Handbook of the Birds of the World, Vol. 7: Jacamars to Woodpeckers - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 8487334377 ISBN 13: 9788487334375

Publisher: Lynx Edicions, 2002

Synopsis

This volume covers Jacamars, puffbirds, barbets, honeyguides, toucans and woodpeckers. Each chapter, headed by a summary box, deals with a different family, and it is subdivided into sections: systematics; morphological aspects; habitat; general habits; voice; food and feeding; breeding; movements; relationship with man; status and conservation; a general bibliography and detailed species accounts. The species accounts include names in French, German and Spanish, in addition to scientific and English names. Each species features taxonomic notes; subspecies and distribution; habitat; food and feeding; breeding; movements; status and conservation and a selected bibliography.

About this title

About the Author:

Thomas Züchner: Alexander Koenig Research Institute and Zoological Museum, Bonn, Germany. Hans Winkler: Konrad Lorenz Institut of Ethology, Austria Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria. Joe Tobias: Freelance ornithologist, Cambridge, England. Lester Short: Lamont Curator Emeritus, American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA and Senior Research Associate, National Museums of Kenya, Kenya. Pamela C. Rasmussen: Michigan State University Museum, East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Tadeu Artur de Melo Júnior: Zool. Vert., Universidade de Franca, Franca, SP, Brazil. Jennifer F.M. Horne: Senior Research Fellow, National Museums of Kenya, Kenya. Errol Fuller: Tunbridge Wells, England. N. J. Collar: Research Fellow, BirdLife International, Cambridge, England.

David A. Christie: Assistant Editor of British Birds and freelance ornithologist, United Kingdom. ARTISTS: Hilary Burn, Clive Byers, John Cox, Albert Earl Gilbert, Mark Hulme, Àngels Jutglar, Ian Lewington, Hector C. Miranda, jr., Dave Nurney, Ian Willis, Tim Worfolk.

Review:

A friend of mine, a lifelong zoo enthusiast who was always a self-proclaimed 'mammal man', recently told me that he had signed on to Lynx Edicions' instalment plan to buy the first seven volumes of the Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW). On my expressing surprise at this uncharacteristic behaviour, he explained that the barrage of praise from reviewers (myself included) had finally convinced him that this was something too good to miss. He has not been disappointed - having received his first two volumes, he commented in tones of mild astonishment that birds were 'just as interesting as mammals.' To those of us who hailed the first volume as marking a new epoch in ornithological publishing, and have greeted each of its successors with growing wonder and delight, this may look like stating the obvious. But we were the Handbook's natural fan-club: the fact that it can bring about a road-to-Damascus conversion of people not initially predisposed in its favour is, in a way, an even more convincing proof of its excellence.

Volume 7 covers six families, Jacamars, Puffbirds, Barbets, Toucans, Honeyguides and Woodpeckers, with respectively 18,35,82,34,17 and 216 species. As always, I find that much of the pleasure of HBW comes from finding out how much I didn't know. In the case of the jacamars and puffbirds, this means almost everything about them - perhaps to some extent understandably, since these exclusively neotropical families are very seldom found in zoos. (Jacamars, it appears, are fairly conspicuous in their native regions, but I find some consolation for my ignorance in the fact that puffbirds are described as 'relatively little known'!) With toucans, barbets and woodpeckers, of course, the regular zoo-goer is on more familiar territory, though the diversity and wide distribution of the latter two families mean that few collections can claim to exhibit a representative sample of species. As for honeyguides, well, I previously knew only one fact about them - that some of them lead ratels to bees' nests - and this, I was disappointed to learn, isn't necessarily so. The species concerned, the greater honeyguide (Indicator indicator), may do this, but 'there appears to be little real evidence to support such claims.' It really does, though -and apparently deliberately - guide human beings to nests, and is traditionally rewarded with a chunk of the honeycomb. (Surprisingly, wax rather than honey or larvae is the bee product which features largely in the bird's diet.)

