Handbook of the Birds of the World, Vol. 7: Jacamars to Woodpeckers
A friend of mine, a lifelong zoo enthusiast who was always a  self-proclaimed 'mammal man', recently told me that he had signed on to  Lynx Edicions' instalment plan to buy the first seven volumes of the  Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW). On my expressing surprise at this  uncharacteristic behaviour, he explained that the barrage of praise from  reviewers (myself included) had finally convinced him that this was  something too good to miss. He has not been disappointed - having received  his first two volumes, he commented in tones of mild astonishment that  birds were 'just as interesting as mammals.' To those of us who hailed the  first volume as marking a new epoch in ornithological publishing, and have  greeted each of its successors with growing wonder and delight, this may  look like stating the obvious. But we were the Handbook's natural fan-club:  the fact that it can bring about a road-to-Damascus conversion of people  not initially predisposed in its favour is, in a way, an even more  convincing proof of its excellence.Volume 7 covers six families, Jacamars, Puffbirds, Barbets, Toucans,  Honeyguides and Woodpeckers, with respectively 18,35,82,34,17 and 216  species. As always, I find that much of the pleasure of HBW comes from  finding out how much I didn't know. In the case of the jacamars and  puffbirds, this means almost everything about them - perhaps to some extent  understandably, since these exclusively neotropical families are very  seldom found in zoos. (Jacamars, it appears, are fairly conspicuous in  their native regions, but I find some consolation for my ignorance in the  fact that puffbirds are described as 'relatively little known'!) With  toucans, barbets and woodpeckers, of course, the regular zoo-goer is on  more familiar territory, though the diversity and wide distribution of the  latter two families mean that few collections can claim to exhibit a  representative sample of species. As for honeyguides, well, I previously  knew only one fact about them - that some of them lead ratels to bees'  nests - and this, I was disappointed to learn, isn't necessarily so. The  species concerned, the greater honeyguide (Indicator indicator), may do  this, but 'there appears to be little real evidence to support such  claims.' It really does, though -and apparently deliberately - guide human  beings to nests, and is traditionally rewarded with a chunk of the  honeycomb. (Surprisingly, wax rather than honey or larvae is the bee  product which features largely in the bird's diet.)Honeyguides are interesting in plenty of other ways - for example, all  species so far studied in detail are 'brood parasites', i.e. their eggs are  laid and their chicks reared in the nests of other species (typically but  not exclusively barbets). But I must avoid the temptation to fill this  review with information I've acquired from the book before me. Even the  most expert professional ornithologist couldn't fail to learn something new  from any page of any volume of the Handbook. And as the series has  continued, the information provided has become ever more comprehensive. I  mentioned in my review of the previous volume (I.Z.N. 48 (4), 248-9) that  the editors were consulting their readers before deciding between two  options -to restrict coverage in order to keep the complete Handbook to the  previously projected 12 volumes, or to continue the recent trend towards  fuller treatment and so extend the series to 16. The fact that, of almost  3,000 replies, 93% favoured the latter option renders my individual praise  virtually redundant - when your readers are that supportive, who needs  reviewers?Each of the last few volumes of HBW has included as a Foreword an extended  essay on some general topic of ornithological relevance. This useful custom  continues in Volume 7, for which Errol Fuller has contributed an  authoritative 58-page account of Extinct Birds (extinct, that is, since the  traditional cut-off date of 1600). These are big pages, remember, so this  is practically a book in itself, full of the melancholy fascination the  topic always evokes. There is, of course, a grey area - Fuller mentions  several species which re-appeared after being officially 'extinct' for 50  or 100 years, and the jury is still out on a number of the birds he  includes. (In the case of the imperial and ivory-billed woodpeckers, he  refers readers to their entries in the main body of the book, though both  he and the authors of the species accounts admit that both birds are  probably extinct.) A final section on 'Hypothetical Species and Mystery  Birds' ventures briefly into the territory of the cryptozoologists.Enthusiasts for modern information technology have been predicting the  'death of the book' for many years, without being able to point to any real  evidence that this death is imminent. The Handbook offers a convincing  argument to the contrary. A CD or website could conceivably contain as much  information as HBW - though no currently available CD or website does - but  no computer technology that I'm aware of can yet offer the convenience,  pleasure in use and ease of access of a well-designed book. Books, I  suspect, are here to stay; and none more so than the Handbook of the Birds  of the World, for not merely are the individual volumes built to last, with  bindings, paper and print quality to match the finest collectors' editions  of the past, but the publishers plan to keep the Handbook up to date in a  way seldom attempted before in any work of reference. After Volume 16 is  published - in, at a guess, 2010 or thereabouts - they intend to issue a  series of supplements including all relevant information published, and any  species or subspecies discovered, too recently to have appeared in the  original volumes. There seems to be no good reason why this updating  process should not continue indefinitely. It's something of a reviewer's  cliche to say that some book 'must not be missed'; but for anyone with a  serious interest in birds, or in zoology in general, HBW is as near to  being an essential purchase as can be imagined. When I reviewed the first  volume, back in 1993, urged readers to start saving to buy the complete  series. If you've missed out so far, it isn't too late - the publishers  offer a number of ways of spreading the cost. Like the friend I mentioned  at the start of this review, you won't regret your decision. Nicholas Gould --International Zoo News, July 1, 2002IT'S BIG! It's back and it's beautiful as ever! Forget the  superlatives; they ran out long ago and there simply aren't enough words in  the thesaurus. Just take it as