BIRDS OF NORTHERN SOUTH AMERICA: AN IDENTIFICATION GUIDE By Robin Restall, Clemencia Rodner & Miguel Lentino. Christopher Helm, A&C Black, London, 2006. Vol. 1: 880 pages; many line-drawings. Vol. 2: 656 pages; 306 colour plates; numerous colour maps. ISBN 0-7136-7242-0 (Vol. 1) and ISBN 0-7136-7243-9 (Vol. 2). Paperback, £60.00 (Vol. 1) and £40.00 (Vol. 2); set £80.00. an appendix listing published recordings of each species. Many birders are now using a recent initiative, the Xeno-canto website (www.xeno-canto.org), which hosts avian sound-recordings from the entire Neotropics, but recordings `archived' thereon are not mentioned here. In addition to covering status and habitat, the accounts also offer an optional `Notes' section wherein remarks, usually taxonomic, cover outstanding issues of interest. Vol. 2 is a slimmer affair that might suffice for the field. Doublepage spreads cover anything from four to 14 species. The maps were principally prepared by Lentino, while Restall painted all of the plates. The colour maps are generally clumped on the left-hand page, with the annotated illustrations occupying the rest of the spread. In some cases (e.g. plate 302), there is significant unused space, but such examples are rare. Where possible, ranges of different subspecies are labelled on the maps, and the authors have also attempted to ensure that distributions are accurately displayed beyond their region, as part of northern Peru and all of Brazil north of the Amazon are included on the baseline map (observant readers will swiftly note the utility of this). Generally, a broad brush is employed to
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Issue 7
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407
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