A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica

Rating:
Summary: Classic and Useful
Review: It is hard to add much to the reviews provided by readers. The book is a superb guide to the birds of Costa Rica. It is a bit heavy and many guides cut the text out and bind the pictures into something a bit lighter for the field.

Rating:
Summary: Classic and Useful
Review: It is hard to add much to the reviews provided by readers. The book is a superb guide to the birds of Costa Rica. It is a bit heavy and many guides cut the text out and bind the pictures into something a bit lighter for the field.

Rating:
Summary: Its a good field guide!
Review: Just back from 2 week guided tour to Costa Rica. This was a tour featured as "Nature's Museum" and led by a trained biologist that was good on bird ID, though his time was demanded more for logistics and keeping everyone of our 26 tourists happy by hitting the majors such as monkeys, butterflys, and birds like Quetzels, Motmots, and Toucans. I found the Stiles and Skutch guide to be most helpful. Recommend that a new user, read all of the general information just prior to a visit to the country. Also read in advance, the descriptions of bird families and look thru the plates to get a feel for birds you might see. Then when in the field, you can easily scan the plates, and check out the narrative descriptions, including their habits and ranges. Though this was not a bird trip, we did pick up 150 species that we felt comfortable on ID and perhaps a dozen unknowns mostly because of only flighting glimpes. About half were first called out by the local guides and the others by ourselves with help of the book. I find this book's info. on bird ranges to be most useful especially for neotropical migrants for which our North American guides generally ignore wintering areas south of US. One note of caution, is that the color plates aren't always perfect, for instance the tree swallow is too green, the palm tanager a bit too drab, and variants are not shown. Looks like there is room for a next generation "Sibleyian" guide to birds in central America.

If you have a more casual interest in birds, you may be more happy with "A Pocket Wildlife Guide" for Costa Rica, published by Rainforests Pub.,... commonly available locally in Costa Rica. It has nice color plates of common birds, butterflys, reptiles, and mammals.

Rating:
Summary: Its a good field guide!
Review: Just back from 2 week guided tour to Costa Rica. This was a tour featured as "Nature's Museum" and led by a trained biologist that was good on bird ID, though his time was demanded more for logistics and keeping everyone of our 26 tourists happy by hitting the majors such as monkeys, butterflys, and birds like Quetzels, Motmots, and Toucans. I found the Stiles and Skutch guide to be most helpful. Recommend that a new user, read all of the general information just prior to a visit to the country. Also read in advance, the descriptions of bird families and look thru the plates to get a feel for birds you might see. Then when in the field, you can easily scan the plates, and check out the narrative descriptions, including their habits and ranges. Though this was not a bird trip, we did pick up 150 species that we felt comfortable on ID and perhaps a dozen unknowns mostly because of only flighting glimpes. About half were first called out by the local guides and the others by ourselves with help of the book. I find this book's info. on bird ranges to be most useful especially for neotropical migrants for which our North American guides generally ignore wintering areas south of US. One note of caution, is that the color plates aren't always perfect, for instance the tree swallow is too green, the palm tanager a bit too drab, and variants are not shown. Looks like there is room for a next generation "Sibleyian" guide to birds in central America.

If you have a more casual interest in birds, you may be more happy with "A Pocket Wildlife Guide" for Costa Rica, published by Rainforests Pub.,... commonly available locally in Costa Rica. It has nice color plates of common birds, butterflys, reptiles, and mammals.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best
Review: Like all the readers before me, I found this book unbelievably complete and thorough, compeling and mesmerizing. The color llustrations are beautifull. The text his precise and informative, from an overview of each bird family to description, habits, voice, nest, status and range of each bird. An absolute must-have for any bird- or Costa Rica lovers! A hundred times the informations in the Birds of North America... (which I still really really like!)

Like the Quetzal calls: "very good, very good..."!

The book is a bit heavy and I agree you should remove the central plates and only bring the illustrations on your field trip.

Rating:
Summary: My daughter was relieved
Review: My daughter did a foreign study program down in Monteverde in environmental studies, and ended up doing (or attempting) field research on Motmots. We went down to visit on vacation, and bought a copy of Skutch and Stiles before we went. When we got down there I mentioned we had brought a field guide, and pulled out this one. Turns out it was the right choice.

Skutch was a giant in this field, and this book is the one the researchers use, althought it is still very accessable to the layman. The price is right as well. It is widely available in a great many places down there, but always at list.

--!! TAKE THE TIME TO PUT A CLEAR PLASTIC COVER ON IT. I used shelf-liner, and was very glad I did.


Rating:
Summary: One of the Best
Review: This book along with the essay collection "Costa Rica : The Last Country the Gods Made" should be owned by anyone who loves Costa Rica, even if they think they despise nature studies as dry and limited. This book's spirit is undeniable.

Rating:
Summary: Best Guide to the Birds of the Region!
Review: This is a lavishly illustrated book with all of Costa Rica's 830 bird species depicted in color on 52 plates. This is also a valuable book if you visit any of Costa Rica's neighbouring countries. The book is not only a field guide, but it is also a guide to birding in Costa Rica. The species accounts are highly informative and set out in a simple format. Although the plates are a bit cramped and the illustrations are small, they are clear and well drawn.This book is a must for any birder visiting Central America.

Rating:
Summary: Best Available Bird Book
Review: This is the best bird book currently available for birding in Costa Rica. I consider it a must-have. A better field guide is currently being written, but it'll be a couple more years before it's available.

It's a good guide, but here are my criticisms: This book is a bit too big for a field guide. The drawings of the birds are separate from descriptions and range information. Some of the drawings aren't accurate - check the descriptions for a good ID. If you're going far north or south, you may want to supplement with books on Panamanian and Nicaraguan birds, since this guide doesn't include rare migrants. The organization uses a slightly different taxonomic order than North American field guides.

Rating:
Summary: Birds of Costa Rica
Review: This is the best book for birding in Costa Rica but it is far too big and heavy to be an ideal field guide. A pro birding guide in CR suggested buying the book, removing the illustrations and having them bound for use in the field. Guides at La Selva have the plates laminated in plastic and spiral bound for easy carrying. Since it is a expensive field guide I'd suggest buying a protective cover for it. If you don't want to carry the weight, Peterson's Birds of Mexico has many of the birds you will see in Costa Rica.