The latest addition to the revered Peterson field guide series, A Field Guide to Warblers of North America by Jon L Dunn and Kimball L Garrett is a benchmark in American birding literature. At 660 pages, heavy enough to make your hand cramp up while holding it, this work might be described as a hybrid: too thick and wordy to be a field guide, too clearly written to be an ornithological manual. "Warblers" has combined the best elements of field and academic books; thirty-two excellent plates by Thomas R Schultz and Cindy House which are supplemented with photos, and detailed information on plumages, provide years worth of learning opportunities even for the advanced birder. Discussions of subspecific variations, molt sequences, taxonomic relationships and population and conservation status, along with references for further reading, allow birders to go beyond field identification to an expansive understanding of North America's wood warblers. Even for those warbler-depauperate corners of the country, such as the Pacific Northwest, where eight species of warblers is a good day's haul, this is a worthy investment. Warblers is written by and for information junkies. When you want to check range maps that are larger in scale and more accurate than any seen in field guides of the past, or illustrations and text of Townsend's/Hermit hybrids you'll go for this book. When you want to "really" know something about Yellow Warblers you'll set aside an hour and a half to digest this book's twenty-two pages describing it's plumages, habitats, vocalizations, etc. The range of the plates is no less mind-boggling than the text. The plate illustrating the Orange-crowned Warbler has ten full-body illustrations and two head-only illustrations: adult males of four races, four first-fall male and female variations, and two juveniles of different races. Yellow-rumped Warblers are given their own plate with twelve full illustrations and five partials to show gender, age and race differences. I've always thought that some of the best information in bird books is in the preface, introduction and appendixes. Many people skip over these portions when appraising a work but a thorough read of the introduction gives one the framework in which to understand much of what follows. The appendixes and various "add-ons" at the end of the book suggest ways in which you can further explore the subject if you're interested. The introduction to Warblers discusses characteristics of the warbler genera, speciation and hybridization, geographical variation, plumages and molts, habitats, foraging habits, vocalizations, breeding biology, migration and conservation issues. The appendixes contain a glossary with a separate section for geographical terms, useful for a book which goes into such detail regarding distribution and a twenty-seven page list of references. Warblers is one of those books that threatens to make a couch birder out of you. Don't be too tempted though; buy this book and study it well, but use that information in the real world outside your four walls, and bring what you see with your own eyes together with the knowledge you've gleaned from Warblers. Your understanding and appreciation of this diverse and fascinating family will be richer for it.
