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Rating: 
Summary: T&T birder's bible
Review: An excellent field guide to Trinidad & Tobago's avifauna, the ffrench has been around long enough, & loved well enough, in its various editions, to be considered a classic of its kind. I've used it everywhere from Port of Spain's Botanical Gardens to the forests of the Northern Range to the Pointe-a-Pierre Wildfowl Trust to my own back garden & never failed to identify the specimen in question (& I am no more than an enthusiatic amateur). This book, for me, is the model of a natural history field guide.
Rating:
Summary: T&T birder's bible
Review: An excellent field guide to Trinidad & Tobago's avifauna, the ffrench has been around long enough, & loved well enough, in its various editions, to be considered a classic of its kind. I've used it everywhere from Port of Spain's Botanical Gardens to the forests of the Northern Range to the Pointe-a-Pierre Wildfowl Trust to my own back garden & never failed to identify the specimen in question (& I am no more than an enthusiatic amateur). This book, for me, is the model of a natural history field guide.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice plates....Where are the rest?
Review: I haven't gone to Trinidad yet, but I thought I could go ahead and write this. I was flipping through the guide, planning my trip and daydreaming about birds, when I realized that there weren't very many plates. There are a LOT of plates that should have been included in this book, but were not. I generally expect a field guide to have pictures of the common birds. Yes, I will be able to identify a black vulture, common moorhen, or limpkin without the field guide. But you really have to bring two field guides if you're not familiar with terns, rails, gulls, and some other groups. In other words, only the pretty birds get pictures. I don't really want to bring two field guides, especially since this one is so big. Why is it so big, if it only has a few plates? It includes detailed measurements, banding records, and wordy descriptions. But, the food and behavior notes are excellent, and I believe they will aid in identification. Plus the introduction contains excellent information on the environment of Trinidad and Tobago.
Rating: 
Summary: Not up to scratch!
Review: Sadly, this book is a disappointment. Using it was commonly an exercise in frustration and futility. Unlike other books in the same series, there was a noticeable lack of information - particularly Plates - on even the most common birds. The Plates that were available often showed marked errors e.g. colouring, from the actual birds (eventually) identified. I found quite quickly that my poor view of this book was widely shared by the local guides - it was universally criticised as below the required standard. I wished I'd taken my "Birds of Costa Rica" instead - I would have been better off!
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best Neotropical bird guides ever written!
Review: The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago has long been a mecca for visiting birders eager to conveniently experience the sights and sounds of South American birds. This book, which is essentially a hybrid between a manual and a field guide, is exceptionally well written, packing in more natural history information than most bird guides. The introductory chapters provide an excellent overview of Trinidad and Tobago. The greatest asset of the book is the natural history information provided in the species accounts. The extensive coverage of the literature makes this book an excellent reference, but few recent sources are cited. Although the taxonomy is outdated, it is familiar to the older generations. Information on the status and distribution of birds--which birders lust--is often vague, but usually accurate. The biggest drawback is the illustrations, which depict only species not illustrated in the North American guides, and are poorly organized. Despite these shortcomings, this is an excellent, authoritative book which must be purchased by any serious birder who plans to visit Trinidad and Tobago. I hope a more compact revision is forthcoming...
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