Petrels Night and Day: A Sound Approach Guide

摘要

This is a great book, and I learned a lot from reading it. Given the high density of bird observers on either side of the North Atlantic and the long-time scrutiny they have been applying to “their”seabirds, as revealed in this book, I think it will be a while before the taxonomy and patterns of Pacific petrels will be equally understood, for they are distributed over a vast area, among a myriad of islands, with observers few and far between. Saying that, and contemplating how this book describes the unraveling of the taxonomy of the Madeiran gadfly petrels, I am acutely reminded of the Hawaiian Petrel (P. sandwichensis) that I am currently researching in the field (with J. Adams, J. Penniman, P. Ostrom, H. James, R. Fleischer, and students), a species whose phenology and voice—and genetics, too—appear to differ from one Hawaiian island to the next. And that is just one species and Pacific island group. Nevertheless, perhaps someday it will be possible to patch together this species' history in a way similar to the Madeira experience detailed in Petrels Night and Day. This book is exemplary for both its historical and its practical value and should find a place in just about any library containing books on birds.