The Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand |
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Author:
Hugh Robertson,
Barrie Heather
By Penguin Group (NZ)
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: £29.95
Our Price: £29.95
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Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780143020400
ISBN: 0143020404
Label: Penguin Group (NZ)
Manufacturer: Penguin Group (NZ)
Number Of Pages: 440
Publication Date: 2005-11-22
Publisher: Penguin Group (NZ)
Studio: Penguin Group (NZ) |
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The best NZ field guide - with room to improve, 2005-03-07
The Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand is the best field guide to NZ birds available! It covers all birds normally found on the North and South Island as well as on Chatham and Auckland Islands and others. It describes the birds, their appearance "jizz" and moulting in words that everyone will understand and find interesting and provides decent maps of migration, habitat, breeding etc. Compared to other books on the market this IS the benchmark!However, I find the colours a bit off - they appear to be a little bright compared to studies in the field - and the texts suffer from lack of proof reading from time to time.
A more in-depth description of jizz would also have been appreciated as many of the native and/or sea birds in NZ only show themselves briefly and, especially if you're just visiting the country on a holiday, many birds can be difficult to establish 100% in the field without prior exposure - or good field guide descriptions. All in all, I do recommend this book over any other book on New Zealand birds available! It comes close to the best of the European field guides!
Like the Hand Guide but more informative, 2007-10-29
Considering that you don't really get much for your money with the 'Hand Guide' version of this book compared to other field guides - I would definately recommend that you choose this book instead if you are a serious or semi-serious birder/naturalist as it is an informative read in its own right as well as an adequate ID guide.
It only gets 4 stars as the quality of illustrations and style of the ID guide section is good but doesn't compare to some of the best guides on the International market and as I explained in the 'Hand Guide' review, is perhaps not even required given the nature of birds seen in NZ.
See my review of the Hand Guide for some recommended places to visit.
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