| By Owen Deutsch (Photographer) & Michael J Parr (Text) (plus other contributors)| Princeton University Press | 2025 | Hardback | 264 pages, 200+ colour photos | ISBN: 9780691260686 |
The Publisher’s View:
– Lavishly illustrated with a wealth of photographs
– Tours the vast array of habitats that comprise the Andean mountains
– Covers every major ecosystem and its abundant birdlife
– Profiles representative species, including the rarest and most sought-after
– Discusses the region’s unique geology and Indigenous culture
– A must for birders, eco-travellers, and armchair naturalists
Spanning virtually the entire western coast of South America, the Andes are home to some of the world’s most magnificent birds, from exquisite hummingbirds to fabulous flamingos. This beautifully illustrated large-format book celebrates the splendour and extraordinary diversity of Andean birds and the habitats they depend on. It draws on the latest findings from the field and sheds light on the lush alpine terrains that make this avifauna so rich and plentiful. With illuminating essays that share invaluable perspectives from some of the region’s leading bird conservationists, Birds of the Tropical Andes takes readers from the Pacific coast to the jungles of the Amazon, crossing peaks and high plains in search of spectacular birdlife.
The Authors: Owen Deutsch is an acclaimed wildlife photographer and the author of Bringing Back the Birds: Exploring Migration and Preserving Birdscapes throughout the Americas. Michael J. Parr is president of the American Bird Conservancy and the author of several books, including (with Tony Juniper) Parrots: A Guide to Parrots of the World.
Fatbirder View: This may pose as a ‘guide’ but it is undoubtedly, what one bird blogger has labelled ‘bird porn’. The most sumptuous, gasp-evoking photographs, where I’ve always thought they should be, in a coffee-table sized book to salivate over, not a ‘photographic fieldguide’. Owen Deutsch is an incredible photographer… and I say that as someone who daily posts to Fatbirder truly wonderful bird portraits from many of the world’s best. I doubt there is a wildlife photographer out there who would not envy this large format, which allows a full-size bird portrait with room for appropriate surroundings, often in sharp detail.
Of course, it covers the bird families one can encounter along South Americas backbone… not as a gazetteer, but as the star posers for an artist. Take the Tawny-breasted Flycatcher, for example (page 33). Not one of the world’s most colourful, but in such detail, you can almost identify the species of ticks near its beak, and the myriad of lichen along its perch! How about the Collared Inca (page 280)? In such detail I can almost see what its thinking. Or the Andean Avocets (page 160) caught airborne with the couple’s feathers merging. My favourite, the Masked Flowerpiercer (page 144), full colour, centrefold glory among mosses and ferns. So mesmerising that I’ve hardly dipped into the text.
Having never seen the Andes I can vouch for the splendour of its birds and thank PUP for transporting me there.
Fatbirder