Honeyguides are interesting in plenty of other ways - for example, all species so far studied in detail are 'brood parasites', i.e. their eggs are laid and their chicks reared in the nests of other species (typically but not exclusively barbets). But I must avoid the temptation to fill this review with information I've acquired from the book before me. Even the most expert professional ornithologist couldn't fail to learn something new from any page of any volume of the Handbook. And as the series has continued, the information provided has become ever more comprehensive. I mentioned in my review of the previous volume (I.Z.N. 48 (4), 248-9) that the editors were consulting their readers before deciding between two options -to restrict coverage in order to keep the complete Handbook to the previously projected 12 volumes, or to continue the recent trend towards fuller treatment and so extend the series to 16. The fact that, of almost 3,000 replies, 93% favoured the latter option renders my individual praise virtually redundant - when your readers are that supportive, who needs reviewers?

Each of the last few volumes of HBW has included as a Foreword an extended essay on some general topic of ornithological relevance. This useful custom continues in Volume 7, for which Errol Fuller has contributed an authoritative 58-page account of Extinct Birds (extinct, that is, since the traditional cut-off date of 1600). These are big pages, remember, so this is practically a book in itself, full of the melancholy fascination the topic always evokes. There is, of course, a grey area - Fuller mentions several species which re-appeared after being officially 'extinct' for 50 or 100 years, and the jury is still out on a number of the birds he includes. (In the case of the imperial and ivory-billed woodpeckers, he refers readers to their entries in the main body of the book, though both he and the authors of the species accounts admit that both birds are probably extinct.) A final section on 'Hypothetical Species and Mystery Birds' ventures briefly into the territory of the cryptozoologists.

Enthusiasts for modern information technology have been predicting the 'death of the book' for many years, without being able to point to any real evidence that this death is imminent. The Handbook offers a convincing argument to the contrary. A CD or website could conceivably contain as much information as HBW - though no currently available CD or website does - but no computer technology that I'm aware of can yet offer the convenience, pleasure in use and ease of access of a well-designed book. Books, I suspect, are here to stay; and none more so than the Handbook of the Birds of the World, for not merely are the individual volumes built to last, with bindings, paper and print quality to match the finest collectors' editions of the past, but the publishers plan to keep the Handbook up to date in a way seldom attempted before in any work of reference. After Volume 16 is published - in, at a guess, 2010 or thereabouts - they intend to issue a series of supplements including all relevant information published, and any species or subspecies discovered, too recently to have appeared in the original volumes. There seems to be no good reason why this updating process should not continue indefinitely. It's something of a reviewer's cliche to say that some book 'must not be missed'; but for anyone with a serious interest in birds, or in zoology in general, HBW is as near to being an essential purchase as can be imagined. When I reviewed the first volume, back in 1993, urged readers to start saving to buy the complete series. If you've missed out so far, it isn't too late - the publishers offer a number of ways of spreading the cost. Like the friend I mentioned at the start of this review, you won't regret your decision. Nicholas Gould -- International Zoo News, July 1, 2002

IT'S BIG! It's back and it's beautiful as ever! Forget the superlatives; they ran out long ago and there simply aren't enough words in the thesaurus. Just take it as read that everything about the latest volume of Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) is simply first - class.

After the publication of the last volume, the publishers realised that planned 12 volumes were insufficient to do justice to the project. Rather than take a unilateral decision, they polled all the subscribers, asking them if they were prepared to support extending the series to 16.

It's a measure of the quality of the books that a whopping 93% of customers said 'yes', despite the possible damaging prospects to bookshelves, bank balances and marriages.

HBW7 includes jacamars, puffbirds, barbets, toucans, honeyguides, and woodpeckers. Before you even get to the main substance of the book though, there is the foreword to look at. These always take the form of extended essays and this one, by Errol Fuller is about extinct birds. At 58 A4-sized pages, this almost the equivalent of a small book in itself.

Even the foreword is profusely illustrated though, for obvious reasons, these are the mostly in the form of the plates rather than photographs.

The quality of the plates throughout the book is superb. Eleven top artists have been used with the honours going (just) to Ian Lewington for his barbet illustrations.

The plates accompany the species accounts which as well as the distribution map, have sections on taxonomy, subspecies, descriptive notes habitat, food, breeding, movements, and status and conservation.

