Fotografía de autor

Rodolphe Meyer de Schauensee (1901–1984)

Autor de A Guide to the Birds of Venezuela

12 Obras 209 Miembros 2 Reseñas

Sobre El Autor

Obras de Rodolphe Meyer de Schauensee

Etiquetado

Conocimiento común

Miembros

Reseñas

A thorough listing of 2924 species inhabiting South America is let down by the inconvenient placing of all illustrative plates in a central block and the lack of colour illustrations throughout. Both these shortcomings arise from the book's age and presumed cost constraints. At just £7 in 1971 it would have been very hard to do much more.
½
 
Denunciada
TheoClarke | Feb 21, 2015 |
This book is a cross between an illustrated guide and a general accounting of China’s birds. It is not a field guide for three reasons. One, this book illustrates only 516 (40%) of China’s 1,300 birds. Two, most of the illustrations show only the adult male’s plumage if differences exist between the genders. Three, the illustrations contain no information next to the plates except for the bird’s name.

The 38 color plates do a fair job of portraying the birds. The selection of species tends to be the more colorful birds or those with distinctive identification features. The plates were drawn by three artists that have illustrated other bird guides. For 23 of the plates drawn by one artist, these show a style that is very cartoonish with their generalized wash of color and little detail. The artist captures the essence of the bird’s color patterns but not the realism. The remaining 15 plates by the other two artists are – to me – notably better. Another 39 black-and-white drawings are scattered throughout the book. These typically take half the page and include a natural background with the birds. These are quality drawings done by a fourth artist.

The text accounts for the last 80% of the book and contains the species accounts. Each bird receives between 1/3 and 1/2 page that covers description, range in China, global breeding range, habitat, and voice. Some information is often given for comparisons to other species. The descriptions are brief but do point out useful identification features. Assuming you can narrow down your choice to a couple of the birds with or without the plates, these descriptions might be able to help you identify the bird.

This book will be helpful some of the time, but better options exist for a field guide. This book is best used at home to research the individual birds either before or after your field excursions. Some recommended field guides are “The Birds of Hong Kong and South China” 8th edition by Viney/Phillips and “A Field Guide to the Birds of China” by MacKinnan/Phillipps. For color photos, the “A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Hong Kong” by the Hong Kong Birding Society is good.

I’ve listed several related books below…
1) The Birds of Hong Kong and South China, 8th ed. by Viney/Phillips
2) A Field Guide to the Birds of China by MacKinnan/Phillipps
3) A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Hong Kong by HKBS (ISBN 9621428947)
4) Atlas of birds of China by Qian (ISBN 7534915643)
5) Birds of China by Zhang
6) Atlas of the Beijing Birds by Zhao (ISBN 7503822570)
7) The Avifauna of Hong Kong by Carey (ISBN 9627508020)
8) Birds of China by Zhang
9) Les oiseaux de Chine, de Mongolie et de Coree non passereaux by Etchecopar
10) A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Japan and North-East Asia by Shimba
… (más)
 
Denunciada
Soleglad | May 21, 2009 |

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Estadísticas

Obras
12
Miembros
209
Popularidad
#106,076
Valoración
½ 3.4
Reseñas
2
ISBNs
14

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