The belt of islands leading from Australia northeastward to Hawaii offers any number of choice birders" destinations: some 20 families (cassowaries, logrunners, and honeycreepers, for instance) are endemic, while another hundred or so are common, including most of the world"s birds of paradise species and an astonishing variety of sunbirds, flycatchers, and nightjars. Wheatley, an accomplished birder and writer, offers a guide to some 200 destinations, with notes on endemic and characteristic populations, other regional wildlife, and lodging and other services. --Gregory McNamee