what's your favorite N. American Guide? (1 Viewer)

My first bird guide was the
Nat Geo Field Guide to Birds of N. America

Then, I decided I wanted to get a book specific
to Western N. America as it would help with the process
of elimination when using it out in the field. I was also
interested in getting a guide with some good quality photographs.

I looked at a lot of books in the stores- sibley, kaufman, audubon,
stokes, DK, etc. and dismissed them all for various reasons such as
poor photo quality, poor drawing quality, didn't like the organization
of the book, etc.

I ended up getting the Smithsonian Field Guide to birds of N. America.
Yes, it's not a Western Region specific book, but this one has
good quality photos, nice maps, species writeups, it's very
well-organized, good size for the field, etc. It also
came with a DVD of photos of birds and their calls and this can
all be loaded onto an mp3 player. Very nice features for this
publication.

Now I wish I had the Nat Geo FG to Western N. America to go along with
this instead of the N. America guide.

What's your favorite guide, and why???

I have them all. I dislike parts (sparrows!) of Nat Geo, but overall reliable, good text. Kaufman gets the most use. I have three. One is autographed.

I have Sibley's field guide to both the west and east of N. America which I use mostly, but if I want some photographic help I use the National Wildlife Federations field guide to birds of North America (or is it North American Birds I don't have it with me). Either of those Sibleys coupled with the picture guide makes a great team for me anyways.

-Matt

Sibley here. East or West guides are small enough to carry in my back pocket, and the drawings have no equal. I also own the Nat Geo and the kaufman, but I usually dont use those.

I've got all the major NA field guides, and just about all of them period. Here are my brief thoughts on them. I've included links to full reviews that I've done if you'd like to read more.

Painted

Sibley - my favorite. I use the "large" one as my primary guide. If I ever take a guide out into the field with me, I'll take the appropriate regional/small one. My favorite things about it are the number of illustrations per species (no other NA guide shows each bird in flight or as much variation), and the "Peterson" arrows annotated with the field mark (this was the only one to do that until NatGeo added it to its new regional guides).
Full Review

National Geographic - a very good guide, and I believe still the only one to show every species recorded in NA at the time of its publication (there have been a couple since then). However, some of the illustrations just don't do it for me, but that's at least somewhat a personal preference. I don't have the regional ones, but from what I've seen I think the annotated arrows really help.
Full Review

Peterson - the new, combined guide is an improvement over the previous regional ones. This is a good guide for beginners, but not really a good field guide for most birders. However, there are other reasons why one would want it, such as to enjoy Peterson's art.
Full Review


Photographic

Smithsonian - my favorite NA photographic guide. It gives a good number of photos per species, and the included DVD of bird songs is a fantastic addition (even if you already have the Stokes or some other collection)
Full Review

National Wildlife Federation - another great photographic guide, and very similar overall to the Smithsonian one. To me, it just barely loses out to the Smithsonian because of the DVD.

Kaufman - the best photo guide for beginners, but perhaps not quite as good for more experienced birders as the two preceding.

For more details on these, and a couple other guides, here is a comparison table.


Field guide choice is a very personal and subjective thing. All the ones mentioned here will work. The best thing to do is to check them all out and decide for yourself which one you like best. And then buy them all anyways . Seriously, though, you will want as many as possible, and at least one of each illustration type.

Another vote for the regional Sibleys vs the NG & Peterson guides. I own the NG & several of the Petersons but seldom use any of them. Not only IMO are the illustrations & layout better in the Sibleys than in the competition, but the Sibleys are the only modern FGs that give weights as well as linear measurements (weight in my experience is often a more useful criterion of relative size than wing span or overall length). The big Sibley guide covering the whole country has a good deal more detail than the regional versions but is too big & heavy to carry around so I usually leave in at home or in the car.

I don't own any of the (modern) photographic guides but have looked at them in book stores & was not impressed. Maybe it's just because of what I'm used to, but photos IMO often show field marks much less clearly than a good drawing does.

There's a lot to be said for the Zim-Robbins Birds of North America. Range maps for every species, right opposite the descriptions, drawings that look to my eye more like the birds than even Sibley's, sonograms for many species, taxonomic order, completeness, and best of all it still goes into a big pocket. Major groups are color-coded on the edges of the pages. (I still depend on sticky-arrows to mark the groups we see the most)

The older editions are smaller and I thought better bound -- I carry my older sewn-binding hardboard copy in the front seat bin in my car all the time. At about $16 US dollars for the new it's a pretty good price, too.

