Your favorite field guide(s)

I'm not sure how many of us consider themselves diehard birders, twiters or whatever you want to call a bird-watcher. I was wondering if everyone wanted to list which series of field guides you use and think are the best. There are several to choose from, Sibley, Petterson, National Geo, Kauffman, as well as a few others I believe. Please use this space to explain which you prefer and why.

I like Sibley's books the best. The illustrations and colors used are by far the best in my opinion. I also like the info provided and the fact that the option of buying an east and west versions are available. Having said that, the book I've used the most out in the field actually is an old (4th ed?) Petterson guide to Eastern birds. I use this edition in the field because it is small enough to fit in my pocket. The colors on the illustrations are horrid, however, I do like the Petterson's arrows to point out significant field marks.

Sibley is it right now. But there are so many books out there on specific sub families.

FIELD GUIDES

There are so many great field guide around these days. Those I would rate as exceptional might be:-

Birds of Europe. For me this is still simply the best field guide to any avifauna. Packed with information, excellent illustrations, concise texts that complement rather than duplicating the pictures, and portable. It is very useful in the USA (e.g. Alaska) as well as Europe and the shorebird illustrations, for example, are superior to any to be found in a North America guide.

Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa. A superb field guide which really raises the bar on what to expect from a tropicla field guide. Excellent!

A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. Probably the best field guide to an American avifauna. Nearly a decade old but still superior to any guide in the area covered. Don't be put off by it's weight - this book is to be used in the field.

Birds of Ecuador. The first field guide to the country, and another mighty tome, in 2001 this guide made birding Ecuador a real pleasure rather than a stiff challenge. The companion Volume 1 is essential too, but need not necessarily be used in the field.

Birds of Venezuela. This 2002 field guide to this 1400 species strong avifauna brings bird identification here right up-to-date. As with the above two, worth its weight in gold. Hilty's Birds of Colombia is another classic, but at age 21 is getting a little long in the tooth now.

Birds of Chile. Chile, like Ecuador, lacked a standard field guide until the new millenium. This one is extremely well-written with great plates and - unlike the above - is highly portable.

Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America. My initial impression was unfavourable, but soon found that it has a permanent place on the bedside table, I was carrying it around with me everywhere in North & Central America and using it with kids. A great portable alternative to Sibley.

Hummingbirds of North America: The Photographic Guide. Steve Howell's work is always authoritative and this field guide is the definitive guide to North American hummers. Should give feeder watchers hours of pleasure. I can't wait to see his new guide to Gulls, one of my favourite groups.

A Field Guide to Warblers of North America. THE warbler guide. Very well illustrated, comprehensive text - the definitive guide throughout the Americas.

Hmm, I have my Roger Tory Peterson's and my National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America on a shelf in the kitchen, and I have the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds in one of my second floor bathrooms, with a pair of binocs handy in both locations.

Thanks for the tips everyone - I've actually been shopping around to see which one of the field guides I should pick up. I've been using the National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southwestern States for sometime now - while it's helpful, it covers all ranges of nature leaving the birds section with only limited information. It's time to spread my wings and branch out.

I was leaning towards the Sibley guide anyway, and I'm thinking that's the way to go.

Funny follow up to my post from last month.

I'd read in many places about how big the Sibley Field guide was, but had never actually picked one up before. I orded one off the web and when it got here, it immediately struck me how correct that was.

What a wonderful book, but no way is it portable enough to take out in the field with you. No regrets about picking it up, but I think I am back to square one about finding a birding specific field guide to take with me.

That’s a good point. I bought the big Sibley guides The Sibley Guide to Birds, and Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior. I liked these so much that I bought The Sibley Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern North America.

jmcclain19, you will probably like this book. It’s not quite small enough to fit into my back pocket (I use a 3rd/4th edition Peterson for that), but it is definitely small enough to take out into the field with you and just as good of quality as the other Sibley books.

jmcclain, I'd recommend whichever of the little Sibleys (East or West) is relevant to your area. If you travel widely enough that you're looking for a single volume for all of North America, I'd suggest the National Geographic guide (fifth edition). The thumb-tabs in the latest edition are great for quickly flipping to the right section!

Thanks guys - I had a coupon from B&N to use up so I picked up the Sibley Western guide. Just like the original but in pocket size - which is ok by me. It'll fit perfect in my hiking vest. Thanks again.

Now that I'd decided to start bird-watching again, I leafed through the field guides at B&N yesterday.

Already having an old Audubon Society field guide, I decided to pick up a Roger Tory Peterson Birds of Eastern and Central North America. I liked how it highlighted the markings differentiating species. I was thinking that it should prove to be a nice complement to my Audubon Society guide with its own great photographs.

