Upcoming North American field guides (1 Viewer)

jedigrant · Oct 26, 2007

Anyone know anything about these?

Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America, by Ted Floyd
Publisher: Collins (April 29, 2008)

Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America (Paperback)
, by Roger Tory Peterson
Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; 11 edition (August 28, 2008)

I have no idea what the Peterson one is. It appears to be the entire continent and not just eastern or western. And the "11 edition" also throws me - the last one published was the 5th edition of the Eastern/Central guide.

nctexasbirder · Oct 27, 2007

jedigrant said:
Anyone know anything about these?

Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America, by Ted Floyd
Publisher: Collins (April 29, 2008)

Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America (Paperback)
, by Roger Tory Peterson
Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; 11 edition (August 28, 2008)

I have no idea what the Peterson one is. It appears to be the entire continent and not just eastern or western. And the "11 edition" also throws me - the last one published was the 5th edition of the Eastern/Central guide.

perhaps it is an 11th printing or something...i hope the Smithsonian guide isnt a rehash of their photo guides....should be something to look for...

jcwings · Oct 27, 2007

Peterson isn't painting pictures anymore so I'm wondering if it isn't just a combined Eastern-Western book (528 pages) with updated text and species changes from the older books.

Robert / Seattle · Oct 27, 2007

Grant,

You may find this thread from earlier this year of interest:

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=838506#post838506

Robert / Seattle

jedigrant · Oct 27, 2007

Thanks Robert - I had completely forgotten about that!

Tero · May 24, 2008

The Ted Floyd book is out now. Photos, medium size. With songs DVD. Look in Barnes and Noble on line.

nctexasbirder · May 28, 2008

Tero said:
The Ted Floyd book is out now. Photos, medium size. With songs DVD. Look in Barnes and Noble on line.

Saw this at Barnes and Noble. Basically identical to National Wildlife Federation's guide. I also saw on Amazon that the National Geo guide will be split into two separate volumes for East and West in Fall of this year.

ovenbird43 · Jun 3, 2008

The DVD with songs sounds enticing... I do a lot of birding by ear and have recently begun acquiring different sources with bird songs and call for cross-referencing, to help cover all the variations in bird sounds.

I haven't noticed it on the local bookshelves so I haven't yet taken a look inside. I usually rely soley on Sibley's guide in the field, occasionally referring to more detailed books such as "The Shorebird Guide", Peterson's "Warblers", or "Sparrows of North America", but I have been considering keeping some of the other field guides around. Photos can be a good supplement, but in my opinion well-done paintings are far superior for ID purposes.

Tero · Jun 3, 2008

Sound
You are better off buying assorted Eastern or Western CDs or CD rom guides with sound. This is just a sampling. Has one Yellow Legs but not the other one.

jedigrant · Jun 3, 2008

Tero is right. The accompanying DVD looks helpful, but it will not serve as your only source of bird songs. As he mentioned, for most confusing species where sound will help in the identification, only one of the species is included.
I've posted some pictures of the guide, along with the complete list of birds included on the DVD, on my website - The Birder's Library.

And I completely agree with you about paintings being superior for use in general field guides. But it you're looking for a supplemental photographic guide, you could do worse than this one.

Lisa A. White · Jun 4, 2008

Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America

That 11th edition is an error on Amazon, and we'll get it fixed; it should say 1st edition, as it's the first time for the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America. It's combined east and west, but it's been revised--see below.
I don't mean this as an advertisement--just wanted to correct the error and inform, since people were wondering.
Lisa White
Director of Guidebooks
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing

(This is what's on Amazon)
Product Description
In celebration of the centennial of Roger Tory Peterson's birth comes a historic collaboration among renowned birding experts and artists to preserve and enhance the Peterson legacy. This new book combines the Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds and Peterson Field Guide to Western Birds into one volume, filled with accessible, concise information and including almost three hours of video podcasts to make bird watching even easier.

• 40 new paintings
• Digital updates to Peterson's original paintings, reflecting the latest knowledge of bird identification
• All new maps for the most up-to-date range information available
• Text rewritten to cover the U.S. and Canada in one guide
• Larger trim size accommodates range maps on every spread
• Contributors include: Michael DiGiorgio, Jeff Gordon, Paul Lehman, Michael O'Brien, Larry Rosche, and Bill Thompson III
• Includes URL to register for access to video podcasts

# Paperback: 544 pages
# Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (August 28, 2008)

Boomer · Jun 4, 2008

Lisa A. White said:
That 11th edition is an error on Amazon, and we'll get it fixed; it should say 1st edition, as it's the first time for the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America. It's combined east and west, but it's been revised--see below.
I don't mean this as an advertisement--just wanted to correct the error and inform, since people were wondering.
Lisa White
Director of Guidebooks
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing

(This is what's on Amazon)
Product Description
In celebration of the centennial of Roger Tory Peterson's birth comes a historic collaboration among renowned birding experts and artists to preserve and enhance the Peterson legacy. This new book combines the Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds and Peterson Field Guide to Western Birds into one volume, filled with accessible, concise information and including almost three hours of video podcasts to make bird watching even easier.

