The other day I received a greatly expected package from Houghton Mifflin, my review copy of Molt in North America Birds by Steve N.G. Howell. I quickly ripped the package open and I was staring at a beautiful cover of a molting Northern Gannet. With a familiar crack of a firm spine, I opened the book and sat amazed at the layout and text, and this was only the preface. The images are generally vibrant and the writing style accomplishes that most difficult balancing act between conveying weighty scientific concepts and maintaining an ease of readability.
The organization of Molt is in two distinct sections. The first part is an introductory text that details the evolutionary and practical basis for molt, molting strategies in relation to life histories, and molt progressions. Especially helpful are two pages that illustrate molting strategies graphically with corresponding timeline graphs. This is by far the best summation of molt that I have seen in any text.
The second portion of Molt is a series of accounts detailing molt specifics by family. What a resource to quickly find vital molt information about a member of a particular family in an instant. One of my only negative criticisms is that although most of images are outstanding, occasionally an image is not quite illustrative enough or of somewhat poorer quality. However, I realize, having written a field guide myself, that to have all A+ images is nearly impossible, especially when you consider the berth of this particular undertaking.
Now for the hard part to apply this book to my day-to-day birding. Study molt in the field can be valuable to understanding the life history of birds.
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