I did see the Sibly guides, but those seemed a bit advanced for what I wanted. Perhaps I'll graduate into them some day! :D

SqueakyChu, you might check Kenn Kaufman's Birds of North America which is a good field guide based on computer-enhaced photographs.

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I'll keep your book in mind, but first I need to get a good pair of binoculars and start looking for a few birds (..or I'll have nothing to look up!).

By the way, I LOVE that Bird identifier model on GeoBirds.com. Someone referred me to that website on another thread. Within their model, it's so much fun to paint the bird parts. It really helps, too!

Hello All,
I am kinda partial to my dog-eared copy of American Bird Conservancy's Field Guide
All the Birds of North America
It is getting dated, but water-resistent (which is why it has lasted this long) plus it has a section on Arctic Birds unlike any other NorAm guide out there. I now supplement it with
Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America
This one has good photos that I use in conjunction with ABC's illustrations.
Sibley is beeoo-ful but not a guide for the field unless I am behind the times, once again?

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Sibley is beeoo-ful but not a guide for the field

Well, Big Sibley isn't, but the Eastern and Western Sibleys certainly are!

It depends how you define a "field guide"! We regularly used to take both volumes of Ridgely's Birds of South America, Sick's Birds in Brazil and Hilty's Birds of Colombia into the field on Brazil trips - and I mean hiking through the forest with them in our packs. These days I almost always carry the single volume Sibley on any American trip, together with the relevant national field guide(s). For example, for Belize I'll be carrying Lee Jones' Birds of Belize, Howell and Webb's Guide to the birds of Mexico and northern Central America and Sibley. I find Sibley better than the alternatives and, after grappling with tropical American avifaunas, it's really not that heavy.

Having said that, I think Sibley could be condensed to a guide the size of the Collins Birds of Europe. That for me is the best guide to any avifauna. It's accurate, succinct, superbly-illustarted, field oriented and portable. And I would guess it covers roughly the same number of species as are found in the USA and Canada, so it would be possible to replicate for this region. Any takers?

Another vote here for the Sibley East and West for North America. the Princeton Birds of Europe by Killian Mullarney for Europe, and Micheal Morcombe's Field Guide to Australian Birds. I don't have anything definitive for Central/South America and have never had the pleasure of birding in Africa or Asia.

To folks just getting started, my advice is to buy two copies if you have qualms about mistreating books or writing in them. A field guide is most useful when you mark it up with personal notes, check marks (and ideally locations and dates) for things you've already seen, etc. I also find it valuable to highlight a set of target birds -- birds commonly expected to be seen where I'm planning to be, in season, in habitat, etc. That way when I actually see something and am rushing to identify it, I am not diverted by birds that are out-of-season, out-of-range or extremely rare vagrants.

Of course, you can tell by this post that I'm a bit obsessive on this subject, but my out-of-country guides are a wonderful memory jog of what I hoped to find on a given trip and what I actually saw.

I still stick with Peterson after all these years, though I haven't tried out Sibley. Maybe I'd like it better. I did try using one of the Audubon photographic bird guides; I truly disliked it and ditched it after a while. I can identify birds more easily from the paintings than the photographs, which are subject to vagaries of light and shadow and individual variations in plumage.

The best bird book I've ever owned, however, is Peterson's How to Know the Birds. It fascinated me when I was a kid and taught me that birding was about more than just telling birds apart by their feathers.

Sibley is too big to bring out in the field? Leave it in the car. Take a notebook and pen. Make a lot of sketches and notes, like any self-respecting, serious birder.

Or even better, keep your guide by your bedside and read it cover-to-cover, multiple times!

Sibley. No question.

I started birding with Peterson Western Birds and stuck with it until trying to identify larks, when I looked inside my friend's Sibley Western Birds for the first time and discovered that it included quite a variety of possible plumages instead of just one, and was far more useful. So now Sibley's is my preferred field guide, though I still use Peterson's sometimes because I like the illustration style better and Sibley and I tend to disagree about how Little Brown Birds look.

My favorite Australian guide is the beautiful Pizzey-Knight Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, though it's a bit large for backpacking, so I always end up taking the Slater Field Guide instead and furtively consulting the Pizzey-Knight in shops after the fact. The Slater has some annoying range map omissions, but is the smallest, cheapest, and most durable all-Australia guide by far, and is pretty well-illustrated.

While we're at it I also like these book covers with shoulder straps for hands-free book carrying, and Nikon Monarch binoculars.

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Oh, Nikon Monarchs! I LOVE my Nikon Monarchs (8x42)