Derek Onley and Paul Scofield
Whether heading for a day long pelagic trip, an ocean cruise, visiting interesting coastal areas with colonies of nesting seabirds or you want to study a challenging group of birds, Albatrosses, Petres & Shearwaters of the World will be of interest. This book is an exemplar of what a book from a University Press should be. While covering the world's 136 species of albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, storm petrels, and diving petrels, it discusses taxonomy on a genetic level (although I think identifying these closely similar birds, many which migrate from ocean to ocean was probably a fraction easier when there was more lumping!), acknowledges the research of taxonomists and ornithologists, uses the metric system only, and goes into great detail on identifying characteristics, with good range maps. It has an in-depth discussion on the natural history and conservation status, including a section called "Reasons for Despair, and a chart from IUCN that explains the criteria for a variety of levels of threatened species. It discusses the added difficulty of birding at sea and in varying conditions, imploring us to spend time watching the behavior rather than snapping a quick photograph for identification purposes. The illustrations, which are coded to help identify which phase or sex is illustrated are located separately from the range maps and detailed species accounts. Species are illustrated on the same page as their confusion species, allowing direct comparisons for more accurate identification.
From the publisher: This is the first comprehensive field guide to the world's 136 species of albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, storm petrels, and diving petrels. Because many of these birds spend most of their lives far from the coast, traveling from ocean to ocean in a constant search for food, they are poorly known, enigmatic, and often hard to identify in the field. This guide will make field identification much easier. It illustrates every species and shows the distinct plumages of each. It contains 46 high-quality color plates opposite concise descriptions and a color distribution map, with more complete species descriptions following. Species are illustrated on the same page as their confusion species, allowing direct comparisons for more accurate identifications.
This field guide includes information on breeding, feeding, distribution, migration, and conservation. And it illustrates for the first time several extremely rare species, such as Beck's and MacGillivray's Petrels, and the New Zealand Storm-Petrel, which was rediscovered only in 2004. Seabird watchers will find this an indispensable field guide for use around the world.
• A comprehensive guide to all 136 species of open-ocean seabirds, with subspecies and morphs fully illustrated
• Designed for field use, with concise information opposite plates, and close- and long-range identification tips
• Confusion species included on plates to aid accurate identification
• Detailed species accounts, including a color distribution map for each species
• Full treatment of recently rediscovered and rarely seen species.
About the authors:Derek Onley is an internationally acclaimed wildlife artist who specializes in seabirds. He has illustrated more than a dozen books, including Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand. He lives in New Zealand. Paul Scofield is Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand. He has been a seabird biologist for more than twenty years and has traveled from the high Arctic tot he Antartic studying seabirds."
Paperback, 240 pages, 9 x 6 inches, 46 color plates opposite concise descriptions, 2007
