I've written Jill privately with more details but thought I'd add some
comments to the archives regarding field guides for the Falklands and the
"southern cone" (the southern part of South America). I can't offer any
suggestions on Antarctica or South Georgia.
The de la Pena guide that you mention is more of an illustrated checklist
than a field guide. It covers a huge territory and may not be that useful
to bring along. The Narosky guide for Argentina is also quite poor,
relative to modern field guides. There's long been talk of a modern guide
for Argentina being produced, but I just looked and didn't find one. (?)
One of the local tour companies in the southern cone put out a photographic
guide that's worth having a look at. If you think that it's worth the
weight, it would be worth bringing along. When we were there, it was
available in shops at airports and so on - not sure of the current status.
(I see used copies on Amazon at absurd prices.) The title is "Birds of
Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego & Antarctic Peninsula, the Falkland Islands &
South Georgia." (Couve and Vidal.) Here's the contact page for the company:
http://www.fantasticosur.com/en/
For some reason, they've organized the families in an odd sequence, which
makes it hard to flip through the book if you're used to the common order.
I'm not wild about photographic guides generally but I have to say that
they did a pretty good job on this one and it clearly represents a
monumental effort. Given the number of quite-similar birds in the area,
photographs sometimes are more helpful than plates.
The good news is that there is an excellent and widely available guide for
Chile and the Falklands by Alvaro Jaramillo. While the title is "Birds of
Chile", the content includes the handful of endemics found on the
Falklands. (I believe that the Wren has been lumped since the book was
published, by the way.) This is a thoroughly modern guide and a solid piece
of work. While it doesn't say "Argentina", it covers the region you'll be
in. I guess the Argentinian coast is a somewhat different flyway so you may
get different shorebirds - but there are many guides to cover shorebirds.
On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 7:51 PM, Jill Dening <> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I'm planning a trip to southern South America, the Falklands, South
> Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula later this year. The archives don't
> appear to have much recent chat about suitable field guides, and so I ask
> does anyone have a preference for any particular field guide? Or a
> combination of field guides?
>
> I have borrowed a copy of Birds of Southern South America and Antarctica
> by Martin R. de la Pena and Maurice Rumboll, but the images of the birds
> don't look good to me (if the tern section is anything to go by) and the
> distribution maps are separated from the text and images.
>
> Is there a better option than this one? And is there an app which can be
> recommended? (I realise the area is a very large one, and I am possibly
> asking for the impossible.)
>
> cheers,
>
> Jill
> --
> Jill Dening
> Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
>
> 26° 51' 41"S 152° 56' 00"E
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