Mark W. Oberle

Basics: 2000, 2nd edition, softcover, 129 pages, 300 color photos of 181 species, CD with 1,300 photos of 335 species, audio clips, no range maps

Compared to other bird books on Puerto Rico or the Caribbean, this book is not formatted to be used as a field guide. Instead, it is a photographic overview of the island’s 181 resident and visiting birds, but not the other 150 less common vagrants. Each page covers 1-2 species with 1-4 photos and 1-5 paragraphs of text. As one would hope, greater coverage and more photos are given to the Puerto Rican endemics and the Caribbean specialties.

The color photographs are generally good and are shown in appropriate sizes. Some of them are a little grainy and others might lean towards small, but nothing too bad.

The text gives the usual contents of identification, habitat, habits, status, conservation, and range. Three-quarters of the text is dedicated to the bird’s habits, status, and conservation, reinforcing this book is not geared to be used as a field guide. It is an at-home reference to review and learn about the more common Puerto Rican birds.

Enhancing the photographic content of this book is a CD attached to the inside, back cover. This CD contains 1,300 photos of all 335 species to have occurred on the island. Each bird has anywhere between 1 and 16 color photos. Just as in the book, text is offered for the species, often with additional material not found within the book. A nice addition is a sound clip provided for most of the resident birds. The quality of the photos are not quite as good as those found inside the book, but they do offer more poses and variations. The disc was created to run on both Windows and Mac. It’s worked for me with no problems on Windows 2000 and XP.… (mer)