by Nick Athanas & Paul J Greenfield. Princeton University, 2016

Review by Anne Hanley

birds-western-ecuador-bookIf you are planning a trip to Western Ecuador, you should check out this field guide. If you’ve never birded Ecuador, you’ll want to after seeing this book.

The first thing you’ll notice are the very appealing photographs. The occurrence maps are on the same two page spread as the photo so you can see the expected range. The text includes the bird’s elevation range and some plumage description, particularly field marks that don’t show in the photo.

Compared to the Birds of Ecuador Field Guide (Robert S Ridgely and Paul J Greenfield), you will find the text abbreviated and if you are used to carrying only the plates from Birds of Ecuador, the Birds of Western Ecuador weighs more – but less than the complete Birds of Ecuador.