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Peterson hummer book



I took a peek at the new hummingbird guide from the Peterson series while
at my local purveyor of books today.  In many ways the book reminded me of
the in-the-same-series warbler book by Dunn in that the first section is
devoted to identification and the second section is species accounts
providing detailed migration, breeding, vocalization, and behavioral
discussions.

I was pleasantly surprised at the pictures (and these are pictures, not
drawings).  I expected a bunch of dry in-hand banding photos based on some
recent comments.  I found that each regularly occurring species was given
6-8 flight or perched shots, several head-only shots, and several fanned
tail shots.  In my opinion most of the pics showed detail at a level that
could be observed in the field or at least photographed with basic
digi-scoping tools.  The book is the size of the standard eastern/western
Peterson guides, so imagine 8 pics on a page and you'll have a good idea as
to the size of the offerings.  Most pics are cropped rather closely so
there is not much extraneous background.

All regularly occurring US species are covered (including that NC favorite,
Green-breasted Mango) as well as several species of Mexican and Caribbean
birds that could stray to the US.  I'm going to be needing a new book shelf
soon with all these new offerings!

Best,
Steve Shultz
Cary, NC