There is also a mini-bibliography. If that is the "bread and Butter" reference section, it is the family text that gets the greatest plaudits. Again, taking the form of an extended essay (the woodpecker section runs to 125 pages), these sections are profusely illustrated with more than 300 mouth-watering pictures. These are not simply portraits, but action shots of the highest quality. As well as exuding scholarship, the text is very accessible, making it a book to enjoy reading, not simply looking for facts.

One feature of the books that hasn't received a lot of attention so far is the "build quality" which, as you might expect by now, is first class. The book sits open easily and you just know that the pages aren't going to fall out.

Special care has even been taken on the dust jacket. The top and bottom edges are folded over so that you are unlikely to suffer the odd little nick or tear as you take it off your shelf. A laminated quick index to the non-passerines has also been included.

The only criticism i have ever heard levelled against these books is that they are expensive. Well, up to a point, but there is far more value to be had from a volume of HBW, compared with a couple of identification guides.

If you need any more incentive, there are special offers for anyone who wants to start collecting from scratch and even an instalment plan with low monthly payments.

Don't think that these must be books for the expert only. They are for every birder- just books that happen to be simply magnificent. Gordon Hamlett -- Bird Watching, July 1, 2002

This book covers the Galbuliformes and the Piciformes, thus completing the coverage of the nonpasserines in the Handbook of the birds of the world. The forward to this book, written by Errol Fuller, is an extensive discussion of extinct birds. The 58-page forward includes a general introduction to rarity, reasons for extinction, and hypothetical species, those that are known from only a single specimen or from a description. Brief descriptions of extinct species follow the general introduction and cover 72 species that are generally recognized as extinct. These accounts include the well-known cases of the Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis), Dodo (Raphus cucullatus), and Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis), but also cover many less-well-known species, including a disturbing number of birds that were endemic to various islands and island archipelagos. The attention to detail in the forward is demonstrated by the extensive list of references, which covers five pages.

The organization of the text is similar to previous volumes. The family accounts begin with a range map and general description of members of the family. The text that follows this introduction is organized into sections on systematics, morphological aspects, habitat, general habits, voice, food and feeding, breeding, movements, relationship with man, status and conservation, and a general bibliography. The text is accompanied by numerous well-chosen photographs of family members. Following the text on each family are individual species accounts that provide taxonomic information including the scientific name and names in French, Spanish, and German; information on the original description; and information about superspecies, subspecies, and races. A description of the family's distribution is accompanied by a range map. Additional sections within the individual accounts cover descriptive notes, habitat, food and feeding, breeding, movements, status and conservation, and a bibliography. J. A. Tobias authored the section on the jacamars (Galbulidae) and coauthored the species accounts for this family with T. Zchner and T. A. de Melo-Júnior. The section on the Bucconidae (puffbirds) was authored by P. C. Rasmussen and N. J. Collar. L. L. Short and J. F. M. Horne coauthored three of the four family accounts within the Piciformes, which cover the Capitonidae (barbets), the Ramphastidae (toucans), and the Indicatoridae (honeyguides). The section covering the Picidae (woodpeckers) was written by H. Winkler and D. A. Christie.

A laminated index to the first seven volumes of the Handbook of the birds of the world is included with volume 7. One side is organized systematically and includes illustrations of a representative member of each family as well as the volume and page number for the family description. The other side of the index is in alphabetical order and includes orders, families, and general common names.

In the introduction to volume 7, the editors discuss the results of a poll in which they asked readers whether they preferred "the recent trend of longer, fuller texts, more photos, and more extensive coverage of subspecific variation on more plates." An overwhelming 93% of the almost 3,000 respondents preferred the expanded coverage, even if it resulted in more than the originally estimated 12 volumes in this series. The editors have made a wise decision to continue their expanded coverage and make this indispensable reference even more useful to ornithologists. As with previous volumes in this series, this volume is a must in any ornithological library. Sara R. Morris -- The Wilson Bulletin, June 1, 2002

About this edition

• Publisher: Lynx Edicions
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 8487334377
• ISBN 13: 9788487334375
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 613
• Editor: Josep Del Hoyo, Andrew Elliott, Jordi Sargatal