Jose Manuel Moreno

Basics: 1988, hardcover, 231 pages, 47 color plates of all species, 22 plates of eggs, nests, and young; distribution maps; Spanish only

This is a nicely done guide covering all the birds recorded from the Canary Islands, located about 100-300 miles off the southern coast of Morocco. This book is more than just a field guide to bird identification. It is also a helpful reference for the nests, eggs, and chicks.

The 69 plates are organized into five sections. The first 14 color plates cover 71 breeding birds. These are the only birds with a distribution map. In this map, each of the seven major islands is colored in to represent the bird’s presence. The next 34 color plates illustrate nearly 280 non-breeding birds. The illustrations are good but not great artwork and the birds are drawn just a little on the small side . Although the quality is definitely a notch below the better field guides, this book will certainly help you identify most of the birds you should encounter. I was glad to see the various plumages and subspecies illustrated for the endemic Chaffinch and Blue Tit.

The text for the nesting birds is a single paragraph of 7-14 lines. The text does a good job at describing the bird, at comparing similar species, and outlining the habitat. The voice is generally described by 1-2 sentences. The text for the non-breeding, visiting birds is much less at 2-7 lines. Brief descriptions are given of the bird and sometimes of the voice. Its status on the islands is usually noted. Take note that the font for the text is quite small throughout the book.

The next set of 6 color plates portray 60 species of chicks, followed by 9 black-and-white plates of 53 nests. Nearly half of the nests are actual photographs. The last section contains 6 color plates with photographs of eggs from 61 species. Each of these last three sections contains brief 2 to 5-line descriptions. Lastly, a single color plate illustrates a variety of regurgitated pellets from 8 species of raptors along with a shrike and a raven.

This book will be useful and informative for your trip to any of the Canary Islands. Although the entire book is in Spanish, names are also given in English, French, and German. Three other field guides exist that cover these islands with the best of all these being Birds of the Atlantic Islands by Clarke and Orgill. Its plates and text are superior to the other books.

I’ve listed several related books below…
1) Las Aves de Canarias by Perez Padron
2) Aves del Archipielago Canario by Martin/Lorenzo
3) Birds of the Atlantic Islands by Clarke/Orgill
4) Birds of the Atlantic Islands: Volumes 1-4 by Bannerman… (mehr)