Twenty-eight years have passed since publication of the first edition of Birds of New Guinea. In that time, big changes have taken place in this important bird region. The human population has more than doubled, economic development—particularly mining and logging—has accelerated, and the loss of habitat has increased proportionately. On the brighter side, vast tracts of wilderness remain, several international conservation organizations have joined forces with local governments to protect the forest, birding as a form of ecotourism has blossomed, and a new generation of field researchers has taken to the bush. Exciting new information on bird distribution and biology has poured in. And as if to heighten appreciation for New Guinea’s avifauna, modern molecular systematic research has revolutionized the classification of birds and pinpointed New Guinea and Australia as the motherland of the world’s most prominent bird lineage, the songbirds (oscine passerines). In light of these changes, a new edition of Birds of New Guinea is timely.
A book must suit the purposes of the people using it. In many parts of the world—Australia, Europe, North America—field guides to birds are written mainly for birders (bird-watchers). These books focus solely on how to identify birds to species, how to tell the age and sex of a bird, and how and where to find it. Readers wishing to learn more about birds can turn to other books for information on bird natural history, ecology, reproduction, evolution, geographic variation, classification, and conservation. Unfortunately, much of this information on New Guinea birds can be found only in technical literature that is not readily available.
It is our wish that readers in the field have more basic information at their fingertips. In the new edition of Birds of New Guinea, we have expanded the content of the species accounts to include more biological details—behavior, diet, nesting—than are typically covered in a field guide. As for the identification purpose of the book, we have also expanded the species accounts in this second edition to explain how to determine the sex and age of a bird, and how geographic variation is partitioned into subspecies (races). To accomplish all this, we have adopted a “handbook-style” format for the book. Rather than fitting all the information opposite the painted plates—the format typical of most recent field guides—our book presents detailed species accounts in the body of the book separate from the illustrations in the front, with abridged species accounts and maps facing the plates. We hope this additional information will be of use to birders, tour guides, biologists, and conservationists who enjoy New Guinea birds and strive to learn more about them.
Changes have been made in authorship and artwork in the second edition. This time the book has two authors, rather than three. We want to take this opportunity to express our deep appreciation to Dale A. Zimmerman, coauthor and principal artist of the first edition. In many respects, Dale was the “senior partner” who freely offered guidance to the two younger authors embarking on their first major book. We also wish to acknowledge Brian Finch and the late Harry Bell, whose text contributions in the first edition have been brought in one form or another to the new edition. Jared Diamond’s descriptions of vocalizations were similarly carried over to the new edition. The text for the new edition has been drafted solely by us (Pratt and Beehler). Early drafts were reviewed and improved by an expert panel that included David Bishop, Brian Coates, Jared Diamond, and Mary LeCroy. These colleagues each contributed knowledge gained over a lifetime of study of the birdlife of New Guinea.
Expanding the scope of the book demanded new artwork, and for that we turned to John Anderton, known for his work in Birds of South Asia. Together, authors and artist drew up a plate plan that more than doubled the number of figures and resulted in replacing nearly all original artwork. John painted the majority of the plates. John’s observations on bird plumages at the American Museum of Natural History have clarified numerous uncertainties and even made some unexpected discoveries. Toward the end of the project we recruited Szabolcs Kókay to illustrate the shorebirds, fruit-doves, bowerbird bowers, and birds of paradise. James Coe granted permission to use the original tern-and-gull plate in combination with new figures by Szabolcs. Dale Zimmerman graciously sent us the plate of flying parrots to republish. A new feature of this guide, the range maps, were drafted by Shane Kelly. Lisa Louise Adams drafted the voice diagrams. To these colleagues we extend our most heartfelt thanks.
Field guides are harder to produce than one would think: the amount of detailed information that must be located, organized, condensed, and checked is mind-boggling; the volume of artwork is staggering. Reflecting on this, we wish to acknowledge our editor, Robert Kirk, for patiently guiding us through the long process of publishing our book. He provided funding, answered innumerable questions, freely gave advice, mentored, and was an all-round good guy. Also with Princeton Univ. Press, Dimitri Karetnikov, Mark Bellis, Lucy Treadwell, and Robert Still (WildGuides) did a marvellous job preparing the manuscript for publication. We hope the book has turned out to their satisfaction.