-
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Field Guides: Photos or Illustrations? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter mattwhite
- Start date
For your field guide of first resort, first class illustrations are best IMO (Sibley, NatGeo, Peterson). An illustrator can position the birds in the same way for easy comparison, and so the best field marks are visible. They also can filter out the effects of unusual lighting, etc.
However, photographic field guides can be a very valuable supplement to an illustrated guide. Illustrators certainly aren't perfect, and photos can reveal detail that an illustrator missed or may have misrepresented. Specialty photo guides (e.g. devoted to raptors or sparrows for example) are especially helpful because they can easily assemble multiple photos of the same species and thus easily display the range of variation (it would be a lot to ask an illustrator to paint 15 depictions of the same species).
Best,
Jim
I think I agree with Jim on this. I really like the illustrations in Sibley. Yet I also like all the different photos I get from Sparrows of the United States and Canada byBeadle and Rising; and from Raptors of Western North America by Wheeler.
Kevin Conville
yardbirder
Most people, including myself, like illustrations better. Identifying details can be exaggerated and pointed out easier.
A good photograph is hard to beat though. The problem is good photographs, from an ID'ing standpoint, are not that common.
I've yet to see a guide that has consistently good photos of all the different ages, sexes, morphs, and seasonal variants.
A good photograph is hard to beat though. The problem is good photographs, from an ID'ing standpoint, are not that common.
I've yet to see a guide that has consistently good photos of all the different ages, sexes, morphs, and seasonal variants.
Tero
Retired
I use mostly Kaufman with photos. With birds like sparrows, I prefer photos. I have a North America sparrow book with photos. Same for Warblers, prefer the short Stokes book, though the order in there is curious, with fall warblers in a new section.
With Europe, I never had any photo guides. Collins is fine.
With Europe, I never had any photo guides. Collins is fine.
If it is the Kaufman book that I am thinking of, then the photos in there are doctored, colors changed etc, to be more what an experienced observer would expect from that bird. Therefore, in some ways, it is an "in-between" book.
For me, I like to have a field guide with paintings/drawings in the field, and some ways of getting at photos afterwards, but I mostly use photos in a PC context, online or with a program like Birds of North America where I can get voice as well.
Niels
Chalky W
Well-known member
Matt,
along with everyone else it has to be drawings/paintings as they allow the guide to give you indications of plummage variation especially in Juveniles, moults and breeding. For the UK and Europe it has to be the Collins Bird Guide. Having said that I do find photos usefull sometimes and doing a google image search throws up lots of good stuff or the Opus here, I also have the Collins Complete Guide to British Birds (photographic guide) which is all photos but they are of a slightly dubious quality but help now and again especially with the Jizz of a bird, sometimes illustrations don't get this quite right.
Chalky
karpman
Well-known member
Being a newbie and all!
I carry both a Collins bird guide illustrated and very comprehensive and excellent, I remove the hard cover to make carrying and storing easier.
Also carry an Rspb guide with photos and find cross referencing great and very reassuring.
I use a back pack so they take up little room and take em every were nowdays.
karpman
I carry both a Collins bird guide illustrated and very comprehensive and excellent, I remove the hard cover to make carrying and storing easier.
Also carry an Rspb guide with photos and find cross referencing great and very reassuring.
I use a back pack so they take up little room and take em every were nowdays.
karpman
Chalky W
Well-known member
Karpman, there is a paperback version of Collins although the second edition version isn't released as yet but due very soon.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Bir...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265143647&sr=8-2
I've got both, the paperback is in my birding bag and covered in mud with torn pages etc but I've got the hardback in mint condition on the bookshelf at home. Extravagent, maybe......
karpman
Well-known member
Cheers mate, Got mine bought as a present when i was seen to being keen.:t:
Mine is now no back version and works a treat, Have a very large refrence book at home, BIRD isbn 978-1-84533-338-6.
Missus got it me from a garden center and is simply awesome with (mainly) Illustrations and some photos with a Ipod cdrom of bird calls!:t:
karpman
P.s Extravagant, Ya maybe but I'm gonna order all 3 i think now 2nd edition Tree and Flower cheers mate
Last edited:
Cardamom Pod
Very well, Dr. Humorous Droll
Sibley's is the best in my opinion, however, what I think really helps is having multiple guides. Different guides can show different features and illustrate the birds in different positions, which can help you pick up on features you might have missed if you only had one guide. Behind me right now I have about 6, including Sibley, Peterson, and a guide to warblers of the Eastern region. In the end, though, I think it's about personal preference, and which guide helps YOU the most when trying to identify birds.
Edit: Didn't see that you were in the U.K. I don't know if Sibley makes guides for that area?
Edit: Didn't see that you were in the U.K. I don't know if Sibley makes guides for that area?
Last edited:
Tim42
Birder4life
I have Sibley's and Kaufman's both of which I think are excellent in their own ways. I like Sibley's because he illustrates several of the difficult species that transition from imm. to adult, such as gulls. I mainly use Kaufman's because of his way of enhancing the photos with a computer to see detail in shadow areas and highlight field marks to look for. I mainly carry the Kaufman book for it's portability, it fits in my pants/jacket pocket. :flyaway:
dantheman
Bah humbug
No they don't
Interesting discussion nonetheless; when I went out to the states a few years back I ordered the Eastern Sibley and the Stokes photographic guide (I already had the National Geographic). Having more than one, you find they do complemement each other (... although the photographic guide just isn't as good as 'illustrated' guides IMO)
Here in the uk it is much more of a one horse race; the Collins guide as mentioned.
However, it is a field guide to the whole of the area (Europe+ N Africa and the Middle East ie the western Palearctic, 700+ species), whilst only 250 or so species are regular in the uk, with another 60+ regular scarce migrants. So for many beginners, it is possibly going to be too much.
(I still think they could do a toned down uk basics version, going into as much depth but cutting out a lot of the peripheral species, but that's my opinion too!)
I think there are a few threads discussing the best field guides for beginners on here ... it also depeneds on whether you think you will outgrow it in 6 months time ...
Definitely illustrated, at any rate.
