Cotingas and Manakins

Though this book comes from Princeton University Press, it is written in very British English by Guy M. Kirwan and Graeme Green. It provides a species-by-species account of cotingas and manikins, two large families of colorful birds from the American tropics. The skillful color plates in field-guide style are by Eustace Barnes, and the color photographs are provided by Hadoram Shirihai (from the Photographic Handbook to Birds of the World). Since systematics is currently in upheaval, the book uses Ridgely and Tudor (1994) with extensive phylogenetic modifications. As a result, it excludes some birds classified as cotingas or manikins, and includes some birds in other families. "...we can at least report that all those species long considered cotingas and manikins have been included." The authors are both experienced birding tour guides, and cannot quite decide whether they are making a technical book for working scientists, a field guide for specialty birders, or a popular book of enthusiastic prose. The result is a mix of all three. The text's storytelling diversions might make the start of a good popular book, but easily become wearying in a long reference work very closely printed in 10-point type. However, the book usefully offers technical information (identification, distribution, movements, habitat, description, measurements, geographic variation, voice, display, diet, breeding, conservation status, and references) on each species between one set of covers. The first section is organized by genus as a field guide, including the new international nomenclature of common English names. The book is too large for normal field use, however. The rest is organized as a desk guide; each species description is given one or more photographs, often several images of colorful males and one female. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Guy M. Kirwan is one of the world's leading authorities on New World birds. He is a freelance author and editor. His books include "The Birds of Turkey". Graeme Green is a bird tour leader in Ecuador and has traveled widely in search of cotingas and manakins.