Birds of Southern South America and Antarctica.

South America though home to about one-third of the worlds bird species and twice as many endemic families of birds as any other continent has the worlds sparsest population of birdwatchers. Birds of Southern South America and Antarctica illustrates and describes all the known species--more than 1 000 of them--in a vast swath of this underexplored birders paradise from Argentina Chile Bolivia Paraguay southern Brazil and Uruguay to parts of Antarctica. Just some of the birds it covers are teals tinamous chachalacas conebills cuckoos macaws parakeets parrots penguins nightjars hummingbirds ovenbirds tyrants and tanagers. The habitats range from torrid rainforests and cloudforests to grasslands the worlds driest desert second highest mountain range and ice caps. The 97 color plates depict each species male in breeding plumage with the female and young often shown as well. On the facing page are concise textual descriptions of each species highlighting not only salient physical features and behavioral patterns but the calls or songs of each. Casual birders and ornithologists contemplating a journey to the region or simply interested in a one-volume overview of its bird life will not want to miss this book.