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From: bob@delphi.uchicago.edu (Robert S. Lewis, Jr.)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Field guides for Mexico?
Message-ID: <1990Dec12.165646.28302@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 12 Dec 90 16:56:46 GMT
References: <1381@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au>
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator)
Reply-To: bob@delphi.UUCP (Robert S. Lewis, Jr.)
Organization: University of Chicago
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In article <1381@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au> U2414008@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au writes:
>I am going to Mexico, Belize and Guatemala in January and I need some recommen-
>dations for a good field guide. 


I've never had the chance to birdwatch in Mexico, so I can't judge
which of the Mexican and Central American Guides are most useful, but
I would suggest bringing a good North American guide (like the
National Geographic Guide) along with you, because I think many of the
Mexican and Central American guides widely available in the US are
written with the assumption that they will be used by US birders who
are already completely familiar with the many US birds that also occur
in Mexico. The guides, therefore, tend to provide only brief
descriptions of the birds common to the US and Mexico.  If you don't
already know US birds, you'll probably find the Mexican field guides
inadequate by themselves.