Customer Reviews

Basic Texas Birds: A Field Guide (Texas Natural History Guides)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I spent about a week with this book and liked the following things about the book. The size and the durable pages and covers make it a good travel companion. I live in Texas and the book covers most common Texas birds but not all of the birds that one may encounter here. Most of the photographs are fine and make it easy to appreciate and identify a particular bird. But some photos suffer from dark areas and not necessarily a clear depiction of the bird. Only one photo is typical per bird with description, but no photo of juvenile stage, mating vs non mating season plumage and so forth. The bird territories and flight path maps are very good with a nice focus on Texas. Instead of choosing this book to buy now, I decided to order another bird book, namely "Smithsonian Handbooks: Birds Of Texas". The latter book is larger, but has many more birds and more scientific and detailed information that I enjoy having at hand including flight pattern, songs, similar birds, and more. Still, there is something about the ease of use of Basic Texas Birds: A Field Guide that makes me feel it s a better travel companion than the Smithsonian Handbook. Maybe I'll have to own both books eventually.

My wife and I use this book as a ready reference for identifying birds that visit our back yard. I am always pleased (and somewhat amazed) at the number of searches that have produced successful results. We suggest and recommend that this guide be kept in a quickly accessable location, providing useful and entertaining information when you need it.

This book does not cover all of the birds ever found in the area, but it covers the birds one is likely to find in Texas. Each description discusses the appearance and habitat of each bird with the typical geographical area marked on a map. One of my favorite features of this book is that there is a color photograph of each bird. These are real birds photographed in their Texas habitat by Texas birders. Many of the photos were taken by the author, himself.

I like that the book provides rulers printed inside the front and back covers in both inches and centimeters. Now I'll have a handy reference with me without having to guess at sizes.