Warblers of the Americas: An Identification Guide

by Jon Curson, David Quinn, David Beadle

The first comprhensive guide to all 116 species found in North, Cenral, and South America.

Genres: Reference, Birds, Nonfiction, Nature

252 pages, Hardcover

First published September 23, 1994

About the author

Jon Curson is the co-author of New World Warblers, a definitive and widely acclaimed guide to this group of birds. He has spent years studying birds at observatories and in the field across North America and has conducted extensive research trips to Mexico and the tropics. His work includes contributions to various ornithological journals, particularly on American warblers. He is also a committee member of the Neotropical Bird Club.

Reviews

[max · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, warblers. Or, as our German friend calls them, "verblers." The plates in this book are gorgeous. There are 109 species described and depicted. While it has of course all the commonplace warblers that are seen in the NE United States where I live, it also has obscure species whose range is so limited that it boggles the mind. For example, the Whistling Warbler is only found on the tiny island of St. Vincent in the Lesser Antilles. Other birds in this book also have extraordinarily restricted ranges and are as a practical matter off limits to all but professional ornithologists -- or the people who happen to dwell on the tiny patch of land where they are found.

I can remember the times I saw a Black-throated Blue, a Canada, a Black and White, a Northern Parula, and so many others. Once I spent what seemed like an hour lying on my back in the middle of a forest craning my neck to get my first and most fleeting glimpse of a Cerulean. I saw a Cape May Warbler in, yes, Cape May, and a gorgeous Prothonotary in the Pine Barrens. I spied a Blackburnian in a boreal forest (Maine?) and others too numerous too recall or name. My birding these days is limited to the occasional bluebird that alights on a backyard soccer net, or a catbird, goldfinch, or white breasted nuthatch.

This book is armchair birding at its best. When looking at the plate of an exotic species such as a Flame-throated Warbler or a Slate-throated Whitestart, it is wonderful simply to imagine what it would be like to be sitting in a forest in Costa Rica and actually seeing one -- for real.

[Chuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best written and well illustrated reference books avaiable on the study of birds. This work studies only the wood-warblers of the Americas which to many bird watchers are the jewel of the passerines in this hemisphere. Of the 116 species outlined in this book, I have had the opportunity to observe 82 of the species with most of the balance in remote areas of South and Central America.