Recommendations for Canadian guide please (1 Viewer)

I'm off to Canada in August for a few weeks and know nothing about the birds I'll find there.
I'll be travelling between Calgary and Vancouver.
Can anyone recommend any books to help me please?
I definately want a bird guide but if anyone knows of any good guides on other subjects that'd be fab too.

Thanks

Rathloriel

Peterson's is still the most popular. Sibley's Western guide should be ok. I've got the eastern one and it's also ok. Al ot of people are buying the National Geographic guide. It's good but it covers all of NA.

It's a huge geographic area. Avoid general western guides as they usually concentrate on the populated areas of the USA with spillover info on Western Canada. (the same with wildflowers, butterflies, etc.). Ranges are often nebulous and incorrect.

For info on Alberta and the Canadian Rockies I like the Federation of Alberta Naturalists 'Field guide to alberta Birds'. It's about $20 Cdn. It's well written and will also be an attactive post-trip souvenir. I'll defer to someone from B.C. for thir choice for a guide on their interior and coastal birds.

Just a note re publications. In Canada and most of the provinces there are financial incentives for small publishing companies, etc. For this reason you'll find quite a lot of natural history books on subjects that are particular to a province or region. Such as Tiger Beetles of Western Canada...Alberta Butterflies...Invertebrate Fauna, etc. Most are relatively inexpensive and are readily found in the gift shops of National Park visitor centers and other outlets.

Thanks cayoncreekman, will definitely look out for the provicial guides.
Anyone from B.C. out there with good local guides?
(It's so much simpler over here - RSPB all the way!!)

I'm so excited about going to Canada!!!

Hoping to move over there if I love it as much as I think I will!!! :t:

Thanks

Rathloriel

Once you've got your field guides for ID'ing, some nice bird-finding guides for the regions would be helpful. Here's two links that might help:
British Columbia
and Calgary locations

It's a beautiful country, hope you have a great trip.

I'll stand by my previous post. There are a lot of provincial guides etc and some are good but beware, a lot of them are very poor. If you can only buy one guide stick to the established names in the field. When I lived in BC I used a Peterson's and had no difficulty.

snowyowl said:

I'll stand by my previous post. There are a lot of provincial guides etc and some are good but beware, a lot of them are very poor. If you can only buy one guide stick to the established names in the field. When I lived in BC I used a Peterson's and had no difficulty.

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you'll love Canada mate!
I moved here 4 years ago and have never looked back. Some amazing open Country , Forests and Mountains , and of course, a Wealth of New Birds to Marvel at ...