Michael Morcombe's New Compact Field Guide

["Frank O'Connor" <>]

Has anyone else bought a copy of Michael's Morcombe's new compact field
guide?  I picked it up for $34.95 RRP.

I have always recommended Michael's field guide as the best for WA. 
I am now likely to recommend the compact guide as the best for all of
Australia (except the external territories) in preference to Pizzey &
Knight, and the best to take on a trip in preference to Slater.

A few very quick impressions.

I like :

• the compact size and comparative weight
• quick guides inside the front and back covers
• the page marker ribbon (fantastic new idea to mark the page)
• the new illustrated introductions to family groups drawn to scale
• the sub species information and coloured dots
• the plastic cover
• the ease of finding information about each species
• overhead raptor comparison plates
• web site for more information
• no back section on nesting, eggs, etc.  Takes out nearly half the weight.

There are still items that I feel can be improved, but Michael's new
guide is probably than the other field guides in most cases anyway

• I would prefer the territories to be included (at the very least check lists).  When I travel to these places, I would love a compact field guide to reduce weight and number of books required.
• Distribution maps of vagrants / rarities is inconsistent.  If there are only a handful of records, then mark each record as a dot rather than shade the area between them.  Some records missing (e.g. Northern Shoveller in south west; Black-headed Gull in Darwin)
• taxonomic order different to Christidis & Boles.  General order of families is consistent, but order within families is different in many cases.  I accept that all white egrets need to be together in a field guide, but some other differences don't seem necessary.
• inconsistent maps.  e.g. most Cape York endemics map blown up to only show Cape York, but some show all of most of Australia.  Tassie endemics should only show Tassie
• Introduction to migratory waders plate is missing many species reducing its usefulness.  It would be better to show more common species such as Bar-tailed Godwit, Great Knot, Grey-tailed Tattler rather than mega rarities such as Upland Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, etc.  This plate could be a very useful starting point for IDing waders if all waders shown.  These plates are an excellent introduction, but if they were filled out they would be an excellent aid for ID.
• Some incorrect distributions (e.g. Little Crow in south west) but no field guide is going to get this perfect.
• Two sub species shown for Welcome Swallow but not on map or illustrations.
• Colours in some plates don't quite seem right.  e.g. "red-shouldered" fairy-wrens.
• I would love a comparison plate of terns

What do other people think?

_________________________________________________________________
Frank O'Connor           Birding WA http://birdingwa.iinet.net.au
Phone : (08) 9386 5694              Email : -------------------------------------------- Birding-Aus is now on the Web at www.birding-aus.org -------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message 'unsubscribe birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line) to