A Guide to the Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands: Revised Edition

by Herbert A. Raffaele

This is a revised edition of a widely praised guide to the birds of the largest of the Caribbean islands and the neighboring Virgin Islands. It includes detailed accounts of all 284 well-documented species known to occur in the region, 273 being illustrated. The book also contains specific sections entitled "Biogeography" and "Conservation" to foster an appreciation of the uniqueness of the region's wildlife and to develop an awareness of local conservation issues. The section "Places to Bird" will help make the stay of short-term visitors more productive. The book also substantially updates the data on avian distribution and abundance in the region covering records through November 1988. From reviews of the first edition: "This well-illustrated volume is a must for any student of birds visiting Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands."--Chandler S. Robbins, The Quarterly Review of Biology "A valuable and informative guide."--James A. Dick, The Wilson Bulletin "This well-written book is the first comprehensive guide to the birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. All species, including winter visitors (which comprise 47 percent of the avifauna) are described and illustrated, making a second volume for identification of North American migrants unnecessary. . . . Aside from being a fine field guide, the book contains useful summaries of the biogeography of the region and the ecology of avian populations. . . . A major contribution is Raffaele's presentation of a wealth of hitherto unpublished information on the natural history of the region's birds."--James W. Wiley, Ibis

Genres: Birds, Nonfiction, Reference

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[Tom Marsan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know that I've ever considered reading a field guide as a book, but I read this cover-to-cover on the plane for our first visit to Puerto Rico. It was a wonderful way to ground me in the birds of a totally new area, and I loved that it gave special attention to endemic species! Some taxonomies and names have changed since the '80's so it would be great to see an updated version, but this was an immensely informative read, and seems to be the gold-standard for English bird guides to the island.

[Judy]

A useful bird guide book.

[S̶e̶a̶n̶ · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a week-long trip to Puerto Rico, this field guide mostly satisfied my bird identification needs, but if I lived in this area of the world, I'd definitely want something more substantial. While the Puerto Rican endemic species (14 in all), are highlighted on the species pages where they appear, it would be nice if there was a separate checklist of all of them somewhere in the book for quick reference. I found myself wanting that at various times. Additionally, users will find a bare minimum of illustrations per species. There is a distinct lack of comparative illustrations showing plumage differences between juvenile, immature, and adult forms, as well as breeding and nonbreeding variations. One must leaf through to the print species descriptions to ferret out this information.

I'm also not really a big fan of the type of layout this book follows: color plates for visual identification separate from the printed descriptions of habitat, behavior, distribution, etc. Various field guides follow this style, but I've always preferred everything to be on one page for a species. Otherwise one finds oneself flipping desperately back and forth in the book as the bird flies merrily off deep into the forest. This format could be vastly improved by adding just a few more key details to the short description included with the plates; currently, it only includes physical descriptors. Emphasis on important field marks would also be helpful.

Size-wise, the book is perfect. I carried it around comfortably in my pocket most of the week. Naturally, adding some of the information and illustrations mentioned above would increase the pagination of the book, possibly beyond pocket-size, but I don't normally carry a guide in my pocket while in the field (at least not while birding familiar locations).

I think this is actually the only field guide out there that focuses on birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, so until someone else comes along and tries to improve on this one, it's all we've got (I was lucky enough to find it at the library). Unless you plan on moving there, though, I think it's possible to get by with this one for casual birding. For more intensive birding, consider supplementing this book with a different guide that would at least cover the non-endemic species in more depth. The time of year will also make a difference, of course; I was there before migration started so potential diversity was fairly fixed.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Selected this guide for birding Puerto Rico after looking at several others that were for the Caribbean in general. What I was looking for was a guide that would eliminate most species not expected to be found in Puerto Rico. This guide does just that as it applies specifically to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Puerto Rican endemics are identified either with a full page color plate or with a blue background on plates with other birds. Plates are most similar to the Petersen field guide so if you are familiar with that guide, this one should be easy to use. Good size/weight for field guide, well laid out and contains useful information on places to bird, although the majority were in the Virgin Islands rather than in Puerto Rico. Probably time for a new revision because some species noted as "recently introduced" have apparently spread, especially parrot species and some species noted as "in decline" were readily observed.