Following on from the hugely successful Guide to the Birds of Venezuela published in 1978, Hilty offers a greatly expanded and thoroughly reformatted successor. It covers all 1,381 known species and their subspecies from the Caribbean coast to the jungles of the Amazon, from the Andes to the Gran Sabana plateau - nearly 40 percent of all bird species in South America. Sixty-seven stunning colour and black and white plates are included, most by well-known artists John Gwynne and Guy Tudor, as well as numerous line illustrations. The plates and drawings together - almost half of them never before published - depict most of Venezuela's 1381 bird species. Introductory chapters cover physical geography, climate, biogeography, vegetation and habitats, conservation, migration, and the history of ornithology in Venezuela. A gallery of forty-four stunning colour habitat photos and colour habitat and relief maps complete the opening section. Detailed range maps plot collection localities and sight records are included for almost all species and plumage descriptions are provided for each bird, as is extensive information on voice, behavior, and status. More than 800 bibliographic entries accompany the text, making this book an invaluable and broad-based reference to the avifauna of not only Venezuela but much of northern South America.
Steve Hilty is a keen and experienced field birder who has led numerous birding tours In various south American countries. He was the senior author of Birds of Colombia (Princeton University Press). Steve lives in Kansas.