A Field Guide to Hummingbirds: Errata, Corrigenda, and Addenda

A Field Guide to Hummingbirds:
Errata, Corrigenda, and Addenda

The first printing of A Field Guide to Hummingbirds of North America, released in January 2002, was marred by a number of errors and omissions. Some were the result of mistakes on my part that went unnoticed during the pre-publication editing process, others came to my attention and were marked for correction during the final manuscript revision but somehow slipped through the editorial cracks, and still others were not apparent until the finished book was in hand. Most of these problems were corrected in a second printing later in 2002, but by then thousands of copies from the first printing were in circulation. A few of the errors are important enough to the utility of the guide that I hand-correct the pertinent passages when asked to autograph a copy from the first printing. Other minor errors and omissions don't necessarily make the guide less useful but are nevertheless annoying. As a service to the birding and hummingbird communities, this page will catalog errors and omissions that readers may wish to correct in their own copies.

Also, there is much relevant new information on hummingbird biology, behavior, and distribution. In addition to errata and corrigenda to both printings of the first edition, I intend to compile a brief summary of updates that may appear in future editions. This will be an ongoing process as I can spare time from my other responsibilities to revisit known issues and reread both printings to uncover additional issues (for which corrections will be submitted for inclusion in the next printing). Thank you for your patience and feedback!

Sheri Williamson

Plate Legends - Allen's tails and Rufous tails: In the first printing, where the legend reads "R1-3," it should read "R3-5."

Species Accounts - Rufous Hummingbird: An early draft of the range map was mistakenly included in the first printing; it was replaced in the second printing by a more detailed version that includes a few records that had not been compiled when the guide originally went to press.

Glossary: There is no such word as "exituc"; as the definition suggests, the word is actually "exotic."

Acknowledgements: Jon Dunn, who was kind enough to review and provide his comments on the original manuscript, was inadvertently omitted. Unfortunately, I and my editor at Houghton Mifflin were made aware of this omission by third parties only after the guide's third printing (May 2005), so Jon's name will not appear in the acknowledgements until the fourth printing.

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