Fieldguide for Texas (1 Viewer)

Hi there,

I am planning to visit Texas next spring and was wondering if anybody could give me some advise about which field ID guide and bird finding guide is the best for Texas. I am planning to do a 3 week trip visiting the Texas coast, Rio Grande Valley, the Hill Country near Kerr and Uvalde and Big Bend NP. Any suggestions about good birding sites are very welcome.

I was recently birding in Texas and found "Birding Texas" by Wauer and Elwonger to be very useful. I picked up a copy at a Barnes and Noble in Houston (I was able to check on the internet which branch had a copy and put it on standby). My favourite US field guide is the Sibley guide, though it has its limitations and the National Geographic guide is also very good - I took both.

Tom

Jos,

Wauer & Elwonger is a good overall TX state guide. But for a 3-week trip to the coast, RGV and Hill Country, I strongly recommend the two relevant ABA birdfinding guides, which provide considerably more detail of the areas of interest to you:

• Cooksey & Weeks 2006. A Birder's Guide to the Texas Coast. 5th Edition.
  
• Lockwood, McKinney, Paton & Zimmer 2008. A Birder's Guide to the Rio Grande Valley. 4th Edition.

My wife and I made a 3-week trip from Houston in Apr 2003, visiting Pineywoods, Coast, RGV and Edwards Plateau (Hill Country) – the above guides cover those areas very well.

The Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail maps were also useful:
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/wildlife_trails/coastal

Best map is the DeLorme Texas Atlas & Gazetteer (1:400,000, with city maps at 1:50,000).

For a field guide, I agree with Tom's recommendation of Sibley (N American Bird Guide).

Lockwood & Freeman 2004 (TOS Handbook of Texas Birds) is a good reference for distribution, seasonality, abundance etc.

Richard

Thanks for the info Tom and Richard.

There seems to be a new Peterson out for the whole of N-America. Anyone who can recommend this book?