Birds of Texas: A Field Guide

by John H. Rappole, Gene W. Blacklock

There are certain pilgrimages that must be made by the serious North American Santa Ana in the lower Rio Grande Valley, Hawk Mountain, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Delaware Bay, the Everglades, High Island, Point Reyes, and Big Bend, to name a few. It is no accident that many of these ornithological shrines are located in Texas, which has the most diverse avifauna in North America north of Mexico. Texas comes by this enormous diversity honestly, with rugged mountains, vast deserts, lush semi-tropical woodlands, prairies, bayous, cedar brakes, thorn forests, and one of the richest temperate migration corridors in the world located along the western Gulf Coast.

Birds of Texas : A Field Guide provides an introduction and ready access to this spectacular variety. The text provides detailed information on identification, habitat preferences, voice, seasonal occurrence, abundance, and distribution. Maps show precisely where in the state the bird can be found. Photos of the bird in the field put the species in the proper visual context for identification; in fact, the photos for over half of the 622 species were taken in Texas. Texas is a unique region of the hemisphere, and its birdlife is an important part of what makes it special. This book will be useful to the beginner and the experienced birder alike.

Genres: Birds, Nature, Field Guides

372 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1994

Reviews

[Berry Muhl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a slog. And I mean that in the best possible way.

As I pointed out waaaay back at the beginning of my current read-a-bunch-of-guidebook endeavor, field guides are not meant to be read cover-to-cover. But even if I'm simply going to haul a field guide out with me for, say, birding, I'm going to have to have perused it as much in full as possible, beforehand, so that I have a sense of how to locate what I'm looking at. It's easier for me with snakes and frogs than with birds, not only because I'm generally far more familiar with these things, but also because there are so many fewer species to try to recognize. So taking on a project of this scope is, for me, a major exercise in horizon-broadening.

So the "slog" is in visiting every page, reading every description, checking out the distinguishing factors that divide up subspecies or denote closely-related species, and then in cross-referencing those descriptions with the color plates, which I suppose for publishing reasons are all kept together, quite separate from the sections referencing them. Some of the photos are of little use in helping you identify what you're looking at, because they are so blurry or distant, but I suppose there's only so much time the authors can spend on collecting high-quality material before they have to go to press.

The "in a good way" applies because although at times it was tedious, I never felt compelled to put the book down and give up. It took me longer to get through than I hoped, but there was a certain sense of accomplishment in the end.

If you're a dedicated birder, of course, then you won't have the same considerations, and will undoubtedly find this an indispensable field reference.

[Scott Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is primarily a species account of the birds of Texas. One of the more helpful features of the guide are the fairly detailed range maps for each species discussed. The species photographs at the end of the book are rather small.

[Deborah McKown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wouldn't bird without this book in my pack.