Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ncar!gatech!prism!mailer.cc.fsu.edu!sun13!sun16.scri.fsu.edu!sandee
From: sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu (Daan Sandee)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Field guides for Mexico?
Message-ID: <1689@sun13.scri.fsu.edu>
Date: 13 Dec 90 14:54:37 GMT
References: <1381@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au>
Sender: news@sun13.scri.fsu.edu
Organization: SCRI, Florida State University
Lines: 50

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. ..
 [..]
>
>PS  Being in Australia, it is not easy to get field guides for other countries,
>but I will be in California over Christmas (Bay Area) so I could buy books
>there. 

R.T.Peterson, A Field Guide to Mexican Birds, Houghton, Mifflin, 1973. $18.
 Excellent drawings, good descriptions, distribution information sketchy.
 Color plates separate from text. Main drawback : intended for North American
 birders. You are expected to know and recognize the North American birds,
 although this book does list them in the text and gives their distribution.
 So you definitely need a North American field guide.
 This book supposedly also covers Belize and Guatemala but I don't know how 
 well.
E.P.Edwards, A Field Guide to the Birds of Mexico, available from the author,
  Box AQ, Sweet Briar, VA 24595. $20.
 Artwork reasonable. Descriptions and distribution good but cryptic (you have
 to learn all his abbreviations). Lists ALL Mexican birds including the N.Am.
 ones. Plates separate from text.

Birding guides:
E.P.Edwards, Finding Birds in Mexico (with suppl.) $26.50.
 Lots of good information but much is wildly out of date. It covers field
 trips by the author between 1970 and 1984.

These are the books I have used. Otherwise, I can only quote the ABA catalog.

Steve Howell, Field Checklist to Birds of Mexico. $4.25.
Barbara Mackinnon Vda. de Montes : 100 Common Birds of the Yucatan, $27.50
Stiles and Skutch, A Guide to the birds of Costa Rica, $35.
Taylor, Birding in Costa Rica.  $17.50.
Wood et al., Checklist of the birds of Belize, $2.

All these available from the ABA, 1-800-634-7736 (1-719-634-7736 from
 abroad). 
You can buy a North American field guide in any good bookshop in the U.S.
For the other books, you might find them in the gift shop of the Museum of
Natural History in San Francisco (in Golden Gate Park). I remember quite a
collection of bird books.
While in San Francisco, you might want to contact Steve Howell of the Point
Reyes Bird Observatory in Stinson Beach (don't have a phone number). He is
one of the best experts on Mexico. The PRBO is open to the public at odd
times but probably not around Christmas.

Daan Sandee                                           sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052  (904) 644-7045