Birds of South America: Passerines: from Sapayoa to Finches

Ber van Perlo has now produced fieldguides for, it seems, most parts of the world. This one serves as a passerine companion to the non-passerine volume of 2006 by Jorge Rodrigues Mata and others. As is typical of his field guides van Perlo has both illustrated and written the text, this one covering nearly 2000 species. The plates on the whole are less crammed than some of his others and each image is rather larger. The text is minimal, but mentions both voice and habitat, and the distribution maps are rather small. If you are going to one particular part of South America and one which has a specific guide, I suspect you will take that rather than this one.  However this one will allow comparisons across the continent if you wish.

Book reviewed by Peter Lack

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