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Book Reviews
A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago
by Richard ffrench, John P. ONeill, John Anderton,
Dale Dyer and John Schmitt, 2012. Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press. xxi + 407 pp and 40
colour plates. Softback. ISBN 978-0-8014-7364-7.
$39.95 / UK24.95.
he Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago
are home to a South American avifauna, with
all but a handful of vagrant species occurring in
neighbouring Venezuela. heir small sizeand
consequently manageable avian diversity
combined with a pleasant climate, good
infrastructure, an English-speaking populace
and a serviceable ield guide, have made them
one of the choice destinations for birders seeking
an introduction to the richness and diversity of
the Neotropics. For decades, the sole ield guide
combined Richard frenchs text with John ONeills
illustrations, in a traditional format with the plates
inserted in a block in the centre of the book. For
years, it was the only guide available, and used
in conjunction with a North American guide, it
allowed observers to put a name to most of the
birds. he text provided a wealth of interesting
observations on natural history, even if it lacked
hard comparative information to support ield
identiication.
he appearance in 2007 of the more portable,
better laid-out and more ield-oriented KeneickRestall-Hayes guide, now in its second edition,
challenged the monopoly of french and ONeill.
At less than half the size, with text and illustrations
on facing pages, and depicting all species

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(including vagrants, and usually featuring several

plumages), the contender has evidently become
the guide of choice.
How does the third edition of the old french
classic compare? here have been a number of
improvements to previous editions, notably in the
plates. John ONeills paintings did not lack charm,
but their style made them more of a work of art
and less apt for the purposes of identiication. he
same applied to the wonderful Don Eckelberry
portraits that graced the irst two editions. hese
have been removed and replaced by 40 entirely
new plates by several diferent artists. Somewhat
variable in quality, though uniformly more suited
to ield identiication, they cover all species except
vagrants. Omitting these vagrants may prove to
be a mistake, since many of them will doubtless
turn out to be regular visitorsand precisely
the species that will require painstaking ield
identiication. he straightforward species
woodpeckers, antbirds, tanagersare, however,
well-served. Herons are another easily identiiable
lot, but one might have wished for more attention
to identiication of Little Egretta garzetta and
Snowy E. thula Egrets, since both are often to be
seen on a trip to the islands. Raptors receive much
better treatment than previously, with some muchneeded depictions of lying birds in colour. Swifts
are very successful, with authentic wing-shape
and rump patterns: this is the standard required
if observers are to be in with a ighting chance
of identifying these birds. he plate of thrushes
is a bit of an oddity with Spectacled (Bare-eyed)
hrush Turdus nudigenis and Orange-billed

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Nightingale-hrush Catharus aurantiirostris

looking similar in size, while the facing text notes
that Cocoa hrush Turdus fumigatus is the same
length as the latter; but there is little scope for
mistaken identity despite these errors. Overall,
inexperienced observers will be able to identify
most species by the plates alone. heir limitations
will become apparent with diicult groups like
peeps or skuas (jaegers): for example, my irst
edition Keneick-Restall-Hayes guide provides 32
illustrations of ive species of Stercorarius, whereas
the user has to make do with six paintings of the
two most likely species here.
he text of the current edition has been
brought up-to-date too with the incorporation of
ive decades of frenchs ield notes, yet it does
not look appreciably diferent to that of my ieldworn second edition. As in previous editions,
there is a store of information within these pages
and a lot of natural history data that are not to
be found elsewhere. his will be vital for those
with more than a passing interest in the islands
avifauna. For the purpose of ield identiication
though, the text remains less than ideal, and I
suspect that less experienced users will ind the
text inadequate for clinching the identiication of
trickier groups like, say, Myiarchus lycatchers. A
similar species section would have gone a long way
to remedying this. All in all, I would have expected
more emphasis on identiication within the text
to supplement the very brief notes that face the
plates, particularly in the light of advances in bird
identiication technique and knowledge over the
past couple of decades. here should be attention
to age / sex / race related diferences in plumage,
such as mention of the fact that that Lesser Blackbacked Gull Larus fuscus records are all of the
easily ield-identiiable, light-mantled graellsii
subspecies or that the Swainsons Flycatcher
Myiarchus swainsoni records pertain to the
nominate subspecies.
In sum, although I have a lot of afection for
the old french guide, on my next trip to Trinidad
and Tobago, Im more likely to be carrying
Keneick-Restall-Hayes into the ield. However,
I would still want to have access back at camp or
hotel to the copious natural history information
collated over ive decades by french. His legacy is
well preserved in this posthumous edition.
REFERENCES
Keneick, M., Restall, R. & Hayes, F. (2007) Birds of Trinidad
and Tobago. London: Christopher Helm

