Birds of West Indies.

Princeton Field Guides

by Herbert A. Raffaele, James Wiley, Kristin Williamson (Illustrator)

More than 560 species of bird are known to occur in the West Indies, including migrants and vagrants (occasional visitors accidentally diverted off their usual routes), each of which is identified and beautifully illustrated in this comprehensive guide. Species notes explain each bird's range, habitat, nesting habits and other information, such as local names, and are accompanied by a distribution map. There is also a locality checklist charting the occurrence of each species island by island.

Genres: Birds, Nonfiction, Nature, Reference, Field Guides, Guides, Ornithology

511 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1920

Reviews

[Bruce Beckham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin. Well portable.

Short family holiday in Barbados rather than birding trip - I came across 17 species and was able to identify them all from the guide, with a little help from various online lists that narrowed down the I.D. process.

Illustrations are accurate and a good overview of regional distribution. I would probably use in conjunction with more detailed guide on a serious trip. (How do I wangle that?)

[Jan-Joost Bouwman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Used on my trip to Cuba from 23/1 - 4/2 2023 and on a previous trip to the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Puerto Rico. Not the most up to date guide to the region (the Guy Kirwan book from Lynx is probably more up to date with splits) but since I already had this, and this trip only included Cuba, focusing on the endemics, I did not see the sense in buying a new guide just for this trip. Yes, some things had been split, but that was easy enough to figure out with a checklist. All birds are pictured and briefly described, including all regular winter visitors. Including more difficult plumages of the warblers. And it is not very heavy, which is always a bonus in field guides. Worked fine for me. Now I just have to figure out if I want to get the last endemics on the lesser Antilles...

[Mikey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many of Tracy's paintings are in this book.

[Ancilleno Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my go to for birding in the Caribbean. I have used it in several countries already and it also works pretty well in south Florida.