:: Greenland
The Scoop
There is no field guide specifically for Greenland. As one might expect, Greenland’s birds are a mix of North American, Eurasian, and Holarctic species. So a combination of The Sibley Guide to Birds (ISBN 978-0-679-45122-8) and Birds of Europe
* (ISBN 978-0-691-05054-6) should do quite nicely. Taking them both to Greenland would be like hauling a baby grand onstage when all you really need is a pitch pipe, but if the pitch pipe hasn’t been invented yet, you have to do what you can. (It might help to use The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America
(ISBN 978-0-679-45120-4) instead of the larger edition.)
A few endemic subspecies of wider-ranging species breed in Greenland, and they are treated by the Nearctic and Palearctic guides if they stray to or occur in the areas covered. Sibley illustrates and discusses Greenland redpolls and Greater White-fronted Geese; Birds of Europe covers the goose and Greenland Northern Wheatear. Greenland has no endemic populations currently recognized as full species.
Also Consider
If you really don’t want to lug two guides, the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Fifth Edition (ISBN 978-0-7922-5314-3) covers all the regularly occurring birds of Greenland (I think), along with many vagrants. Excluded are a few rare vagrants from Europe, like Water Rail. The vagrants that aren’t illustrated are listed in a brief text passage about Greenland in the back of the guide.
For more information about these guides, including a table to help you sort out the confusing Birds of Europe/Collins guide options, see the Eurasia and North America pages.
* Published in the UK as Collins Bird Guide: The Most Complete Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe
(ISBN 978-0-00-219728-1). [back to top]
This article was updated on December 25, 2007.
Leave a Reply
David J. Ringer
