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Eastern or Western Guide to Birds For Texas Birding? (1 Viewer)

new_texas_birder

new_texas_birder

Well-known member
Hello

I have bought a few different field guides lately, but both have been for North America as a whole.

I have noticed when looking for a field guide than many are for the Eastern US, and many for western species.

Since Texas is in the middle, and has many species migrate through the state, which one have yall found to be better for Texas?

Also, what is the best Texas specific field guide in your opinion? (especially a smaller portable one)
 
If you're buying the Sibley guide (probably the best) then most parts of Texas are best covered by the Eastern guide. I think it's just the far west (around El Paso) where the Western guide would be best. That's quite a long way from Dallas though.
 
new_texas_birder said:
Also, what is the best Texas specific field guide in your opinion? (especially a smaller portable one)
Click to expand...

There are no Texas-specific field guides that are of the quality of the guides that cover larger areas. Decades ago, Peterson Field guides used to offer such a guide, but no longer.

Your best bet for portability would probably be to keep your heavier North American guides at home for reference, but in the field take the Eastern Sibley mentioned by Andrew, and have on your smart phone one of the several guides to all North American birds, for the few vagrants or rare and local breeding species that are not in the Eastern Sibley. I think the next best alternative would be to carry the latest National Geographic guide (though this is heavy, but relatively compact) or the lighter, but somewhat older, Kaufman guide.

Jim
 
This is a consistent problem for birders here in TX. The National Geographic Guide has all of the regularly-occurring species in the state. The Eastern Sibley has a few birds from west of I-35, but that is the real cutoff for Eastern vs. Western Texas (from a birding perspective - the 100th meridian is generally considered the dividing line for other purposes).

This means that spring birders who hit the coast for migration are not well-served when they venture to the Edwards Plateau for Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo (plus whatever else they find there).

I no longer carry a field guide when birding in the US, but I do have the Nat Geo and the Crossley Eastern Guides in the car. I'm not sure what happened to my Sibley, but it was a fixture in the car until it disappeared.

Steve Gross
President, Texas Ornithological Society
 
I just went and purchased the NG Eastern Birds field guide. It had golden cheeked warbler, black capped vireo and chachalaca, so I figured it should have all the Texas birds I will see ( although I may be going to Big Bend with my girlfriends parents next month, in which case I may get the North American field guide)

Thank you for the tip on the National Geographic book, I really like the way it is laid out. They did not have the Sibley guide to Eastern at the book store I went to.
 
Steve Gross said:
This is a consistent problem for birders here in TX. The National Geographic Guide has all of the regularly-occurring species in the state. The Eastern Sibley has a few birds from west of I-35, but that is the real cutoff for Eastern vs. Western Texas (from a birding perspective - the 100th meridian is generally considered the dividing line for other purposes).

This means that spring birders who hit the coast for migration are not well-served when they venture to the Edwards Plateau for Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo (plus whatever else they find there).

I no longer carry a field guide when birding in the US, but I do have the Nat Geo and the Crossley Eastern Guides in the car. I'm not sure what happened to my Sibley, but it was a fixture in the car until it disappeared.

Steve Gross
President, Texas Ornithological Society
Click to expand...

In my copy of the Sibley Eastern Guide, the Edwards Plateau specialities are covered pretty extensively and that area is certainly covered by the guide (perhaps with the odd ommision of scarce or marginal species?). I think the boundary used is more or less contiguous with the eastern border of New Mexico. Exclusively west Texas species e.g. Colima Warbler, Acorn Woodpecker, Crissal Thrasher and Gambel's Quail aren't covered.
 
Wife and I are in deap South Texas and 99% of the time we get by with Sibley's Eastern. Last year we went to the Hill Country and had no problem there either.
 
I've made several birding trips in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and my eastern Sibley guide has served me very well.
 
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