N America field guide (1 Viewer)

Hi all, I hope to visit North America this summer and I'm looking for a good field guide (I have Sibley's one, but I don't like it very much, pictures are not really good in my opinion).
Can anyone help me please?
Thanks
Giorgio

NA Field Guides

Sibley is the way to go, unless you are visiting the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, where National Geographic provides significantly better coverage of the specialties possible there.
In Texas and here in southeast Arizona, it's a good idea to have access to Howell and Webb as well--you just never know....
Rick Wright
Tucson.

I have Sibley but I'm not crazy about the coloring in the pictures. I prefer Peterson's Field Guide of North American Birds. Only problem is it doesn't fit in to your back pocket. Kaufman is pretty good but has digitally altered photos for pictures.

I have to say National Geographic is the book for me I think a number of the pics tend to more accurately represent the birds than the Sibley (Sibley gets backup status for the flight pictures). Petersons is too basic really (people say it's good for beginners - we've had an arguement on that issue before on the BF boards) and personally I don't like photo based guides.

Luke

What part of NA? Peterson's has east and west versions as does Sibley. National Geographic and Kaufmann each cover all of NA. These are the top 4 guides. None of them is perfect, but I would forego any others (Stokes, Audubon, etc.).

Peterson's and Kaufmann's have arrows to pertinent field marks, these can be really help for quick ID for those not yet familiar with NA birds. For field use I recommend Kaufmann's. It has the smallest physical dimensions of the guides mentioned so far, and therefore is the easiest to stow in a pocket. I especially like the 2nd edition with the Yellow Warbler on the cover.

The National Geographic book is very good, but doesn not have the call outs for field marks. As Rick mentioned, it probably does have better coverage of the species sneaking in from south of the border.

I don't care for Sibley's much either. I think its way overrated as a "field" guide. The full NA edition does have a fair amount of info not found in the others, however its size and layout relegate it to the truck or usually the house for a general reference book. I don't find the smaller east/west editions to be much better in the field either. Finally the reds in my Sibley are WAY overblown.

I've never really checked out National Geographic. I use Sibley now because it fits in my pocket. I will give the Sibley time but I'm just not sold on it yet. As basic as Peterson's may be it helped me identify a lot of birds and I am not ashamed to use anything that works for me but I am not exactly an advanced birder. Where is the thread that talks about Peterson's?

Here's one of several threads that talks about Peterson's among all the other NA guides. If you want to read more, just put in "Peterson guide" in the "search forums" box and you'll have hours of reading ahead of you.

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=19136&page=2&pp=25&highlight=Peterson+guide

Thanks!

Thanks for your help, I've also read part of the topic in the link you mentioned..
But I'm a little bit disappointed; as someone else pointed out, in Europe we have really excellent guides, far better, as far as I've understood, than yours.
Have you ever had a look at a Collins FG??
I've had a look at some Peterson's drawings, but they are really not that wonderful aid for IDing..
I'll take my Sibley with me, hoping not to find any female of sparrow species
Thanks again
Giorgio

I have Princeton Field Guides "Birds of Europe" by Mullarney, Svensson, etc. I have not had a chance to use it yet. It is jam packed with info, and has very detailed plates, which is nice, but... everything is rather small and not really a "quick" reference IMO. I think they should have 2 editions, a guide and a field guide. And their song/call descriptions of some of the species found in NA doesn't ring true for me at all.

Its all a personal preference. Something about the colors in the National Geographic that I don't like. Kaufman is OK, but you need to get used to it. Peterson is always a good starting point, but Sibley is sometimes more accurate, so we have all been trough this. There is no one book that beats them all.

A business opportunity!

I take Sibley's Western Guide in the field with me, due to it's portability, but Nat'l Geo has more ID notes per bird than Sibley's West does. The problem with NG is that they use too many artists, and you can't get into any kind of a rhythm with the illustrations - each artist likes to showcase different things in different ways, with varying degrees of success. Skim through the flycatcher chapter for example to see how exasperating it can be. They should've used one artist per bird family instead of jumbling it up like they did. Sibley is just David Sibley, and there's a nice consistency throughout the book.