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Reviewed: The Encyclopedia of Caged & Aviary Birds By David Alderton (Anness Publishing Ltd. ©2001, ISBN 1-84215-455-9, pb, $16.95 Cdn)
However, it turned out to be case where the book itself did not live up to the promise of its packaging: It was reminiscent of a meal at McDonald’s: lots of flash and dash, but not a whole lot of substance. I did not find the book to be very well-organized. For example, the sections on conures were lumped into a larger section that was entitled Australian Parakeets. Conures, of course are New World parrots found in Central and South America, not in Australia. Another example: Eclectus parrots are lumped in with African parrots and featured on the same page as African greys. The information itself is accurate, although it does not go into much detail. In its defence, this book was previously published as part of a larger volume, The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Caged and Aviary Birds. By converting it into a “Reader’s Digest” version, some of the detail is bound to be lost. But the poor organization really detracted from my enjoyment of the book. Certainly the author is a renowned authority on birds, so it may be that the publisher did this on its own, without Alderton proofreading the re-issued version. It is difficult to believe such a renowned breeder and author would let these kinds of flaws remain. On the plus side, the colour photography in the book is excellent. I have seldom seen the photos jump off the page like the ones do in this book. In addition to the sections on parrots, the book also includes chapters on canaries, softbills, doves and pigeons and quails and pheasants. Perhaps that is part of its problem: the book tries to cover too much material in a limited space. It could easily be split into two equal-sized volumes that might eliminate some of this book’s flaws, although at least one reviewer on Amazon.ca made the same comment about the original book. (Note: This review was for a 2001 edition; the updated edition may have addressed some of the issues I've raised in this review.) - Reviewed by John Geary (The bird call you hear in the background is that of the red-billed toucan, the bird pictured on the book's cover)
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General Information About African Greys Fiction
Non-Fiction
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When I
first spied this book, and saw that it was on sale for $16.95, (normally about
$20.50) I thought it was a great buy.