Birds of New Guinea: Distribution, Taxonomy, and Systematics

Description

New Guinea, the largest tropical island, supports a spectacular bird fauna characterized by cassowaries, megapodes, pigeons, parrots, kingfishers, and owlet-nightjars, as well as the iconic birds of paradise and bowerbirds. Of the nearly 800 species of birds recorded from New Guinea, more than 350 are found nowhere else on Earth. This comprehensive annotated checklist of distribution, taxonomy, and systematics of the birds of New Guinea is the first formal review of this avifauna since Ernst Mayr's Checklist, published in 1941. This new book brings together all the systematic, taxonomic, and distributional research conducted on the region's bird families over the last 70 years. Bruce Beehler and Thane Pratt provide the scientific foundation for the names, geographic distributions, and systematic arrangement of New Guinea's bird fauna. All technical information is annotated and a geographic gazetteer and bibliography are included. This book is an ideal complement to the Birds of New Guinea field guide also published by Princeton, and is an essential technical reference for all scientific libraries, ornithologists, and those interested in bird classification. * The first complete revision of the New Guinea bird fauna since 1941* Accounts for 75 bird species new to the region* Includes a geographic gazetteer, bibliography, and explanations of taxonomic and systematic classifications

Bruce M. Beehler is a research associate of the Division of Birds at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and a naturalist with interests in birds and forests. Thane K. Pratt is a research associate at the B. P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii and a bird conservationist with a focus on the tropical Pacific. Pratt and Beehler are the coauthors of the field guide Birds of New Guinea, Second Edition (Princeton).

"This is an outstanding book for professionals and advanced amateurs interested in New Guinea birds."--Choice "This work is a positive goldmine and no-one with a serious interest in the birds of New Guinea should be without it. Those ... yet to visit will surely revel in such a magnificent introduction to the region, with the extensive bibliography and gazetteer alone being substantial navigational aids... An exceptional guide even for those better initiated than myself. Bruce Beehler, Thane Pratt and the book's technical editor, Mary LeCroy, have done the ornithological world proud, yet again."--Guy M. Kirwan, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club