To the point, I really like this book. Outside a few of the accidental or extreme rarities, all of Palau’s birds are covered in this book – along with the 2 indigenous species of bats. In addition to offering excellent, abundant photos, the book easily demonstrates the authors’ passions for Palau. They’ve created various nuances of how the book is designed and have included unique cultural, yet bird-related features. I chuckled at the touch of using a tropicbird as the directional pointer of a compass, indicating north in the maps.

This book is a combination of field, photo, and natural history guides. Its design is not that of a typical identification guide; however, it can certainly be used as one due to the limited number of birds on Palau and the few look-alike species present (if we ignore the transient shorebirds).

All of the resident or common birds are shown in multiple photographs, with the endemic species receiving special attention with up to 15 photos. Nearly all of the glossy pictures are very good. The selection of photos places focus on exhibiting the bird in its natural environment and behaviors. In addition to a typical perched pose, other shots show the bird in flight, foraging, fishing, feeding young, or marauding an intruder. Most of the breeders also have the eggs and/or nest shown. The same quality of photos (14) is given for the bats.

The text for each bird varies with the bird’s presence on the islands. Transient shorebirds receive 1-2 paragraphs that focus mainly on describing the bird. Other more frequent birds can receive up to a page of information that covers descriptions, voice, habits and behavior, feeding, ranges, populations, and other natural history material. The 12 endemic species receive the greatest coverage in material, depth, and detail. This information is very welcome for a region that has comparatively little ornithological knowledge available. The endemics are also illustrated in two top-quality plates (pp 26-27). I wish these same plates could be extended to cover all of Palau’s birds.

Up-to-date taxonomical information is included and addresses potential or proposed species splits between the various islands in the region.

The first 28 pages of the book offer a great introduction to Palau, to the geography and environments of individual island groups, to the island culture, and provide several aerial photos of the islands with labeled maps layered on top. The margins of the pages are adorned with photos of islanders, art, and postage stamps featuring birds or bats.

At first pass, this book will look rather busy, if not a little jumbled. This is due to the many photos, to their wide variety of sizes, and to how they’re laid out across the pages with the accompanying text. However, after spending more time in this book, this is welcomed because of what it all represents, which is an incredible source of information on such a small area of the Pacific. You will not find any other book that comes remotely close to what this book offers in both material and photos.

I’ve listed several related books below…
1) A Field Guide to the Birds of the Yap Island by Clements
2) A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific by Pratt
3) Birds of the Solomons, Vanuatu & New Caledonia by Doughty
4) Guide to Birds of Vanuatu by Bregulla
5) Birds of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa by Watling
6) Birds of the Fiji Bush by Clunie
7) South Pacific Birds by DuPont
8) Oiseaux de Nouvelle Caledonie et des Loyautes: Tome I & II by Hannecart
9) Birds of the North Solomons by Hadden
10) The Birds of Northern Melanesia by Mayr
11) The Birds and Birdlore of Samoa by Muse ( )