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The Birds of Ecuador by Robert Ridgely and Paul Greenfield, Helm Field
Guides, Christopher Helm, Volume 1: ISBN 071366116X, £55; Volume 2:
0713661178, £40 (£80 the pair)

IT MAY be a bit of a tiddler size-wise, but Ecuador’s biodiversity puts it
into the wildlife big league. With about 1600 bird species—more than 20
per cent of the world’s total—it’s a Mecca for birders. For years these
long-suffering enthusiasts have had to pack a suitcase of heavy books for the
trip to make sense of the abundance of birds. No longer. The Birds of Ecuador
has finally arrived. And it’s worth the wait.

Now you, too, can see the splendours of spangled coquettes and tourmaline
sunangels, gasp at the penny-paintbox gaudiness of mountain tanagers, then try
your luck in finding elusive henna-hooded foliage-gleaners and the superciliared
hemispingus. It’s all beautifully there, not to mention the attention to
scientific detail and a field-guide layout that shows the authors’ years of
experience.

Volume 1 is for the plane and tent. It gives the taxonomy, habitat and
conservation status of every Ecuadorian species, the background you yearn for
but rarely, if ever, see in a guide. Volume 2 is for the rucksack and field.
Here’s where to find the birds, then identify them.

Experts and novices will enjoy this magnificent compendium. It’s a great and
knowledgeable tribute to an extraordinarily complex grouping of avifauna. The
only sad note is that, given Ecuador’s rapidly disappearing forests, much of the
motivation for the book’s use will be to see the country’s birds before they
disappear for ever.