The Reed Field Guide to New Zealand Birds

Rating:
Summary: Photos great, but elsewhere weak
Review: Geoff Moon's photographs are superb, among the best bird photos I have ever seen. But as a field guide, this book has serious limitations.

Photographs can never be as helpful as paintings in a field guide for two reasons. First, it is impossible to show similar birds in identical poses. Second, all indiidual birds and all photographs have individual quirks which can hinder identification in the field. Therefor, no photographic guide can ever be as helpful as one illustrated with good paintings.

The book is organized in the traditional way, by taxonomic order. Each entry, accompanied by same and facing page illustrations, contains six sections: name and size, habitat and distribution, characteristics, voice, food, and breeding. There are no range maps.

Not every species gets its own entry. Occasionally, Moon combines two similar species in one description.

The "Breeding" section gives detailed information on the bird's clutch size, incubation period, nest type, etc. While this is often interesting, it is almost never helpful in field identification, and therefor does not belong in a field guide.

The heart of identification is the "Characteristics" section, and it leaves much to be desired. Good field guides include a complete description of the bird, concentrating on its distinctive field marks. They also focus on how to distinguish it from similar birds with which it might be confused. Moon does neither. His descriptions are often sketchy and vague, and he never gives the reader keys to separating similar birds.

For example, the "Characteristics" section for the combined White-Capped and Buller's Mollymawk entry gives no basis whatever to distinguish the two species except to note that the White-Capped is larger. Since the size differential is as little as 10%, this is a distinction without a difference. In fact, there are ways to tell the two species apart, but you would not know it from Moon.

As another example, the entire description of the Shining Cuckoo is as follows: "Sparrow-sized, this cuckoo has rapid flight and is well camouflaged in foliage."

This is an interesting book, and the photographs make it worth the purchase price. But for spotting birds in the field, another source is needed.

Rating:
Summary: Don't try to ID NZ's birds with this guide.
Review: I made the mistake of ordering this photographic record of some of New Zealand's species. I wanted a field guide to the birds of New Zealand, but Reed's book is more of an attractive picture book.