"Amazing! Please buy it, whether or not you're planning a trip to West Papua or PNG. It's a must-have book. . . . [A] high quality field guide, with maps on the same page as the plates, excellent, informative text, good artworkand everything one hopes for in a field guide."
If you're lucky enough to go birding in New Guinea, you'll want this field guide.-Grant McCreary, Birder's Library
There is no doubt that this book will be a very popular addition to many birders libraries over the next few months and those visiting PNG next year will armed with a great deal more knowledge than beforethe real test of a new book comes in the field and I like many more am looking forward to giving it that test.-Ashley Banwell, Rare Bird Alert
From cassowaries to parrots and birds-of-paradise to fairy-wrens, with sicklebills, mannikins and fantails in between, birders visiting New Guinea need to be prepared for a deluge of delightful birds, and Birds of New Guinea: Second Edition is the book to help them do it. From an extensive orientation to beautifully illustrated plates and expanded species accounts, this guide is the go-to resource all things birding in New Guinea.-Melissa Mayntz, About.com Birding
An incredibly good field guide.-Grant McCreary, Birder's Library
Birding in New Guinea for the first time would make the most experienced birder feel like a beginner searching through the vast number of endemics. This is the guide to take along on such an adventure.-REH, Wildlife Activist
It's hard to find fault in this excellent publication, so I won't. I would however, encourage all birders to purchase it and start saving for the ultimate birding tripbelieve me, watching your first displaying bird-of-paradise will certainly bring this field guide alive!-Tim Appleton, Birdwatch
If there ever was a time to visit New Guinea it is now. Pratt and Beehler's impressive book will surely help you to make the most of your visit.-Vincent Nijman, IBIS
This field guide is a must for anyone contemplating serious birding or research on birds in New Guinea. It is as aesthetically pleasing as it is informative and authoritative.-H. Carl Gerhardt, Wilson Journal of Ornithology
A solid field guide/handbook and one that does justice to the series.-Mike Tomes, British Trust for Ornithology
12/01/2014
It's been 28 years since the first edition, which has been out of print since 2006. Taking "a quantum leap forward to an entirely new second edition," Pratt (wildlife biologist emeritus, U.S. Geological Survey's Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Ctr.) and Beehler (ornithologist, Division of Birds at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History) here cover all 780 bird species in this region, drawing in even more biological data—including some on behavior, diet, and nesting—than typically found in field guides. Detailed species accounts are now separate from the 111 color illustrations—most new and twice as many as the first edition—with additional abridged species accounts and habitat maps facing these plates. VERDICT A long-awaited, greatly expanded update to an authoritative regional reference.—Judy Quinn, formerly with Library Journal