Birds of Belize

Corrie Herring Hooks Series

by H. Lee Jones

With nearly six hundred identified species of birds—and an average of five "new" species discovered annually—Belize is becoming a birding hotspot for amateur and professional birders from around the globe. Thousands of birders visit the country each year to enjoy Belize's amazing abundance and variety of both temperate and tropical birds in natural habitats that remain largely unspoiled. But until now, despite the growing need for an authoritative identification guide, birders have had to rely on regional field guides that offer only limited information on Belizean birds. Birds of Belize provides the first complete guide to the identification of all currently known species—574 in all. The birds are grouped by families, with an introduction to each family that highlights its uniquely identifying characteristics and behaviors. The species accounts include all the details necessary for field scientific and common names, size, plumage features, thorough voice descriptions, habitat, distribution, and status in Belize. Full color, expertly drawn illustrations by noted bird artist Dana Gardner present male and female, juvenile and adult, and basic and alternate plumages to aid visual identification throughout the year, while 234 range maps show the birds' distribution and seasonality in Belize. A comprehensive bibliography completes the volume.

Genres: Birds, Nature, Field Guides, Biology, Reference

317 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2003

Reviews

[James Clark]

Great reference guide! Definitely not a field guide ... but a great book.

[Steve H]

Useful for the trip to Belize, but the copies our friends had were more useful. They physically took the book apart and rebound it in two sections, one with the plates and one with the lengthy verbiage. So, they had a nice field guide of about 50 pages that weighed a few ounces. We had the full thing that weighed a pound or more and had a lot of information that wasn't useful in the field. I'd suggest the author/publisher consider creating a smaller, more portable field guide.

[Heather]

Described online as THE book to take birding in Belize, we did. And it was useful, showing virtually every bird that we saw (over 120 species) while we were there. The book is large and heavy. It is basically broken into three parts, the visual plates (56 of them), the family & species accounts, and the range maps (which can be quite useful).

[Jules]

If you are going to Belize and going to Bird, this is seriously the only book to have. Easy to use, good pics.