Birds of Southern South America and Antarctica.

This field guide was an excellent addition to our trip to Argentina (Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls National Park). It is easy to transport in a backpack (small and not too heavy) and the color plates make it relatively easy to identify the birds we saw. In addition, the geographic plates were useful so we could determine if the birds were usually found in the regions we visited. Furthermore, the names were given in both English and Spanish which made communicating with the local guides much easier. I highly recommend this field guide to anyone traveling in southern South America.

I used this book for several weeks in Patagonia and would buy and use it again. It is small, the illustrations were good but there are a few species not illustrated. The pelagics seen south of Cape Horn were often not in it, but this is to be expected. It's greatest strength is also a weakness. There are sooo many species that it covers. Almost all of the birds in it are not found in any particular region. The range maps being in the back takes time to adjust to. In fact though this matters very little. I just used color coded dots to mark the illustrations as to the area I was birding. Wide ranging species had several colored dots. I actually later appreciated having the separate range maps because when I prepared my own dot-coded ranges this worked very well. If you do not prepare with a manual anyway this will be a disadvantage because there are so many SA species that without preparation this manual will be slow to use. I rarely had Internet access. Hard copy like this field guide is necessary.

I am going birding in Bolivia -- which does not yet have it's own field guide -- later this year. So instead of carrying one guide I need to figure out which combination of books will strike a balance between usefulness and space/weight. I have a feeling this is going to be one of my main resources. It is very portable and so far about 85 percent of the birds I may potentially see are in here. In no way is this book intended to replace a full scale field guide such as "Birds of Columbia" by Hilty or "Birds of the High Andes" but then again it is less than one quarter the size and weight. Also, FYI -- it is quite a bit more than merely an illustrated checklist: you do get a small one paragraph description for each bird, a range map at the back which is a little inconvenient but many full size guides use this format also. The book is probably a little out of date as far as some of the finer points of taxonomy -- but many of the recent arguments are at least explained. All in all -- I feel this will be a very useful book to have along, though it will definitely not be the only book I'll have along.

Unfortunately I've not had the opportunity to use this book, because our travels have been curtailed. However, I'm glad to have it as it covers one of my favorite areas of the globe.

Took this to Patagonia and it was a very useful resource for identifying a host of birds. Paired with the Merlin app Chile pack it came in quite handy.

My copy of the book was published in 1998 with Maurice Rumboll listed as coauthor in addition to M. R. de la Pena. Great reference book, but needs to be worked out with B. of Chile by A. Haramillo. Many changes in bird names and taxonomy. For example: Light-mantled sooty albatross. In addition to the bird measurements in centimeters, the lengths and wingspans should be also provided in inches. Blue eyed cormorant (Phalacrocorax atriceps) and King cormorant (Phalacrocorax albiventer) are given, but South Georgia Cormorant (Phalacrocorax georgianus) is missing!? Picture of SGC is included, taken on 31. October 2015 at Cooper Bay, SGI.

I purchased this book for my first trip to Iguazu Falls where I do not know the birds very well. Its advantages are that it is portable and probably covers most species in this area. Its problems are legion. The authors randomly number the illustrations on each plate. For example, Plate 59 (woodcreepers) contains 3 rows of illustrations, and the opposite page contains the names and descriptions. The first row is numbered 6, 7 and 4. The second row contains 5, 1, 10, 9 and 8. The third row contains 2, 11, 12 and 3. When you are birding in a new area and have mere glimpses of species you are trying to identify, this becomes infuriating. I can accept that the images on the plates had to be arranged in a particular order. But why they couldn't they have numbered the birds in consecutive order? I have used dozens of field guides for decades, and this is the first that was so poorly constructed that it fell apart. It got damp during a rainfall (Iguazu is a sub-tropical rain forest) on my first day in the field. The front and back cover slipped off entirely from the rest of the book. Princeton should be ashamed of producing such a shoddy piece of merchandise. Finally, I am not confident the illustrations are accurate. For example, I had several excellent looks at what turned out to be a yellow-fronted woodpecker. The most striking feature is a huge white patch down the center of its back, similar to what you would see in a hairy or downy woodpecker in North America. I searched the woodpecker plates in vain for this character, and those that have it were not the species I saw. After several additional viewings I identified the species. Yet the illustration on plate 56 does not depict this feature (the text mentions this character). Had I seen the bird but once, a common situation in tropical birding, I would never have been able to identify it. This may be "the best" you can do for this area now, but once a better book is produced this one will fall into the ash heap of history.

Excellent book with the birds of southern South America. I'm not an expert on birds, so the book fulfilled my needs one hundred percent. I wanted information especially of the birds in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. The book gives you the local names in Portuguese and Spanish by country.

Relación calidad/ precio buena. Libro pequeños que puedes llevar en tus excursiones por el sur de américa

I bought this book in preparation for our cruise around South America. We have just returned from this amazing time. The bird book was very informative, and we could identify quite a few birds with its help, The illustrations and descriptions are clear and easy to understand, we enjoyed learning about the birds in this continent, and managed to get some good photographs too. I would recommend this book to anyone visiting South America, who is into birds.

Ótimo livro para quem orienta grupos de birdwatchers, pois trás o nome vulgar da ave em vários idiomas, se ave ocorre na Argentina terá o nome vulgar dela lá além do nome científico e em inglês. Português, espanhol, inglês e científico. Além de mapa da região onde ela ocorre.

I purchased this book for my forthcoming tour of Paraguay, which does not have its own field guide (yet). The range of the book overlaps with southern Brazil to which I already have the standard field guides. The plates are perfectly usable and the text is in informative and concise. Only time will tell whether this book was a worthwhile purchase, but early signs are promising.