Christopher J. Sharpe

Handbook of the Birds of the World, Special

Volume: New Species and Global Index
edited by Josep del Hoyo, Andrew Elliott, Jordi
Sargatal and David A. Christie, 2013. Barcelona,
Spain: Lynx Edicions. 812 pp, 214 bird
illustrations, 50 igures, 319 colour photographs
and 94 distribution maps. Hardback. ISBN 97884-96553-88-0. 145.00 (approx. $197.52 /
UK120.80).
he irst volume of the Handbook of the Birds
of the World (now universally known as HBW)
appeared in 1992 to wide acclaim. Subsequent
volumes consolidated HBWs reputation as
the single most reliable and accurate source of
information on all the worlds birds. Several of
them were of particular interest to our readers,
either for their coverage of quintessentially
Neotropical families (like the furnariids,
woodcreepers, antbirds and tapaculos treated in
volume 8, or the cotingas, manakins and tyrannids
of volume 9), or because they provided a muchneeded synthesis of particular families that had
hitherto been inadequately covered by Neotropical
ield guides (such as owls, nightjars and
hummingbirds, treated in volume 5). Sometimes
the plates contained the only accurate or colour
illustrations of little-known endemics. he inal
volume, including tanagers and icterids, rolled
of the press in 2011, bringing the sixteen-volume
series to a conclusion.
So why a Special Volume? Birds just ofer
too many things to talk about! quips Josep
del Hoyo in his introduction. Admittedly, the
Special Volume was an afterthought, albeit one
conceived several years before the end of the
project. As Josep explains, the extra volume aimed
to give an overview of the way avian systematics
had developed since HBWs inception (when
the Peters Check-list was adopted as a basis for
organising the survey), to cover the dozens of
species that had been described since the project
began, and to provide a much-needed index.
When the project was nearing completion, the
editors received an ofer they could not refuse: to
publish descriptions of 15 entirely new species.
hus the elements of the volume came together to
be melded into a single, if rather heterogeneous
book.
BirdLife International has been involved in
Lynxs initiative since the start, so it is itting
that the Foreword should comprise a history of
the organisation, which celebrates 20 years as a
global partnership and 90 since its founding as the
International Council for Bird Preservation.

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>> BOOK REVIEWS

Jon Fjeldss essay on Avian classiication
in lux gives a masterly overview of a subject
that can cause as much consternation to birders
as it does to professional ornithologists. He
explains the value of classiication, shows
why it is changing so rapidly (due to the rapid
growth in genetic analyses, the increasing rate
of discovery of fossils, the congruence between
molecular and morphological data and our clearer
understanding of Earths history) and explores
the current bird classiication, order by order. In
the process, he examines the purposes of naming
and classiication, the reasons for splitting wellestablished species, the diferent species concepts
and just what is involved in genetic analyses. For
me, this is one of the highlights of the volume: the
perfect introduction to a polemical topic and the
ideal answer to the birders continual question of
why bird names and classiications are constantly
changing. he inal section, entitled Why is it so
diicult?, just about sums it up! Required reading,
then, for those who struggle with Splits, Lumps
and Shules...
Fjeldss next essay on he discovery of new bird
species is equally gripping. Despite Ernst Mayrs
assertion in 1946 that all but a hundred or so bird
species had been catalogued, in the two decades
since HBW began 128 new entirely bird species
have been described, a igure includes neither
splits nor the 15 newly described species contained
in this volume. his puts the annual rate of
discovery at half a dozen species per year, a igure
which shows no sign of tailing of. Neotropical
birders will not be surprised to learn that more
of these new species are being found in South
America than anywhere else.
he following section is logically devoted to
the 69 New bird species described since 1992 (if
youre following the igures, this does not include
new species already covered in the previous 16
volumes of HBW). he accounts are exactly like
those of the main body of HBW and include
superb illustrations by Hilary Burn. With these
additional accounts, HBW now treats every bird
species known through until the end of 2012.

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Neotropical Birding 14

After this comes the set of type descriptions

of the Fifteen new species of Amazonian birds. All
of these are Brazilian species, and 11 are country
endemics. he last time so many new species were
described simultaneously in the same publication
was in von Pelzelns publication of 1871 on the
birds ofyouve guessed itBrazil.
After all the serious technical information,
readers might be ready for some refreshment
and they get, it in the form of 200 spectacular
photographs that illustrate the diversity of avian
plumages and behaviours.
Serious duties resume with a comprehensive
Global index by scientiic name, or common name
in English, French, German and Spanish.
And thus, this extraordinary twenty year
odyssey through the avian world concludes. Or
does it? he Special Volume is in many ways a
transition volume. Later this year, Lynx will be
publishing the two-volume HBW and BirdLife
International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of
the World. At the same time, the entire content
of HBW, updated and with a huge amount of
supporting material, has been made available
online as the continuously updated HBW Alive.
So, to buy or not to buy? he easy answer is
that those who already have volumes 116 will
undoubtedly want this inal volumeindeed, will
already have it. hose who have cherry-picked
the most relevant volumes to the Neotropics (5,8,
9, 16) will ind much of utility here, given the
geographical slant. hose who dont have previous
volumes will probably not have suicient reason
to part with their money. With what they save,
my recommendation would be to plump for three
years of HBW Alive.
REFERENCES
Mayr, E. (1946) he number of species of birds. Auk 63:
6469
von Pelzeln, A. (1871) Zur Ornithologie Brasiliens. Resultate
von Johann Natterers Reisen in den Jahren 1817 bis 1835.
Vienna: A. Pichlers Witwe & Sohn.
Peters, J. L. (19311951) Check-list of birds of the world.
Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press.

Christopher J. Sharpe