Juha Honkala

THE BASICS: flexcover; 883 very good color photographs and illustrations show 558 species; first part of the book provides maps, photos and text for 54 birding sites; second part gives species accounts for all 471 birds known from the Agulhas Negras area along with very good color photos and high quality illustrations for each bird; a range map is provided for each species.

THE REIVEW: This book is a great new addition to the short list of good guides available on the birds of Brazil. It is actually two books in one. The first half is a location guide to 54 notable sites throughout the four southeastern states of Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, and Sao Paulo. The second half of the book is a photo guide to all 471 birds of the Agulhas Negras area.

There are over 880 photographs of birds in this book, covering 558 (58%) of the 964 species found in the 4-state region. Most of these photos are of very good quality, offering a clear and nice sized image of each bird. A few of the species have color illustrations instead of a photograph. The quality and skill of these illustrations are commendable, often looking sharp enough to nearly look like a photograph. There is typically just one photo of each species unless notable differences exist between the male and female plumages; then, a photo is given for both.

The latter two-thirds of the book is a photo guide focusing on just the Agulhas Negras area, which is basically the entire extreme northwest corner of the state of Rio de Janeiro. All 471 birds known from the region are shown with either a photo or an illustration. The amount of text with each bird consists of a short description of the bird, denoting its key identification notes. A few sentences do a good job of describing the bird's voice and couple more notes address habitat and status. This material is not extensive and is less than what other field guides might provide, but it is still useful.

A nice addition is labeling the bird if it is an endemic by putting an "E" next to the bird's name and, drawing attention to the bird's conservation status of critical, endangered, vulnerable, or near threatened. Also with each bird is a small range map of Brazil.

Regarding the first third of the book, the author's have arranged a very nice compilation of 54 different birding sites in the 4-state region. This section is laid out in an attractive style, with 80 color photographs of habitat, 36 maps, and 57 short lists of birds that are of interest to the various locations.

The material given for each site covers logistics of getting there as well as commenting on the available facilities. A brief historical background is also given for the sites along with some notations on what birds are expected to be seen. It was a nice touch to squeeze in special notes about the birding locality into their own little side box. These extra notes cover a wide array of topics such as the rediscovery of a species, contact information with websites or e-mails, the splitting of species, parking fees, or detailed turn-by-turn instructions for driving the roads. One other nice feature is the use of a symbol by the name of each site to denote the relative number of endemic species that can be found.

The book concludes with a full checklist of all birds found in each of the four states. The bird's conservation status and a note if it is endemic to the region is also noted.

This book is both attractive and useful and should be carried with you during any birding trip to southeast Brazil. As with most photo guides, the images may not always be adequate for identifying all the species; thus, an illustrated guide should also be taken with you. – (written by Jack at Avian Review with sample photos, October 2010)… (més)