Shorebirds: An Identification Guide to the Waders of the World

Rating:
Summary: It's a truly wonderful book
Review: I have purchased this book some five years back in a local book exhibition. Text is accurate especially for one who is interested in bird hunting. But the real feast is the breathtaking illustrstions made by the single artist himself. His painstaking artwork for each species, male&female, juvenile upperwings, lower wings are really fine. Only minus aspect is if the book would have been little bigger the illustrations would have also become bigger.

Rating:
Summary: Poor reprint quality ruins a great series
Review: Make a plate-by-plate comparison of the new Waterfowl or Shorebirds guides with the original hardcover editions and you'll see that the sofcover illustrations look like cheap color photocopies. All of the subtlety and detail that made the originals the best field guides of their kind has been lost. Save your money for the used bookstores.

Rating:
Summary: Best guide for identifying shorebirds
Review: This book covers all of the shorebirds of the world with 1700 full-color paintings. There are lots of general tips on identifying shorebirds, and each bird is covered extensively. When I first picked up the book at an ABA Teen Birder convention in Colorado, a birder near me said "You have to buy that! Look at the Dunlin page!" Well, the Dunlin page is indeed a good example of this guide's excellence! There are 28 paintings on the page covering the different plumages of the bird and how it looks in flight and from different positions. The text on the adjacent page gives brief descriptions of the bird in each of those plumages and a world range map. It also redirects you to the all-text section of the book that has extensive information on identification, voice, habits, moments, description, age/sex, races, and measurements of the bird. I definitely recommend this book to any birder interested in the identification of shorebirds!