Book Description

Ornithologists and birdwatchers need a definitive treatise to consult when confronted with unfamiliar common names of birds in Mexico. As in the United States, people of Mexico use colloquial names when referring to local birds. Considering the large expanses of land and the diverse ethnic origins of the people, the common bird names often differ from one locality to another; and in some cases, several different names are used for the same species. These names are of Spanish or Indian origin or Hispanic modifications of the original Indian dialect. The use of multiple common names for one or more species is confusing to visiting foreigners, as well as to residents of Mexico. Several bird guides exist that give Mexican common names, but they make no attempt to assign more than one name to a species, to show where one common names is used for several species, or to designate the localities in which the names are used. This publication has been compiled to fill this void in the Mexican bird literature. Coauthor Birkenstein began to accumulate common names in an extensive cross-referenced file after she moved to Mexico in 1951. She is a avid birdwatcher and founder of the Audubon Society of Mexico, the only chapter chartered by the National Audubon Society outside of the United States. For nearly 30 years, she has collected names throughout Mexico during her constant birding trips. This endeavor has earned her the reputation as the authority on the common bird names of Mexico among her peers in Mexico and the United States. Similarly, but independently, coauthor Tomlinson became aware of the lack of a good Mexican bird name source when he was assigned to work on endangered species in the Southwestern United States and Sonora, Mexico, in the late 1960's. A partial list of birds and mammals with English and Spanish names had been distributed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1952 (Anon. 1952). This list was intended primarily to familiarize law enforcement officers and other Service employees working in and adjacent to Mexico with Spanish names of animals commonly encountered. Tomlinson used the list frequently while working in Mexico, but soon discovered that it was inadequate. To facilitate discussions about birds with Mexican Nationals, he began a revision of the list. It proved to be a formidable task. As a result of these efforts, more than 3,000 Mexican common names have been documented herein. They represent 89 families and 994 species of birds found in Mexico. These names were accumulated through the authors' extensive personal contacts in the field and through careful research of various source documents as listed in the references at the end of this publication.