The Birds of New Jersey: Status and Distribution

NEW JERSEY is one of the great birding states in the United States, and many birders’ first experience of North America’s exciting avian diversity is at the migration hot-spot of Cape May, with a British presence now a mainstay in the annual World Series of Birding, based at the bird observatory for the last 28 years. Cape May’s coastal position midway down the east coast makes it like the Scillies and Fair Isle combined, pulling in Arctic species such as Harlequin Duck and subtropical migrants like Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, as well as the odd Palearctic rarity like Lesser Sand Plover; the inland parts of the state make for fantastic exploration too.

The author has a solid reputation in New Jersey birding, and the book’s accounts cover all records accepted by the New Jersey Records Committee up until 2010, with appendices covering those of uncertain provenance or not accepted.  

This comprehensive but portable paperback will be the ideal accompaniment for any stay in the state, and records of species like Long-billed Curlew will excite the interest of the British rarity-hunter. A checklist would have made the book perfect.

• The Birds of New Jersey: Status and Distribution by William J Boyle (Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 2011).

• 320 pages, 460 colour distribution maps, 237 colour photographs.

• ISBN 9780691144108. Pbk, £16.95.

Available from Birdwatch bookshop

First published in Birdwatch 231:62 (September 2011)