
Summary: Book I Refer to the Most
Review: I have lived on the Pacific of Costa Rica for 5 years and find myself constantly referring to this book - one that was recommended to me by virtually every person I spoke to who knew I was relocating to Costa Rica.For other fans of this book, you may be interested to know that one of the authors, Alexander Skutch, recently passed away at the age of 99. He was a long-time resident of Costa Rica and long admired in ornithological circles. A memorial service was held for Mr. Skutch on May 20th - his 100th birthday - at the Tropical Science Center in Perez Zeledon, in the Southern Zone of Costa Rica. Please refer to an article in The Tico Times, May 14, 2004 edition.
|
