Two new bird books

[Harry Legrand <harry.legrand@ncmail.net>]

Folks:
	Two new bird books have recently hit the market of interest to Carolina
birders. 

1. The new Peterson -- "A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and
Central North America". Note the addition of "and Central" to the title.
This is basically similar to the Eastern Peterson field guide, but
somewhat updated. I did NOT buy a copy, as I have the previous version,
and as I use the National Geographic, Sibley, and Kaufman for my field
use. 

This updated version I looked at in a book store yesterday. I was asked
a couple of years ago to review range maps, as I knew they would be
updated. Paul Lehman sent me maps to mark up, and he sent a few others
maps also. I note the name of R. Davis, J. Fussell, J. Gerwin, and D.
Lee among additional reviewers of NC maps. I went thru each map, and I
like what I saw. The Peterson maps are MUCH larger than maps in other
books, though they are grouped in the back away from the paintings and
text. But -- they seem up-to-date for NC. The one map I did not like is
the YB Sapsucker. It shows a dashed red line around the southern
Appalachians, as if it is a sporadic breeder! It should be solid red,
such that the mts. appear purple with the blue overlay for wintering,
indicating a permanent resident. I wouldn't have let that slip!

I did NOT review the text, so I don't know how much change there is.
Most of the plates are the same, in order to keep Peterson's presence
there (he passed away in 1996). Some new plates or birds were added.
Thus, the book should be reasonably complete, and a new feature is a
TINY copy of the range map beside the text to give a brief idea if the
bird in question occurs in your area or not.

This is a book for beginners or intermediate birders, as it does not
include Western birds. (More experienced birders like to have all of the
continent's birds in a single volume.) I like to have copies of such
books anyway, though if you already have the older version I'm not sure
you need this also. 

2. ABA Checklist -- Birds of the Continental United States and Canada,
Sixth Edition. This is ALSO an update, and if you have the 5th edition,
you might not need the Sixth. But, as Records Committee chair for NC, I
feel obliged to have a copy. This checklist wastes less space on the
checklist part, and has seemingly more pages and detail on the strays
(Codes 4-6 species). For the first time, an ABA Checklist contains a
section on rare/endangered species, as identified by FWS, Canada, and
BirdList International.

Of interest, and curiosity, is that a remarkable 14 species in NC are in
the Accidental List! These are: Yellow-nosed Albatross, Black-browed
Albatross, Bermuda Petrel, Bulwer's Petrel, White-faced Storm-Petrel,
Northern Lapwing, Spotted Redshank, Little Stint, Yellow-legged Gull,
White-winged Tern, Long-billed Murrelet, Green Violet-ear,
Green-breasted Mango, and Fork-tailed Flycatcher.  Interestingly,
Fea's/Zino's Petrel is considered Code 3 and thus not afforded
discussion of reports, controversy, etc. As you know, some of us are
quite bothered by this, knowing full well that Fea's has been more than
adequately documented from NC/North American waters, and should be
listed in the Checklist as simply "Fea's Petrel". Also, the Checklist
does not list species reported from NA that they will deliberate on,
such as Swinhoe's Storm-Petrel. 

All in all, however, it is a very good checklist, thanks to the detail
in the accidental species (about 65 pages of details on these species!).
If you already have the Fifth, getting the Sixth is a tough choice. If
you don't have any ABA Checklist, it may be worth getting, especially if
you want to know how many records, and when and where they are, for
species such as albatrosses, Eurasian shorebirds and buntings, etc.


I'll leave the cost, page numbers, ordering info, etc., for you to check
yourself on various websites.


Harry LeGrand