Suboscine tyranny

A review of "The Birds of South America, Vol II. The Suboscine Passerines" 

Accomplished ornithologist Robert S Ridgely and “his” illustrator Guy Tudor originally set out to publish a four-volume work on South American birds. Although only two were published (on oscine and suboscine passerines, respectively), their work was considered a major breakthrough at the time. The second volume in particular seems to have consumed a lot of the authors' spare time, making them refer to it as “an albatross around our neck”! Today, this “field handbook” (too voluminous to be a field guide) have been superseded by the HBW, but I admit that can't be used as a field guide either! If you can't afford the HBW and “only” fancy South American songbirds, investing in both volumes of the Ridgely-Tudor might perhaps be a good idea.

On a more personal note, leafing through this book was a bizarre experience, since the suboscine passerines frequently seem to recapitulate the oscines. Yeah, I know this is supposed to be “convergent evolution”, but please, how do you explain that the Kinglet Calyptura is almost identical in appearance to the Holarctic Kinglet? The wagtail tyrant is another classic…

Maybe God (or the Elan Vital) did it after all? :P