Photographic Guide To Birds of Peru (A Photographic Guide to)

I am not a serious birder, so when I found out I would have a chance to go to Peru, I wanted something that would tell me what I was looking at and cover the highlights. This book is full color, and has clear and short descriptions of the birds. It is not too large or heavy, good for carrying with me. It actully had more detailed information than I will ever use.

Peru is home to more than 1,800 bird species, 120 of which are found nowhere else in the world. A real birder will search out a serious guide book to take to Peru, probably the magnificent Birds of Peru (Princeton Field Guides) by Thomas S. Schulenberg, which was released on October 15, 2007. For a general traveler like myself, however, a smaller guide is a necessity, and Princeton apparently couldn't bring itself to edit its masterpiece. So, after an extensive search, I settled on this volume for traveling to Peru and it proved an adequate albeit limited guide. This book features 252 of Peru's most interesting and spectacular birds, with full color illustrations, information on identification, habitat and distribution and Latin names. I particularly liked the color coded "thumb tabs" assists to locating specific species. Pocket sized, 144 pages, 280 color photos. The Princeton book is a wonderful resource, but this volume makes a useful traveling companion. Robert C. Ross 2008