Venezuela’s avifauna is relatively well known thanks to the efforts of William H. Phelps, William H. Phelps Jr. and their collaborators. Their work created the largest ornithological collection in Latin America and culminated in the production of the first modern field guide to a South American avifauna.

The standard field guide to Venezuela’s birds is Meyer de Schauensee and Phelps’ A Guide to the Birds of Venezuela (Princeton University Press, 1978) the Spanish version of which was reprinted in 1994 with an appendix adding information on newly recorded species (Ex Libris, 1994).

A new field guide by Steve Hilty was published by Princeton University Press in early 2003. It is reviewed here.

Since the publication of the field guide in 1978 our knowledge of Venezuelan birds has increased and the following articles provide more recent information on distributions:-

Boesman, P. 1998. Some new information on the distribution of Venezuela birds. Cotinga 9: 27-39

Hilty, S.L. 1999. Three bird species new to Venezuela and notes on the behaviour and distribution of other poorly known species. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 119 (4): 221-235

Kirwan, G.M. and C.J. Sharpe. 1999. Range extensions and notes on the status of little-known species from Venezuela. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 119 (1): 38-47

Lentino, M. 1978. Extensiones de distribución de ocho especies de aves de Venezuela. Memoria de la Sociedad de Ciencias Naturales La Salle. 109: 113-118.

Lentino, M., F.J. Bisbal, A.A. Ospino and R.A. Rivero. 1984. Nuevos registros y extensiones de distribución para especies de aves de Venezuela. Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales 39 (142): 111-119

Sharpe, C.J., D. Ascanio-Echeverría and G.A. Rodríguez. 2001. Further range extensions and noteworthy records for Venezuelan birds. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 121 (1): 50-62

An excellent review of Venezuelan ornithological literature, now in need of revision, is:-

Casler, C.L. 1992. Bibliografía ornitológica de Venezuela. Boletín del Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas 26 (1): 1-203

Peter Boesman’s CD-ROM Birds of Venezuela: Photographs, Sounds and Distributions (Bird Songs International BV, 1999;
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/bird_songs_international/)
provides vocalisations for 674 species and 700 photographs. It also includes distribution maps for the 878 species treated although information is not always accurate.

Two older but excellent quality LP records by Paul Schwartz, Bird Songs from the Tropics and Vibra El Llano, are no longer available.