VISTABOOKS DISTRIBUTING: Title from Naturegraph/Birds
 Handbook of California Birds

Handbook of California Birds. Brown/Weston. This handbook with 600 color paintings gives scientific name, range and habitat, distinguishing characteristics, behavior, voice and details flight patterns, feeding behavior, courtship, migrations, and also groups birds by habitat. 224 pages. ISBN: 0-911010-16-5.  #NATG2070 paper$12.95

Book Reviews of Handbook of California Birds

 1. "Eastern birders traveling in California would do well to take along this book as a supplement to Peterson, Pough or Robbins. Advantages: it is limited to California birds, illustrates more than 370 of them in full color (on crowded pages), and it has copious notes (for the armchair ornithologist) on range, habitat, behavior, and voice. In addition to the 96-page annotated list of illustrated birds (grouped by likenesses for comparison rather than in the conventional AOU order), there is a checklist of species (in AOU order), for checking birds that you see in the field. The introductory section also includes data on plumages, bills and feet (illustrated), flight, food habits, courtship, territories, nests and eggs (color plates), and migration. Thus, it could serve as a textbook on California ornithology." (George J. Wallace, The Jack-Pine Warbler, Dec. 1975, vol. 53, no. 4, p. 161)

2. "This revised edition is much more thorough and graphic than its predecessors (in comparison, the 1961 edition had 160 pages). In concise pictorial presentation and compact size, it is a good field guide. It stresses what beginners need to know: bird 'topography,' types of bills, good sections on food foraging behavior, and other information. Described and illustrated are 368 species of California birds--fewer than the 518 species described in The Birds of California [also reviewed in this issue]. The Handbook includes behavior and voice notes; The Birds does not. Both describe ranges within California. The Handbook has a separate checklist of rare species....For Californians just beginning bird watching, the Handbook is preferable, of the two books. For Californians immersed in bird study, The Birds is essential and the Handbook a useful supplement. Buy both!

"As for the illustrations: the color drawings by Jerry Buzzell are very good--winter and summer plumage, some birds shown both in flight and at rest. Of the relatively few photographs, some have been reduced to tiny size, and the color on some is washed out or over-blue. The black and white photographs, though just as small as those in color, are more successful.

"Vinson Brown is the author of 24 books on wildlife and Indian lore. Henry G. Weston, Jr., an ornithologist, is Professor of Biology at San Jose State University. Jerry Buzzell has made a specialty of bird and wildlife art for the last 17 years." (Books About Birds, January 1975)

3. "This edition [1973] updates the original published in 1961 by including colored illustrations of more than 370 birds known from California. It is intended to be helpful to beginning birdwatchers in California, since it includes only birds known from that state. For the more experienced, it is intended to be a supplement to other field guides and to provide armchair quizes of 'name  that bird' since the names of the birds appear in the corner of each color plate so they can be easily concealed. Interesting details on bird anatomy, behavior, and habitats are included in the rather lengthy sections preceding the species descriptions. While the color plates are aesthetically pleasing and include many supplementary illustrations of flight characteristics and winter plumage, some of the details are a bit hard to discern. This book will be another welcome addition to the collections of avid California birders." (The Condor, Winter 1973)

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