Help with book selection please (1 Viewer)

ZeeDEE · Jan 10, 2009

I've been searching for a suitable field guide to the birds of California and so far have only been able to see the front cover of the books I have discovered. (on the internet)

Not being able to see how the books are formatted inside is a bit of a disadvantage. Ideally, I would like something that describes the bird, along with a few photos or illustrations and a distribution map. Is anyone familiar with either (or both) of the 2 books shown below, and could advise me how they look inside?

The ones that I've found and look as if they would be most useful to me are these first two pics below, and the pic that follows shows the kind of format (or similar) that I would prefer :-

loopybunny · Jan 11, 2009

I don't know about those specifically, but I have the Nat Geo Birds of North America book and love the layout. A lot of drawings from different angles. It's pretty easy to use and I've been pretty successful using it to ID birds.

ljlwestcoast · Jan 11, 2009

ZeeDEE said:
I've been searching for a suitable field guide to the birds of California and so far have only been able to see the front cover of the books I have discovered. (on the internet)

Not being able to see how the books are formatted inside is a bit of a disadvantage. Ideally, I would like something that describes the bird, along with a few photos or illustrations and a distribution map. Is anyone familiar with either (or both) of the 2 books shown below, and could advise me how they look inside?

The ones that I've found and look as if they would be most useful to me are these first two pics below, and the pic that follows shows the kind of format (or similar) that I would prefer :-

The Sibley Field Guide To Birds of Western North America should be good. It has what you want. I always carry mine. It a little over 5x7x1 inchs in size. Tough semi-hard cover. I have others but this is my favorite. :cat:

Larry

avwh · Jan 11, 2009

I have the Natl Geo Field Guide to Birds of N. America, Sibley's, and Kaufman Field Guide, and of those three North American guides, I use the Kaufman Guide by far the most. I'm in N. California, so for the birds I'm normally trying to ID, I've found the illustrations, layout, and information in Kaufman most useful.

I also have the Lone Pine Field Guide to Birds of Northern California - which has great illustrations and more info about each bird than any of the national guides - you might look for it and see if there's either s whole state version or a Southern Cal version, too, if you're not just needing coverage for Northern California.

Did you try Amazon already? Sometimes they have sample pages and tables of content for books to help you decide before buying (not as good as a physical bookstore, but better than nothing).

ZeeDEE · Jan 11, 2009

Thanks to all of you for your input.
We'll be ranging between Eureka in the north to Yosemite and King's Canyon & Sequoia in the central/east and Morro Bay midway between S.F. and L.A. so I'm thinking of a book that will cover most eventualities.

. . . and yes ~ the 2 books above were both on Amazon, although there wasn't any page previews except for the front covers.

ljlwestcoast · Jan 11, 2009

ZeeDEE said:
Thanks to all of you for your input.
We'll be ranging between Eureka in the north to Yosemite and King's Canyon & Sequoia in the central/east and Morro Bay midway between S.F. and L.A. so I'm thinking of a book that will cover most eventualities.

. . . and yes ~ the 2 books above were both on Amazon, although there wasn't any page previews except for the front covers.

If this works here's a few pics of the book. Taken with a cell phone camera and e-mailed to Photobucket.

http://s246.photobucket.com/albums/gg119/ljlll/Sibley Book/?action=view&current=e5ece3a1.pbw

ZeeDEE · Jan 11, 2009

Hi ljl ~ I've just come back to bird forum after ordering the book from Amazon.

Thanks for your link to your photobucket slideshow ~ it worked, and it looks like it should be just what I'm looking for.

My thanks again to all who responded.

BirderSean · Jan 12, 2009

sorry for responding late, but here's my 2 cents.

I like the NatGeo books for their
quality illustrations
ease of use- tabs on the side to quickly flip to what you want
easy to see/read color distribution maps
good info about the birds.

I don't think the Sibley illustrations are as good as in NatGeo books.
The sibley is a nice size, though.

For guides with good photos, I'd suggest Smithsonian.

Chris D · Jan 13, 2009

http://www.amazon.com/Sierra-Nevada...=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231813182&sr=1-8

I would highly recommend the above.

http://www.johnmuirlaws.com/snfgreviews.htm

This guide is quite special - as is the author. It is "All the Rage" now in California. Of course you'll have a fine / complete North American Bird book. That is a given. This John Muir Laws book is something hard to put down. The Sierra has many strange magical things. This guy nails it. It's also a work of art.

ZeeDEE · Jan 13, 2009

Thanks again to all who replied.

Chris ~ I had a good long look at The Laws Field Guide . . . and have now parted with more of my cash when I ordered it from Amazon. I actually found it on the U.K. version of Amazon and paid the equivalent of $16 ~ with free delivery. It's $16.47 on the U.S. Amazon AND I wouldn't have got that shipped F.O.C. from U.S.to the U.K.

So far, I've already reserved special space in my suitcase for these books for my trip to Ca. I only hope I have some cash left by the time I see, and buy all sorts of other "necessary" things for the trip !!!

Chris D · Jan 14, 2009

Cool. Have fun.............

Help with book selection please (1 Viewer)

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