• 40 new paintings
• Digital updates to Peterson's original paintings, reflecting the latest knowledge of bird identification
• All new maps for the most up-to-date range information available
• Text rewritten to cover the U.S. and Canada in one guide
• Larger trim size accommodates range maps on every spread
• Contributors include: Michael DiGiorgio, Jeff Gordon, Paul Lehman, Michael O'Brien, Larry Rosche, and Bill Thompson III
• Includes URL to register for access to video podcasts

# Paperback: 544 pages
# Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (August 28, 2008)

Hi Lisa, and welcome to BF (I noticed that this was your first post).

Sincerest thanks for taking the time to post this info. It all seems to make a little bit better sense now. I am looking forward to seeing the new edition of the Peterson, as well as the Smithsonian.

Ron Davidson

Dave B Smith · Jun 4, 2008

Hi Lisa,
On behalf of the staff, welcome to the Birdforum and thanks for the info on the planned Peterson's Field Guide. Looking forward to seeing it.

ovenbird43 · Jun 5, 2008

Glad to see what's on the DVD. My main reference for bird calls are my recently-acquired Stoke's guides, which are by far the most comprehensive CDs I've been able to find. As an additional reference (and for a long time, my only one) I have Peterson's CD on Eastern birds.

But I wonder if the DVD would still make a good supplement, just as the photographs and tips in the book might make a good supplement to Sibley's paintings? I found the book at Barnes and Noble yesterday evening, and I was impressed with the photos. I almost bought it... but I'm watching my spending right now...

Jim M. · Jun 5, 2008

ovenbird43 said:
Glad to see what's on the DVD. My main reference for bird calls are my recently-acquired Stoke's guides, which are by far the most comprehensive CDs I've been able to find. As an additional reference (and for a long time, my only one) I have Peterson's CD on Eastern birds.

But I wonder if the DVD would still make a good supplement, just as the photographs and tips in the book might make a good supplement to Sibley's paintings? I found the book at Barnes and Noble yesterday evening, and I was impressed with the photos. I almost bought it... but I'm watching my spending right now...

You are aware that recordings of bird songs are available for free over the Internet? See this Cornell site for example:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/

My other main source is a Thayer birding software CD for the birds of North America; it has a great facility for constructing bird song quizzes.

Best,
Jim

jedigrant · Jun 5, 2008

ovenbird43 said:
But I wonder if the DVD would still make a good supplement, just as the photographs and tips in the book might make a good supplement to Sibley's paintings?

You took the words right out of my mouth! I don't have an answer yet, but I will be investigating this in the course of writing my review. I must say initially that it looks promising, due to the number of tracks per species. But the relatively small number of species is a very big drawback.

Anyways, I'll share my opinion as soon as I get time to check it out.

Tero · Jun 6, 2008

I have the Thayer CD Rom. I set it for Midwest, it gives me several hundred songs. All the songs are on the CD, but you have to transfer them by hand beyond your region. I picked out all the flycatchers one by hand for iPod. But I now just have the songs folder, no iPod.

ovenbird43 · Jun 6, 2008

J. Moore said:
You are aware that recordings of bird songs are available for free over the Internet? See this Cornell site for example:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/

Best,
Jim

Yes... but I don't have internet at home (only at my office at school). When there is a bird I particularly want to learn about, I often do search for recordings over the internet in addition to listening to my CDs.

I've never tried the Thayer software... I hadn't heard much about it and hadn't looked into it much.

Jim M. · Jun 6, 2008

Tero said:
I have the Thayer CD Rom. I set it for Midwest, it gives me several hundred songs. All the songs are on the CD, but you have to transfer them by hand beyond your region. I picked out all the flycatchers one by hand for iPod. But I now just have the songs folder, no iPod.

Not sure what version you have, but I do not have the latest and it has a feature that automatically formats the songs for transfer to an iPod or PDA. Just click on the "custom lists" button and then click on the button that says "Prepare for IPod/PDA".

Best,
Jim

Tero · Jun 8, 2008

Jim, there was an automatic system, but it only gave the midwest birds. I went and hand picked the flycatchers for the whole country, named the tracks, and made a folder suitable for i Pod.

Upcoming North American field guides (1 Viewer)

Well-known member

young birder

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Retired

young birder

Well-known member

Retired

Well-known member

New member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Member since 2007

Well-known member

Retired

Well-known member

Member since 2007

Retired

Similar threads

Users who are viewing this thread