read that everything about the latest volume  of Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) is simply first - class.After the publication of the last volume, the publishers realised that  planned 12 volumes were insufficient to do justice to the project. Rather  than take a unilateral decision, they polled all the subscribers, asking  them if they were prepared to support extending the series to 16.It's a measure of the quality of the books that a whopping 93% of customers  said 'yes', despite the possible damaging prospects to bookshelves, bank  balances and marriages.HBW7 includes jacamars, puffbirds, barbets, toucans, honeyguides, and  woodpeckers. Before you even get to the main substance of the book though,  there is the foreword to look at. These always take the form of extended  essays and this one, by Errol Fuller is about extinct birds. At 58 A4-sized  pages, this almost the equivalent of a small book in itself.Even the foreword is profusely illustrated though, for obvious reasons,  these are the mostly in the form of the plates rather than photographs.The quality of the plates throughout the book is superb. Eleven top artists  have been used with the honours going (just) to Ian Lewington for his  barbet illustrations.The plates accompany the species accounts which as well as the distribution  map, have sections on taxonomy, subspecies, descriptive notes habitat,  food, breeding, movements, and status and conservation.There is also a mini-bibliography. If that is the "bread and Butter"  reference section, it is the family text that gets the greatest plaudits.  Again, taking the form of an extended essay (the woodpecker section runs to  125 pages), these sections are profusely illustrated with more than 300  mouth-watering pictures. These are not simply portraits, but action shots  of the highest quality. As well as exuding scholarship, the text is very  accessible, making it a book to enjoy reading, not simply looking for  facts.One feature of the books that hasn't received a lot of attention so far is  the "build quality" which, as you might expect by now, is first class. The  book sits open easily and you just know that the pages aren't going to fall  out.Special care has even been taken on the dust jacket. The top and bottom  edges are folded over so that you are unlikely to suffer the odd little  nick or tear as you take it off your shelf. A laminated quick index to the  non-passerines has also been included.The only criticism i have ever heard levelled against these books is that  they are expensive. Well, up to a point, but there is far more value to be  had from a volume of HBW, compared with a couple of identification guides.If you need any more incentive, there are special offers for anyone who  wants to start collecting from scratch and even an instalment plan with low  monthly payments.Don't think that these must be books for the expert only. They are for  every birder- just books that happen to be simply magnificent.  Gordon Hamlett --Bird Watching, July 1, 2002This book covers the Galbuliformes and the Piciformes, thus  completing the coverage of the nonpasserines in the Handbook of the birds  of the world. The forward to this book, written by Errol Fuller, is an  extensive discussion of extinct birds. The 58-page forward includes a  general introduction to rarity, reasons for extinction, and hypothetical  species, those that are known from only a single specimen or from a  description. Brief descriptions of extinct species follow the general  introduction and cover 72 species that are generally recognized as extinct.  These accounts include the well-known cases of the Great Auk (Pinguinus  impennis), Dodo (Raphus cucullatus), and Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis  carolinensis), but also cover many less-well-known species, including a  disturbing number of birds that were endemic to various islands and island  archipelagos. The attention to detail in the forward is demonstrated by the  extensive list of references, which covers five pages.The organization of the text is similar to previous volumes. The family  accounts begin with a range map and general description of members of the  family. The text that follows this introduction is organized into sections  on systematics, morphological aspects, habitat, general habits, voice, food  and feeding, breeding, movements, relationship with man, status and  conservation, and a general bibliography. The text is accompanied by  numerous well-chosen photographs of family members. Following the text on  each family are individual species accounts that provide taxonomic  information including the scientific name and names in French, Spanish, and  German; information on the original description; and information about  superspecies, subspecies, and races. A description of the family's  distribution is accompanied by a range map. Additional sections within the  individual accounts cover descriptive notes, habitat, food and feeding,  breeding, movements, status and conservation, and a bibliography. J. A.  Tobias authored the section on the jacamars (Galbulidae) and coauthored the  species accounts for this family with T. Zchner and T. A. de Melo-Júnior.  The section on the Bucconidae (puffbirds) was authored by P. C. Rasmussen  and N. J. Collar. L. L. Short and J. F. M. Horne coauthored three of the  four family accounts within the Piciformes, which cover the Capitonidae  (barbets), the Ramphastidae (toucans), and the Indicatoridae (honeyguides).  The section covering the Picidae (woodpeckers) was written by H. Winkler  and D. A. Christie.A laminated index to the first seven volumes of the Handbook of the birds  of the world is included with volume 7. One side is organized  systematically and includes illustrations of a representative member of  each family as well as the volume and page number for the family  description. The other side of the index is in alphabetical order and  includes orders, families, and general common names.In the introduction to volume 7, the editors discuss the results of a poll  in which they asked readers whether they preferred "the recent trend of  longer, fuller texts, more photos, and more extensive coverage of  subspecific variation on more plates." An overwhelming 93% of the almost  3,000 respondents preferred the expanded coverage, even if it resulted in  more than the originally estimated 12 volumes in this series. The editors  have made a wise decision to continue their expanded coverage and make this  indispensable reference even more useful to ornithologists. As with  previous volumes in this series, this volume is a must in any  ornithological library. Sara R. Morris --The Wilson Bulletin, June 1, 2002