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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Peter C." data-source="post: 1298107" data-attributes="member: 68872">Sparrow refernce"Sparrows and Buntings: A Guide to the Sparrows and Buntings of North America and the World" by Byers, Curson and Olsson (Houghton Mifflin, 1995) is my authority on this group. Fabulous plates, and really good depth in the text. (I can't compare with the John Rising book, for the simple reason that I've never seen it.)One really cool thing about "Sparrows and Buntings" is that it is circumpolar in scope - so if one of those cool Asian Emberizids ever does wander over here, you'll know what you're looking at. On the other hand, the authors don't cover a number of South American species (although they do a good job on the Central American ones). I don't know the reason for this - I guess they just had to stop somewhere (not just geographically, but also taxonomically - lots of controversy, with what actually is or is not a  "sparrow/bunting" down there - well, everywhere, I guess...).Peter C.</blockquote>