BOOK REVIEW: Waterfowl of North America, Europe & Asia: An Identification Guide

摘要

Waterfowl have captured the hearts and minds of birders for generations. Their approachability and preference for open habitats lend themselves to careful study. While drakes in breeding plumage are among the most colorful, distinctive birds out there, waterfowl otherwise account for some of the more vexing identification problems facing birders. It has been 29 years since a major, up-to-date treatment of waterfowl identification has been published. We've come a long way from Peter Scott's A Coloured Key to the Wildfowl of the World (Wildfowl Trust), first published in 1957. Steve Madge and Hilary Burn's Waterfowl: An Identification Guide to the Ducks, Geese and Swans of the World (Houghton Mifflin), published in 1988, is the last comprehensive treatment of holarctic waterfowl. Since then, much has been learned about the complexities of waterfowl molt, species limits, and the identification of hybrids. Most of this information has been published in various journal articles, regional guides, or texts dealing specifically with the topic of molt. So along has come Sébastien Reeber's Waterfowl of North America, Europe & Asia. Originally published in 2015 as Canards, Cygnes et Oies d'Europe, d'Asie et d'Amerique du Nord in the author's native French, the book has been translated and repurposed for a North American audience. While there is some Eurocentric feel to the text, this book is a tour de force and an essential reference for any serious student of waterfowl identification. It is not light reading, and might not be the best resource for someone just beginning to identify waterfowl. Making use of nearly 1400 references, it is dense and extremely well researched. The introductory material includes sections on taxonomy and systematics, avian topography, molts and plumages, aging and sexing, and hybridization. These are followed by 72 color plates featuring some 920 illustrations, along with 85 small color maps. The main section contains detailed species accounts, along with over 650 color photographs.