The new Peterson guide arrived in the mail today!
Like many birders, I like to collect field guides and related books, even if they are more likely to sit on my shelf than ride around in the car with me. Sibley and Nat Geo are still my first choices, the former because it's the single best book for bird id, the latter because of its completeness and the regular updates.
I mostly purchased this book due to the inclusion of Hawaii. However I admit it is very awkwardly included, as there is a completely separate section of the book at the end where all the Hawaiian birds are included. And I mean ALL of the birds...they reprint text and pictures of migrant ducks, shorebirds, birds introduced from North America, etc. Kind of feels like a middle approach that doesn't help anyone: It adds extra pages to the book making it more awkward to carry around, while at the same time feeling like the content would have been better off just as a separate book. Don't get me wrong...I am happy to see the inclusion, just feels awkward. I would prefer them to just integrate that content in the appropriate places in the book: If I can deal with scrolling past Emperor Goose while birding Florida, I can do the same with Hawaiian goose.
The coverage of Hawaiian birds IS good however: It seems fairly up to date, and most importantly extinct birds are removed to there own separate section, rather than mixed in with similarly looking living birds. And it's nice to have a book that doesn't lump them with all the other South Pacific birds.
I've only skimmed the rest of the book...range maps seem to be up to date and taxonomy is current (for instance, Yellow-breasted Chat is in its own family, etc). I like that some of the plates lump everything together, for instance there is a plate of confusing fall warblers, and I like the way they present the empidonax flycatchers. However the amount of geographic variation illustrated is limited, and some confusing groups really need more pictures. For instance, gulls are shown in flight, with closes up of head and feet. It's weird that there are no resting/standing gulls...certainly I spend far more time scanning through resting gull flocks than I do trying to sort through a bunch of flying birds. I would guess a lot of these plates were from the earlier editions. The artwork itself isn't bad, although I do prefer the art in other guides.
