US vs Europe field guides (rant) (1 Viewer)

[Mysticete]

Hey folks,

I just recently picked up the newest edition of the Collins guide. As probably most people would attest, it's an outstanding field guide, with good illustrations, format, and fairly up to date.

Now, as I understand, this is the dominant field guide in Europe, and I don't believe I am familar even with any other field guides still being published that get regular use from birders.

Here in the states though....arrghh.

We have currently, off the top of my head, all the following guides:
Sibley
National Geographic
Kaufman
Smithsonian
Peterson
National Wildlife federation

and yet, despite all these choice, to me at least, there isn't a US "Collins"

For instance Sibley is the best for identification, but the big version is huge and unwieldly, and the little version really only has 1-4 birds per spread, making it unwieldly if you are not very familiar with NA birds. It's also getting more and more out of date and their doesn't seem to be a new edition in sight

Nat Geo is updated more often, has a better layout, but I don't think the illustrations are as informative for ID purposes.

It seems like every guide trys a new angle, but it sure would be nice if we could FINALLY get a guide that combined the illustrations of Sibley with the format, throughness, and size of Nat Geo. Why hasn't anyone copied the formula of Collins? It's not like that guide hasn't been around for awhile!

 

[Jos Stratford]

Tis a little strange, as you guys got the whole fieldguide act together before we did in Europe, we just we refined it quicker

 

[Runaround]

A lot of NA birders who are familiar with Collins share your frustration. We have some guides that have better art than Collins, some have better text, and some have better maps. But none are as good as Collins. There is a great opportunity for someone to create a superior NA field guide.

 

[Mysticete]

Yep,

I was reminded of this when I remembered Steve Howell was working on yet ANOTHER new guide, whose big innovation seemed to be going back to the Peterson system of arranging thing. I honestly don't care...I want a complete guide that is manageable in size and layout and conducive to ID

 

[Jim M.]

For instance Sibley is the best for identification, but the big version is huge and unwieldly, and the little version really only has 1-4 birds per spread, making it unwieldly if you are not very familiar with NA birds. It's also getting more and more out of date and their doesn't seem to be a new edition in sight

Nat Geo is updated more often, has a better layout, but I don't think the illustrations are as informative for ID purposes.

Collins is a great guide, but I think you are nevertheless exaggerating its purported superiority and undervaluing Sibley. In some ways, Collins is no Sibley. Consider:

-- unlike Sibley, Collins does not show every surface of every bird. You'll look in vain, for example, to see from Collins what the underwing of a Kentish Plover looks like. And there is no in-flight depiction at all of the majority of the passerines, Sora, Little Crake, Baillon's Crake, Little Egret, Cattle Egret, or Reef Egret (these are the ones I noticed just flipping through). And there is no depiction at all of any of the six species of storm-petrel swimming or resting.

-- you say the small Sibley does not have a good layout because it only has " 1-4 birds per spread". For some reason you have not noticed that this is also true of Collins (at least the first edition -- I assume the second edition is similar in this respect) -- it only has 1-4 species per spread as well. Also, Sibley has for every general class of birds a single spread that shows every species in that class, e.g. shorebirds. This is something Collins lacks entirely.

-- you complain that the big Sibley is unwieldy. I don't see this as a disadvantage. I think it is a great idea to have a comprehensive, advanced field guide as a reference to study at home, and have a more compact regional version to take in the field. Any field guide small enough to take in the field has to leave out a lot of information and/or dumb things down. What is really needed by advanced birders is an ID guide that puts all the relevant information in a single place. With Sibley you can keep that volume at home and take the readers digest version into the field.

-- you complain that Sibley is not that great for beginners. The big Sibley is probably not (I think the regional guides are better). But why does one need a guide that is good for both beginners and advanced birders? Beginning birders will be better served by a guide oriented to their needs, and advanced birders will be better served by a guide that is not "dumbed down" (no offense to beginning birders!)

-- I do like the fact that Collins includes more text than Sibley. But on the other hand, the identification descriptions are so long that it can be difficult to focus on the key features. Sibleys more concise descriptions and diagrams are more helpful to quickly focusing your attention on the key features.

Best,
Jim

PS: If I have a beef related to N. Am. field guides it's that, based on some comments on this forum, a lot of N.Am. birders don't realize how lucky they are to have something as good as Sibley available to them. I started birding in the 60's and 70's, and I would have been a lot less confused in a number of respects about ID if I'd had something like Sibley available then.