Arizona Breeding Bird Atlas [Hardcover]

Arizona has been a dream destination for birders and ornithologists for a century and a quarter. Since the publication of the first Lane guide more than 30 years ago, traveling birders have benefited from the availability of a number of "birding Baedekers" for finding the state's many specialties. But what of birders who want to go beyond simply listing the Arizona rarities? With Phillips et al.'s excellent monograph on the distribution and status of Arizona's birds more than forty years old, and the most recent annotated checklist pushing 25, local birders and visitors alike have often found it difficult to place their sightings in context.
Now come Corman and Wise-Gervais, and their corps of well over 250 volunteer 'atlasers', with the first major reference work on the state's birds to appear for a long generation. Well designed and richly illustrated, the new Arizona Breeding Bird Atlas (or, to use the faintly discoish acronym, ABBA) fully deserves the place of honor it will occupy on birders' bookshelves, next to the magnum opus of Phillips, Marshall, and Monson.
Field work for the ABBA was begun in 1993 and completed at the turn of this century. Given the size of the state and the low number of observers available in all but the most densely populated areas, a system of "priority" blocks was developed for the surveys; the difficulties and the sampling methodologies developed to overcome them are clearly described in the book's introductory matter, as are the criteria and definitions used to document each species' breeding status.
While the book covers only those species known or suspected to have bred in Arizona, the splendid maps and well-illustrated habitat descriptions will be tremendously useful even to birders who visit the state only during non-breeding season (a nearly meaningless concept for species such as Lesser Goldfinch, which nests nearly year-round in the desert lowlands).
The results are published in a series of clearly structured species accounts, each occupying a full opening and each with a photograph of the species and a dramatically large, easily interpreted map showing the locations of breeding records. The species portraits are strictly speaking not necessary, but with only a few slight clunkers in the lot, they do add considerably to the visual appeal of these pages. For many species, convenient graphs showing habitat distribution and breeding phenology are also provided.
Although contributed by 19 different authors, the prose accounts show a uniformity of style that is greatly to the credit of the editors; only in the short anecdotal paragraphs beginning each account does the voice of the individual author intrude, sometimes charmingly, often less so. The 'meat' of the accounts is rigorously structured, with a detailed description of the species' habitat preferences followed by a clear summary of each bird's breeding biology in Arizona, including full and often carefully analyzed information on timing, nest construction, and behavior; this is simply great stuff, and it is high praise to say that over the last weeks I have found myself consulting ABBA in such matters as often as the online version of Birds of North America.
The accounts conclude with a discussion of the map data; many of the most interesting comments here are those directed at the apparent absence of certain species (the mysterious Lewis's Woodpecker, for example) in areas where they might be expected to breed. Careful readers will note many opportunities for research into new topics.
Among the appendices is a nearly 20-page bibliography, an extremely welcome addition to the resources available on Arizona ornithology.

If you don't have it, GET IT! The new authority on Arizona's breeding birds has rode into town!

At last, the definitive guide to breeding birds in Arizona. Well written with beautiful photographs. A must have reference for the serious Arizona birder and avian ecologist.

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