Birds of Ecuador Field Guide

"One of the wonders of the natural world. Nowhere else is such incredible avian diversity crammed into such a small country. . . . Birds are, happily, numerous in many parts of Ecuador: even the downtown parks of the big cities such as Quito and Guayaquil host their complement."

Volume I, Status, Distribution, and Taxonomy, contains detailed information on the ecology, status, and distribution of all species. Introductory chapters deal with geography, climate, and vegetation; bird migration in Ecuador; Ecuadorian ornithology; endemic bird areas in Ecuador; and conservation. Individual species accounts treat habitat, distribution, and taxonomy.

Volume II, Field Guide, contains 96 full-color plates and facing pages of descriptive text, a color map of Ecuador, 2 line drawings of bird anatomy, 115 silhouette outlines, and nearly 1600 distribution maps. All species are illustrated in full color, including migrants and vagrants and visually distinctive subspecies. The text focuses on the field identification aspects of each species, including their behavior, vocalizations, and nest appearance.

The two volumes are available separately or may be purchased as a slipcased set.

The text, focusing on identification and describing appearance, habitat, habits, and voice, is detailed and incorporates the latest information from the people most knowledgeable about Ecuador's birds. The paintings on the 96 plates are beautiful, among the finest of any field guide anywhere, and seem thoroughly accurate. The birds are painted in standardized poses, which allows a focus on identification. Unlike almost all field guides to countries in the tropics, all are by one artist, with the resulting benefits of consistency. The guide seems to make the identification of difficult families like flycatchers or antbirds or Ecuador's 132 species of hummingbirds easier (well, less impossible) than ever. Unlike other South American guides, all species, including migrants, are illustrated, and all in color.

The 1600 species distribution maps are not at the world-class level of North American maps or even the new India guide, but they are tremendously helpful and, given the state of information in the tropics, a great accomplishment and a major advance. It is convenient that they are right in the text, with altitude information (critical for the Andean region) attached.

Since Ecuador has about half of the species in South America, this book will be valuable for anyone looking at birds in the Amazon basin or northern South America.

Note that the field guide is volume 2 of the set. Volume I has detailed information on taxonomy, status, and especially occurence and distribution within Ecuador, plus general information about Ecuadorian geography and ornithology, which would have made the field guide impossibly large. (It's massive as is.)


Birds of Ecuador - a heavy weight champion?   February 14, 2002
Gabor T Magyar (Hungary)
22 out of 24 found this review helpful

I just returned from a trip from Ecuador where I used extensively Volume II of Ridgely et als' book. Having already some acqaitance with both the birdlife of the Neotropics and the bird books on the region I found the plates and the text still very useful when identifying the birds I and my travel mates saw. The weight and the size of the book is, however, making its use very difficult out in the field. The paperback editions did not hold very well during the three weeks, and publishing the book in 3 rather than two volumes could have helped that a lot. Even though the plates do not live up to the quality of the standard dictated by Guy Tudor in the, yet, two-volume handbook on South american birds, but I still found the pictures very informative. The text on habitat, altitudinal distribution, call, and the range maps often helped to narrow down the number of look-alike-species to a manageable level, especially when identifying hummingbirds or tyrant flycatchers.
All in all (and getting back to the question in the title) I could not call this book a champion in the league of field guides for being overweight (just try to carry it on the 'D' trail near Bellavista), although it truly deserves the four stars for the text and the plates alike. If you use it as a 'hotel' rather than a field guide or need it as a reference work for your home library (or have the plates and the text of Vol. II rebound separetely, as I did) you will appreciate the amount of information gathered in this book.


A neotropical must-have   February 23, 2005
Mr. Ratio
16 out of 17 found this review helpful

I finally ordered this magnificent guide, and now I wish I would have bought it sooner. This should be on every travelling birder's bookshelf. Just glancing through the plates makes me just want to hop aboard the next flight to Quito. Before buying this title, I heard plenty of contrasting opinions on the quality of Greenfield's plates. Being quite picky with artwork, and prefering that of the elite artists (Ian Lewington, Tim Worfolk, etc) I was a bit nervous. But overall I feel that the plates are very good. The colors, in particular, are very bright, and the plates are aesthetically pleasing. In comparison to Guy Tudor's plates (found in the Colombia and Venezuela Guides), I feel Greenfield measures up very well. I'll admit that some birds aren't drawn as well as Tudor's, but many of his plates are better than those in the Colombia guide. I would definitely take the Ecuador guide to Colombia or Peru, along with those countries' respective guides. As for the text, it is very detailed and distribution maps are placed right beside the text so you don't have to keep flipping around. The maps contain elevation information, and show the locations of two principal cities (Quito and Guayaquil-spelling?) for reference. I haven't yet seen volume 1, but I am assuming it is just as impressively done.


Excellent Plates and distribution maps   June 7, 2002
Dean Pasko (Milwaukee, WI United States)
13 out of 15 found this review helpful

I just received my copy of the The Birds of Ecuador and am very
pleased with it. I think the plates are very good with a lot of
detail. I compared plates for the same species in the book: A Guide To The Birds of Costa Rica, an excellent book also, and
found the detail to be better in The Birds of Ecuador. I also
really like the distribution maps for each species. I am
planning to do a birding trip to Ecuador and the maps will help
in making the travelling plans.


Birdwatching in Ecuador   July 21, 2005
John D. Tobe
13 out of 16 found this review helpful

Ridgley's Birds of Ecuador was an indispensable birding guide used on a recent trip (2005) to experience the natural history of Ecuador -the highlands, coast and Galapagos Islands. I brought along the soft cover edition which contains an informative map showing the ecoregions of Ecuador and this should be consulted before visiting so as to help better understand the geography, climate and ecosystems and where a particular species might be observed. Helpful hints include comparisons to similar Neotropical migrants. Most of the color plates are beautifully rendered and I would recommend Ridgley's guide to anyone who wants to know the birds they are seeing while in Ecuador and surrounding regions.