BAYBOCA Bulletern
Extract BAYBOCA Bulletern
ExtractThe following article is from the February 1998 edition of the BAYBOCA newsletter, the BAYBOCA Bulletern, which is mailed to all members.
This article is based on the short talk given by Stephen Wilbourne at the July 1997 Bayboca meeting.
A
field guide should have an emphasis on bird identification. With
an appropriate field guide and binoculars, one should be able to
identify any bird encountered.
Australia has a surprising range of field guides. Let us look at the national field guides first, scoring them on the basis of their information content and ease of use, and compare their coverage of one species, Varied Sittella.
Back in 1980, there was the old Pizzey. This rates high on information but low on ease of use. The text, illustrations and maps are in different sections, and the illustrations are small, crowded and lifeless. Some illustrations are in black and white only. The index refers to birds by id numbers rather than page numbers. For Varied Sittella, there is a page and a half of text.
In the mid 80s, Simpson & Day produced a volume with medium information and medium-high ease of use. I was surprised to read that 47 writers actually contributed to this volume, Simpson himself providing the text for 66 out of 760 species. The text, maps and illustrations have been brought together, although the birds can be spread about on a page. The illustrations are lifelike with the birds shown in natural poses. Information however is fairly concise - Varied Sittella are described in eight lines, with races being described as "north" and "south" in the text but by race name in the illustrations. The map does not show the distribution of each race separately.
Slater provides a field guide with medium information and high ease of use. It is a compact size and can be squashed into a pocket or bag. At about 500g, it is easier to carry than Simpson & Day (about 800g) or the old Pizzey (about 750g). Varied Sittella have fourteen lines of text, but the illustration clearly shows the different races around a map which is coloured to show their separate distributions.
The new Pizzey has recently been published. This rates high on both information and ease of use, but it is big and heavy (about 1100g) and is therefore less likely to be carried around. The layout is clear and uncluttered, with illustrations opposite the appropriate text. The text is a reworking of the text from the old Pizzey, but the illustrations are all new. I am glad that the id numbers have been banished - all references are by name. Varied Sittella get a full page of text.
The dilemma confronting national field guides is that by virtue of being national, they can only provide limited information regarding range and status (ie. where do I find this bird?) and sometimes limited information on identification. The problem is one of size. The solution is to break the task down, and there are three sub-sets of field guides which do this: identification-only guides, location-only guides, and regional guides. Several examples of each of these types will be considered.
Identification-only guides simply cover a much smaller range of birds. One example is Australian Waterbirds, a paperback-sized book which covers waterbirds, each with half a page of text and a single half page photo. It does not really provide any extra information than any of the national field guides. Another example is Raptor Identification (now called What Raptor Is That). This is a specialist book which provides much additional information than that in the national guides. Unfortunately, although it contains excellent information it is a difficult book to follow. It took me a while to realise that the fold-out card inside the back cover is designed to be detached and taken with you in the field.
Location-only guides try to tell you where to find
particular birds. One example is Bransbury. This is an
excellent book which provides a general description of birding
sites around Australia. The book is organised by regions within
states, and provides a discussion about the region as well as
birding information and maps. There are 73 pages devoted to
Victoria. Another example is Thomas and Thomas, which by
contrast is only concerned with the key species in very defined
areas. It is a book for twitchers, virtually telling you which
tree to look in for a given species. Only 14 pages are devoted to
Victoria.
Regional guides cover the birds of a particular geographical region, generally providing information on locations for bird watching and details on likely and less-likely birds. There is a great variety of these, so here are some brief comments on a few.
A book on Sydney describes twenty different localities, then discusses individual bird species with details of likely locations and abundance. A very slim book on Perth describes seven localities and includes a useful but very confusingly numbered bird list. Within Victoria, an older book on the Yarra Valley devotes half a page to each of 84 common local birds, and contains a listing of 178 species with details of habitat and status. Closer to home for Bayboca, a more recent local book covers the birds of Bayside . This book discusses the local area, devotes half a page to each of 60 common birds, and then provides an excellently researched annotated listing of a further 180 birds based on records since 1945.
Two Queensland regional guides by Lloyd Nielsen provide a new approach to bird identification. In addition to information about the status and range of each species, the books list possible birds under a number of overlapping categories. For example, in his book on Queensland's wet tropics , Varied Sittella is listed under the following categories: small birds with prominently striated underparts, birds with a prominent eye-ring, birds that show pale or white wing patches in flight, and birds that feed on tree trunks and limbs. This system of classification greatly assists with identification for novice birdwatchers. The book also contains extensive locality information, and is strongly recommended. It is based on his earlier self-published book on the Lamington National Park , which has a similar structure, although it is only in black and white.
As briefly discussed here, Australia has a wide and varied range of field guides available. I think that the regional field guides are the way to go, and note that there is a need for a regional field guide to the greater Melbourne region. On the other hand, perhaps the future lies with on-line internet guides.
This discussion has only considered a fraction of the available field guides in Australia. It represents a review of those guides on my bookshelf, rather than all the field guides that are available. The books mentioned should be available from either the bookshops at the BOCA office in Nunawading or the Birds Australia (RAOU) office in Hawthorn (both in Melbourne, Australia).
Credits
Author: Stephen Wilbourne
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