Sonograms (graphs of the calls or song) look rather daunting but it's not hard to learn to read them -- if you sit down with the book and a known species when it's singing a lot, the sonogram becomes almost as recognisable as a drawing. I find them very helpful.

Sibley is always in my car, too: it has more plumages for some species, and often more lifestyle information, which can be helpful. It may be lucky when you live in the Central Valley -- our glories are waterbirds and raptors, and they're often best seen from the car.

I own all of the above + others, but usually carry Kaufman in the field. Sizewise, it is the most portable. I find that I prefer photos to paintings, but none of the photographic guides never seem to show All of the plumage changes a bird can go through. I have the new Smithsonian and while I do like it, I find it odd that they include multiple shots of a bird that don't necessarily reflect plumage changes, yet on other birds they leave out photos of plumage changes that would be extremely helpful (fall warblers, juvenal plumage, female plumage, etc.). Their CD was a bit of a disappointment because they included birds like the House sparrow that were quite unnecessary. I would rather have had more bird species and a few less songs (would have liked more call notes that you hear in non-breeding seasons) per bird on the CD. The Nat'l Wildlife Federation guide is another favorite, but a little heavy for carrying. The new Peterson's is nice in that it has a section on fall warblers. Sibley's is good for lots of things, but even he has admitted that his coloration doesn't always reflect the reality of the bird. For shore bird ID, my absolute favorite is "The Shorebird Guide" by O'Brien, Crossley & Karlson - can't beat it. Have "Hawks From Every Angle" by Ligouri, but I am always on the lookout for a better raptor ID book.
I have noticed that I seem to "need" all the guides! Even if I know that I have enough, I am always on the lookout for another!!

The Zim Robbins book is at least compact. Paintings are small and wahsed out looking. I like the table for warblers, all the heads on one page.

it's a tossup betwixt peterson and sibley for me in the n. american category. the newest one volume peterson has me leaning toward that, now that there are thumbnail maps as well as the more detailed ones.

i like zim as well for sentimental reasons. when iwas little i collected golden guides.

i have to edit a bit my last post. for the past couple of trips out, i've been carrying the national geo guide. the birds in it look like the ones i see in the field.

when is the new collins european guide being released?

Nat Geo for me. I got into birding at the time the 3rd edition came out. I own them all but the latest NG now goes into the field. It was some work but I took the time to transfer all my handwritten notes and markings to the new edition. I have a Sibley in the car as a reference. I really don't like the layout of the regional Sibley's. Being able to riffle through a guide without the pictures down in the spine is the advantage of a conventional layout with the birds on one page and the text on the facing page.

My only wish is that we'd get a Collins style guide in the US. That is probably the best guide I've used. Good art and amazing text.

You're not the only one! I must admit I prefer Sibley as the artwork in NG is just a little strange ( all those passerines with big, sad eyes. Looks like they were painted by the Disney studio...

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Good analysis. Especially the sparrows, too much ink and line drawing too.

So, now that I can ID the sparrows somewhat, it is between Sibley and Kaufman. Sibley works for me for nearly everything, but need Kaufman with sparrows etc. Kaufman would be almost ideal if it decided to print East and West guides with bigger pictures. The photos are OK, but they sure are crammed in there.

Runaround said:

My only wish is that we'd get a Collins style guide in the US. That is probably the best guide I've used. Good art and amazing text.

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Combine the Sibley Guide to the Birds with the great text in Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion, and I think you have a reference better than Collins. (But, OK, I admit comparing two books to one isn't fair--expecially since the small Collins is also a true field guide in terms of size). I think the Pete Dunne book is underappreciated on this forum.

Best,
Jim

Smithsonian - my favorite NA photographic guide. It gives a good number of photos per species, and the included DVD of bird songs is a fantastic addition (even if you already have the Stokes or some other collection)
Full Review

National Wildlife Federation - another great photographic guide, and very similar overall to the Smithsonian one. To me, it just barely loses out to the Smithsonian because of the DVD.

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Of the two, I have started to use the bottom one. I think they are very close otherwise, but the NWF book is smaller, thus it travels with me. The other one is on a shelf at home. The DVD I really do not need. I have 400 bird songs on an iPod.

i got a copy of the collins guide to europe and yeah, it's way better than any of the american guides. especially the text.

I have most of the guides but use the regional Sibley's in the field. I don't like the photo guides for id. although some of them are great for their text. My second choice would be NG. The Golden Press Birds of North America was my first guide and I still have one. I don't know how many of them I wore out over the years. It's a book that has been under rated for years.