Birds of Coastal British Columbia

David Allinson is the president of the Rocky Point Bird Observatory in Victoria, B.C.

This introductory guide to 274 “common” birds of British Columbia
and Washington state promises to take the reader “perhaps 80 percent
of the way to becoming a skilful birder,” a somewhat exaggerated claim
for a book that is more introductory than comprehensive in nature.
Nevertheless, accurate and interesting information is provided for each
species, with details of breeding or expected occurrence by season.

The illustrations range from excellent to adequate in quality, but
oddly lack continuity of scale. For example, the illustration of the
diminutive bushtit (10 cm) is enlarged disproportionately side by side
with the much bigger Clark’s nutcracker (30 cm). The solitary vireo is
shown at nearly double the size of a great blue heron. This approach
could make it hard for beginning birders to learn a fundamental lesson:
recognizing relative scale when comparing species.

Given the existence of such excellent publications as the National
Geographic or Peterson field guides, I would be hard-pressed to
recommend this book.