I hesitated getting this book because I couldn't find much written about it, but I wanted to find out more about the several species of woodpeckers that visit our backyard and the woods around us. I hit the jackpot with this book and recommend it highly for anyone who wants to learn more than the basics covered in bird guides. All the North American woodpeckers are covered and many more as well. The illustrations by Dana Gardner are breathtaking. You will find out how different species store their food ,their dwellings and territories, daily life, how they communicate, pair formation, social life, and much more. This book is an enjoyable read and not at all like reading a textbook. If you want to learn more about woodpeckers get this book!

This may be Skutch's last book--the culmination of seven decades of careful observation of hundreds of bird species. Here he has selected some very interesting neotropicals and offers his own detailed, thoughtful insights into their habits, often citing other sources to round out the reader's appreciation of his subjects. His narrative style is objective yet personal--spoken as though he were standing right next to you while birding together. This book deserves a place in your library. It is a wonderful reference source as well as a good read. Skutch is truly a master and this is another important contribution to his body of excellent work.

This is the best book for birding in Costa Rica but it is far too big and heavy to be an ideal field guide. A pro birding guide in CR suggested buying the book, removing the illustrations and having them bound for use in the field. Guides at La Selva have the plates laminated in plastic and spiral bound for easy carrying. Since it is a expensive field guide I'd suggest buying a protective cover for it. If you don't want to carry the weight, Peterson's Birds of Mexico has many of the birds you will see in Costa Rica.

Just back from 2 week guided tour to Costa Rica. This was a tour featured as "Nature's Museum" and led by a trained biologist that was good on bird ID, though his time was demanded more for logistics and keeping everyone of our 26 tourists happy by hitting the majors such as monkeys, butterflys, and birds like Quetzels, Motmots, and Toucans. I found the Stiles and Skutch guide to be most helpful. Recommend that a new user, read all of the general information just prior to a visit to the country. Also read in advance, the descriptions of bird families and look thru the plates to get a feel for birds you might see. Then when in the field, you can easily scan the plates, and check out the narrative descriptions, including their habits and ranges. Though this was not a bird trip, we did pick up 150 species that we felt comfortable on ID and perhaps a dozen unknowns mostly because of only flighting glimpes. About half were first called out by the local guides and the others by ourselves with help of the book. I find this book's info. on bird ranges to be most useful especially for neotropical migrants for which our North American guides generally ignore wintering areas south of US. One note of caution, is that the color plates aren't always perfect, for instance the tree swallow is too green, the palm tanager a bit too drab, and variants are not shown. Looks like there is room for a next generation "Sibleyian" guide to birds in central America.

If you have a more casual interest in birds, you may be more happy with "A Pocket Wildlife Guide" for Costa Rica, published by Rainforests Pub.,... commonly available locally in Costa Rica. It has nice color plates of common birds, butterflys, reptiles, and mammals.

Excellent book, invaluable for field and in-hand identification of birds in Costa Rica. If I could offer criticism, we need a more up to date edition (many species' range information needs updating a little) and species with strong population clines need more plates (eg Caribbean versus Pacific races). For birders visiting in the winter an extra book for US species (I recommend The North American Bird Guide by David Sibley) will compliment Stiles & Skutch for many variable and eclipse plumage migrants.