Field Guide to Owls of California and the West

by Hans J. Peeters

Book Overview

Most owls are almost perfectly adapted to life in the dark. Their vaguely humanoid faces reflect the spectacular evolution of their hearing and vision, which has made flight, romance, and predation possible in the near absence of light. This accessible guide, full of intriguing anecdotes, covers all 19 species of owls occurring in North America. More than an identification guide, Field Guide to Owls of California and the West describes the biology...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520247418
• ISBN13: 9780520247413
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 346 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.1" x 7.1"

Customer Reviews

Informative

This informative book gives lots of interesting facts about owls that I haven't found in any other book. It is a great field guide, great for learning about owls, and also makes for interesting reading. An especially nice feature is that it tells the specific habitats in which to look for owls, and at what time of the day and of the year.

Another superb book from Hans Peeters!

Far more than a Field Guide to the Owls of California and the West, this wonderful book is a primer in ornithology, a work of strong scholarship, a guide to conservation, and an entertainment. Mr. Peeters is a distinguished raptor biologist, a bird painter and illustrator, a naturalist of extraordinary experience. Beyond providing astute identification information, this book gives the reader fascinating detail on the lives of owls, the ecology of birds in general and raptors in particular, and does these things with a grace of language unknown in other field guides. Peeters has done it all -text, photographs, drawings, and illustrations. The plates are among his very best. The photograph of a Northern Pygmy Owl that introduces the scction describing an owl's body is extraordinary, and there are many more of similar beauty and utility. The book is presented in six parts. The Introduction is followed by An Owl's Life, Finding and Watching Owls, Owls and Humans, Species Accounts, and 21 stunning color plates (including two very useful ones of fledgling owls). The book does indeed go beyond the boundaries of California. In fact, all 19 species of owls fond in the United States are covered. As the author says, "...the new scope provided the opportuniry to write about species that don't occur in my home state but that I have had the pleasure of meeting elsewhere." Mr. Peeters (who is much published in professional circles)has done a thorough survey of the scientific literature, and what he has found and shares with his readers is interesting in every way. Details of distribution, food habits, behavior, ecology and status are provided. And all of this is supplemented with the more than half century of perceptive global natural history observations that have been so much of the life of this biologist. The book is full of material dazzling to amateur and professional alike. This is a field guide that can be read for pleasure, written as it is with color and verbal richness laced with the idiosyncratic humor of this author. This book would make a fine gift for birders young and old (perhaps especially if coupled with his recent Raptors of California, co-authored by his wife, Pam Peeters). But the same is true for the professional ornithologist -who is bound to learn how little he or she knew about owls before reading this book!

A wonderful book for the owl enthusiast!

This book does not claim to be a scientific manual about owls. And just because it's published by a University Press doesn't mean it has to be a text book. It is a field guide. Field guides are not required to be written by biologists. The person who wrote the review called "Where's the beef?" is also NOT a biologist and is also quite fond of relating natural history information about raptors based solely on personal experience and antecdotes. So let's just put all that aside, shall we? If you love owls, if you want to know more about them, and their habitats, and their personal lives, and how to look for them, and how to observe them, then this is a wonderful book. If you want a lot of scientific details and facts - most of which will be based on what I would consider to be unethical experimentation on captive owls - then it's best to buy a biology book about owls that is written by a Ph.D. Otherwise, you will enjoy the accessible writing style of this book, the humor, and the photographs and drawings. You will learn more about owls, fascinating creatures that they are!

wonderful pocket guide to western north american owls

The size of a Peterson series field guide but perhaps a bit thicker. Covers everything one might want to know about the owls of our West. Detailed and very readable descriptions of their biology, habits, how to find them and their interaction with humans. Next is an excellent species account with wonderful color illustations and photos of owls in action and as field guide representatives. Comprehensive, incisive and beautifully put together -- a real buy!