A Guide to the Birds of Colombia

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Summary: The finest guide to birds in Colombia
Review: "A Guide to the Birds of Colombia," by Steven L. Hilty and William L. Brown is mandatory reading for serious field observers. This book treats all of the 1,695 species of resident and migrant birds known to have been reliably recorded in Colombia and on its island posessions of Gorgona and Malpelo prior to 1984.

Moreover, this massive Princeton University Press text (836 pages) includes sixty-nine color and black and white plates by Guy Tudor (one of the most talented living bird illustrators in the world) & others. And before I forget this book includes superb line drawings by Michel Kleinbaum.

I found the sections on Topography, Climate, Vegetation, Habitat Descriptions, and Conservation & National Parks excellent. In addition, the review of Colombian Ornithology and the Range Maps are valuable field observer tools. In conclusion, this is a meticulous text with an expert index that will absolutely fill all the needs of serious field obsevers. Recommended.

Bert Ruiz

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Summary: The most collorful and complete book on neotropical birds.
Review: Colombia has more than 1700 species of birds that vary in lots of collors, songs and customs. What makes this country an ornithologist paradise. The book really helps to identify those especies and it always comes handy in fieldtrips. Allthough it is always better to see them birds in theire natural habitat.

Rating:
Summary: The most collorful and complete book on neotropical birds.
Review: Colombia has more than 1700 species of birds that vary in lots of collors, songs and customs. What makes this country an ornithologist paradise. The book really helps to identify those especies and it always comes handy in fieldtrips. Allthough it is always better to see them birds in theire natural habitat.

Rating:
Summary: ¡Qué belleza!
Review: Es un libro que no debe faltar en la biblioteca de ningún ornitólogo. Describe casi la totalidad de especies de aves del país con más especies de aves en el mundo. Excelente.

Rating:
Summary: ¡Qué belleza!
Review: Es un libro que no debe faltar en la biblioteca de ningún ornitólogo. Describe casi la totalidad de especies de aves del país con más especies de aves en el mundo. Excelente.

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Summary: Native peoples laud volume
Review: In my linguistic work with a native people of Colombia I have found Hilty & Brown to be an invaluable resource for my learning of vocabulary and for adding countless items to the dictionary. The research done for this book is accurate. For example, when the authors say a given species is found in the area where our indigenous friends live, our friends verify that time after time.

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Summary: Made birding in Amazonia easy
Review: Since no definitive bird guide is available for the Amazon region and Brazil in general, I was forced to choose between this guide and the Birds of Venezuela. I ended up with Hilty and Brown's book by sheer coincidence, and I was not at all disappointed. The text and information is superb throughout, and I was able to identify several species on habitat description alone. For example, the authors clearly describe the preference of many taxa for varzea (seasonally flooded) or terra firme forests, which made a fleeting glimpse more of a certainty, and the range descriptions were invaluable. If I have only one very minor criticism, it is that I have never found plates in black and white particularly helpful, and since several artists were employed, there were differences in visual interpretation in several groups (e.g. the Picidae). However, these are minor detractions from an outstanding volume.

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Summary: The best for Neotropical South American birds
Review: This is currently the best field guide for the Amazon Basin, and anywhere in Colombia. As the worlds #1 bird nation, this bird guide gives you a good insight into the birds of tropical South America, with national maps and still-adequate recomendations of where to see birds. The guide includes illustrations of most of the birds of Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil, all of which lack comprehensive bird guides. Venezuela has a guide, but not as detailed as this one for the Amazon basin. You can't go wrong with this if visiting Neotropical South America in search of birds.

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Summary: An example for every Field Guide
Review: This work is all a bird watcher could wish for. The splendid paintings by Tudor add to the very helpful in-depth descriptions. Completed by nearly 1500 distribution maps there's nothing left to wish, except go out there and see them. I used it when birding in Peru and I could still determine nearly all the birds I saw.
It's an example for every bird field guide.

Rating:
Summary: The best for Neotropical South American birds
Review: We recently toured the peruvian Amazon rainforest and this book proved invaluable to bird sightings and classifications. We are just casual birders, but found the easy to follow format and concise explanations with exquisite plates very useful. Don't leave home for the South American rainforest without it!