Petrels, Albatrosses, and Storm-Petrels of North America: A Photographic Guide

by Steve N.G. Howell

A complete illustrated guide to these enigmatic seabirds

Petrels, albatrosses, and storm-petrels are among the most beautiful yet least known of all the world's birds, living their lives at sea far from the sight of most people. Largely colored in shades of gray, black, and white, these enigmatic and fast-flying seabirds can be hard to differentiate, particularly from a moving boat. Useful worldwide, not just in North America, this photographic guide is based on unrivaled field experience and combines insightful text and hundreds of full-color images to help you identify these remarkable birds.

The first book of its kind, this guide features an introduction that explains ocean habitats and the latest developments in taxonomy. Detailed species accounts describe key identification features such as flight manner, plumage variation related to age and molt, seasonal occurrence patterns, and migration routes. Species accounts are arranged into groups helpful for field identification, and an overview of unique identification challenges is provided for each group. The guide also includes distribution maps for regularly occurring species as well as a bibliography, glossary, and appendixes.

Genres: Birds

512 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2011

Reviews

[Dorothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trying to see and pick out the field marks on a tiny warbler hidden among the leafy canopy of a tree is one of the harder tasks to be undertaken by a birder. An even harder task though may be that of pelagic birding, trying to distinguish between the almost identical species of petrels, for example, while standing on a moving boat in the middle of the ocean.

Petrels, Storm-Petrels, and Albatrosses live their lives on the wing, over the oceans of the world, and those who would add them to their life lists must venture out upon the briny deep in order to see them. Moreover, these are birds that are all colored in shades of black, white, and gray, many with few distinctive field marks. They are mostly fast-flying and difficult to get a good look at even under ideal conditions, but conditions on a pelagic birding trip are often not ideal and birders need all the help they can get.

Along comes Steve N.G. Howell to provide some of that help. He is an acclaimed field ornithologist and writer and an international bird tour leader with WINGS. He obviously knows these seabirds, in the family known as tubenoses, very well indeed. He has written a book which should be very helpful, I think, to anyone planning a pelagic birding trip.

Now, I am a simple backyard birder and so I may not be the best person to review this book, but it seems very comprehensive to me. The author spends time explaining about ocean habitats and about the latest developments in taxonomy relating to these birds. He arranges his species accounts of birds into groups for comparison and contrasting in ways that should prove helpful for identification in the field. Key identification features such as plumage variations related to age and molt and the manner of the individual species' flight patterns are included as part of the detailed species accounts. Photographs of the birds in question help to illustrate key features.

This guide also includes information about seasonal occurrence patterns and migration routes, as well as distribution maps. The author offers useful tips on how to observe and identify birds at sea.

Reading passages of this book, one gets a sense that Howell has a real passion for these birds and that he wants to pass that passion along to others. It is obvious that he genuinely loves the ocean and its inhabitants and that he wants his readers to share that love. I think that anyone planning a pelagic adventure who picks up this book will find it very useful in getting to know these enigmatic birds and in making the most of their time on the ocean.

(A copy of this book was provided at no cost by Princeton University Press for the purposes of my review.)

[Steve Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have little reason to purchase a guide on North American Procellariiformes, so I signed this book out from Interlibrary Loan. This guide really is the first of its kind, containing extensive information and many photos of every species that has been recorded or hypothetically may grace North American pelagic waters. I was unfamiliar with a number of the included species. Few people will ever have the opportunity to spend enough time on the open ocean to become familiar with all of the nuances shown and discussed in this book. Studying this guide in detail will be the best alternative. It's more of a reference guide than a field guide, since you probably won't be flipping through these 483 pages while on the deck of a boat. I'm sure that won't dissuade many people from taking this impressive volume with them.

My only complaint is the lack of illustrated plates for each species.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent introduction and guide to the order of seabirds known as tubenoses. Read my full review on my blog.