- Hardcover: 328 pages
- Publisher: Yale University Press; 1st Edition edition (Dec 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0300077556
- ISBN-13: 978-0300077551
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 15.4 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,249,474 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
The text begins with an introductory sentence indicating the general size and type of bird. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The text begins with an introductory sentence indicating the general size and type of bird. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The old field guides to the birds of Madagascar are extremely hard to find and laden with so much information that it is difficult to wrap your head around. They have been out of print for decades. Peter Morris and Frank Hawkins have here assembled the best guide to Madagascar's birds I have found anywhere. The photographs are excellent, the descriptions dead on and very helpful. Researchers use this book to ID birds in the field. It is small enough to be practical, yet large enough to not be clumsy to hold. I bought my copy in 2005, and have never regretted it. I have since seen one of the competing books, which is closer to how the old books were, with illustrations and huge depth of information: Guide to the Birds of Madagascar. Either book can be extremely useful, and sometimes we found it easiest to refer to both for a difficult ID.
In short, if you are going to Madagascar, and you want to know your stuff, this is the book to buy. It's convenient and very useful. If however, you are going to Madagascar to do research, your best option is to buy both this one and the Guide to the Birds of Madagascar by O. Langrand. They are invaluable resources, but don't expect to be able to ID every bird you see straight off. It's not that easy in practice.
In short, if you are going to Madagascar, and you want to know your stuff, this is the book to buy. It's convenient and very useful. If however, you are going to Madagascar to do research, your best option is to buy both this one and the Guide to the Birds of Madagascar by O. Langrand. They are invaluable resources, but don't expect to be able to ID every bird you see straight off. It's not that easy in practice.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A very beautifully illustrated photographic guide which is just what we need for our trip !
It is slim and strongly bound and should be most practical and useful to take with us for reference.
So glad I got it!!
It is slim and strongly bound and should be most practical and useful to take with us for reference.
So glad I got it!!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
A Good Birder's Guide
22 Mar 2008
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is truly an excellent guide to the birds of Madagascar. The photographs are of high quality and in most cases can be used to readily identify the bird in question. I particularly like the introductory section on the Habitats and the birds found in them in the several ecological areas of the island. This is of great help to an outsider experiencing this magnificent island for the first time. As pointed out by the authors, the number of breeding species is only about 204 of which some 120 species are endemic. This is not an overwhelming number compared with the vast numbers in neighboring Africa. The species that are endemic are a particularly interesting assortment with as many as six enemic families with as yet unclearified relationships with other bird groups. This is the one place where more information on these unique endemics would have been useful in understanding the avifauna of Madagascar. I will be putting the guide to the test in an upcoming extended tour of the island. I'm sure it will be most useful.
Comprehensive
17 Sep 2011
Format:Hardcover
This was a great book to have on my trip to Madagascar. Too bad it is hardcover as it makes it difficult in the field.
Most excellent
13 Mar 2011
Format:Hardcover
Having never seen Langrand et al. (1990), I'll say this is one of the best guides for Madagascar and indeed one of the best around for any specific region. It is that rare sort of guide where every effort is made for it to be comprehensive; even though it is photographic, any birds for which a photograph is missing are still illustrated with an excellent painting. The choice of photographs, meanwhile, is superlative, good enough in 99% of cases to be diagnostic, with every effort made to track down the best possible shots of all the endemics.
Most photographic guides are all about the pictures, often crowbarring in an image that isn't necessarily diagnostic [probably partly to bulk up and partly out of the sense of achievement in actually having sourced A photo of a rare bird] and also not imparting much in the way of information. This book, however, doesn't forget what it set out to do, and as such has, in addition to a decent image, also provided excellent descriptions of all plumages, voice, behaviour, range and habitat notes, and best of all, notes for distinguishing a bird from its most similar relatives and recommendations of where in Madagascar to go for each species.
With no new species described since this book's publication and only one omission [the Bluntschli's Vanga, whose taxonomy is highly dubious and no one has seen alive anyway], this book does not threaten to go out of date anytime soon. Madagascar's avifauna is relatively self-contained, with a manageable number of species for an exhaustive field guide to be possible; this book has made sure future guide writers have no excuse in not putting out a book of at least similar standard.
Most photographic guides are all about the pictures, often crowbarring in an image that isn't necessarily diagnostic [probably partly to bulk up and partly out of the sense of achievement in actually having sourced A photo of a rare bird] and also not imparting much in the way of information. This book, however, doesn't forget what it set out to do, and as such has, in addition to a decent image, also provided excellent descriptions of all plumages, voice, behaviour, range and habitat notes, and best of all, notes for distinguishing a bird from its most similar relatives and recommendations of where in Madagascar to go for each species.
With no new species described since this book's publication and only one omission [the Bluntschli's Vanga, whose taxonomy is highly dubious and no one has seen alive anyway], this book does not threaten to go out of date anytime soon. Madagascar's avifauna is relatively self-contained, with a manageable number of species for an exhaustive field guide to be possible; this book has made sure future guide writers have no excuse in not putting out a book of at least similar standard.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
