Customer Reviews

Birds of California Field Guide (Our Nature Field Guides)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I stumbled on this book when I went to look at another bird field guide. I'm glad I compared guides before making a purchase. Needless to say I purchased this one over the one I intended to buy.

There are many reasons why I like this book: It's consise and it's easy to identify birds; this guide contains photographs not drawings; the book is compact.

Being true to its title, it contains only birds you'll find in California. You don't have to peruse through hundreds of birds to find the one you're looking for. A bird can be found either by its predominate color or an indexed listing of names. Each decription contains information about the bird's size, decription of male, female and juvenile, nest, eggs, incubation, fledging, migration, food, comparision to similar birds and additional author notes. So far I have been able to identify every bird I have looked up.

One of the best features is that the book contains color photographs and not drawings of the birds. I really do think this is why my 5 year old daughter can state with confidence which bird we're watching. For those birds that are sexually dimorphic, the author includes photos of both the male and female. Each is cross reference by color too. There are also inset photos of the juveniles. With the photos you can percisely identify each characteristic of the bird and takes much of the guess work out of identification.

The book is 4 3/8" X 6" X 7/8". About half the height of many other field guides and alot thinner making it much more portable.

Probably the most important reason to purchase this book is that you'll use it.

This book is small enough for field work, yet contains a great deal of information. The full-color photographs have insets which show juvenile, seasonal, or sexually dimorphic plumage where appropriate, as well as showing some birds in action shots: a hawk soaring, a willet showing his colors, etc. The species information is concise, readable, and relevant, with color-coded range maps and bulleted information on size, weight, color, food, eggs/incubation/fledging, similar species, and migration information for hundreds of different species, all in a standard one-page per species format. The "Stan's Notes" contain interesting specifics are not included in the bullet points.

My only problem with this book is the organization of the species by color. If the reader sees a very small black and brown bird, for example, they will potentially have to thumb through dozens of black birds and then brown birds, some of them very large, or water birds, or birds of prey, or from a different part of the state. I'd rather not spend my time in the field poring through pages of ducks, owls, doves, and eagles trying to figure out what species of thrush i'm looking at. Also, if a species has enough sexual or seasonal dimorphism in the color of their plumage, it may fall into two or more different color categories. While this field guide does cross-reference these by page number, that makes for even more page turning.

This is a very good field guide, but a more granular organization, perhaps by general bird type (songbird, bird or prey, etc.) within geographical area (NorCal, desert, Sierra, etc.) would have made the look-up process more concise. As it is, plan on taking plenty of Post-it bookmarks along with this book.

I hate to throw cold water on a bird identification or field guide as they are usually called. I know there are several reviewers who have given this book high ratings,but that aside, it is really not a very good field guide.
There are many choices on the shelves in the bookstores when one goes looking for a "bird Book" to buy for themselves or a friend.Generally,the staff is not knowledgeable or of any help. So what to do? First,talk to someone who has experience in birdwatching,or if you are unable to find anyone;check out the reviews on several field guides.They are usually written by people who are knowledgeable and their only interest is to help you make a choice you will be happy with.

Two of the most popular,and endorsed highly by all birdwatchers are;

The National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America. I wrote a review on this one on November 9,2006.
and,
Birds of North America by Kenn Kaufmann. I reviewed this one on November 17,2003.
Along with my reviews,you will find others whose reviews are also very good,and informative in helping you to find the weak and strong points on bird field guides.
A few points must be made about this "Birds of California,that will show you that it simply doesn't measure up with the better and more popular ones. Particularly the "National Geographic",which is owned by most birders and usually their favorite.And by the way,good or poor,there is very little difference in the cost of the various guides.
Back to "Birds of California"

--It is pointless in buying a guide of only one area.
--This guide doesn't even come close to including all the birds
found in the state. I don't know the exact number off hand;but it
would be somewhere between 300 and 400 as a guess,much more than the
170 included in this book. Four of us spent two weeks birding around
San Francisco ,out on the ocean (Pelagic Trips),and east into and around
Yosemite;and found 197 species.Simply put, this book would have been
useless .We used the same book we use birding in
Ontario,Canada,Arizona,New Mexico,North Carolina,Florida,or anywhere
else in North America--Namely;the" National Geographic".
--This book presents the birds by color.While some make a case for
this,it has never been a popular concept,and quite frankly,I've
never come across anyone who would want a guide organized this way.
--This book often shows only one plumage.That being the breeding male
plumage.Any useful book gives a minimum of male,female,and breeding
and non-breeding plumages.This is very important as they are
usually all very different.For instance;compare the way Northern
Harrier is covered on pages 219 and 311,this is just never done this
way in most books.
--This book uses photographs exclusively. There are cases made for both
photographs and illustrations.However;illustrations have been
preferred by nearly all birders because they do a far better job of
pointing out the subtle indentifying points.Kauffmann,has been the
most successful with photographs but he uses extensive computer
enhancing techniques. The photographs in this book are very good;but
much more suitable for Calendar bird portraits than Field Guide
Identification shots.
--There are many localized Field Guides;virtually every State has
them.We have them in Ontario,but Birdwatchers simply pass them up.

If you get this Field Guide,you will soon lose your enthusiasm for it when you encounter others and see what they are using.So,why not get the right one the first time---my suggestion is "The National Geographic";you'll never regret it!!

This is the BEST "bird book" for use in California. I have used the Audobon books (very good) as well as other guides but by far for amateurs like myself this is the one.

First off, quickly getting to the portion of the book is easy because things are color-coded. Second, the contents have pictures as opposed to drawings or worse small pictures with poor resolution. Third, the handy size of the book makes it practical to carry in one's cargo pant pocket. Fourth, the birds shown are common to California so one has to do a lot less wading through pages to find what you are looking for. Fifth, not all California birds are shown - this is good and bad. The good being less useless material the bad being you do miss some specimens.

All in all for the price this is a great value.

I'm not crazy about any birding guide from Petersen's to National Geographic because by the time you've found a sketch, the bird and your recollection is gone. "Birds of California" has one thing going for it - it's photography - but it fails as a guide. Two things are wrong: the photos/birds are classified or sorted by color, and bird colors change from season to season. Further, the authors are off in terms of color, e.g., a mourning dove is not predominantly brown, it's gray and perhaps tan when in breeding plumage.

Second, there are more than 160 or 180 bird species in California. There are probably 200+ in the San Francisco Bay Area alone.

I disagree with the reviewer who doesn't think one should buy a book that covers only one area (California) but, while birds don't stop at the border, I didn't want another book that covers eastern North America or the Southwest etc. Besides, I already own seven guides. What I need is a human guide along with me who points and says, "Oh, look, a western tanager!"

BUT, I bought this book primarily for the photography. It is well done in that respect and I needed photos of the more populous birds because that's what I see most.

I'm beginning to think that the one thing that would satisfy all my needs - and that of any birder - would be an iPhone App which probably already exists. Unfortunately, an iPhone could end up costing a library of books what with monthly charges as well as the base price. But that's me.

This is book is great for beginning birders. I can recognize obvious differences in bird species (dove versus duck, for example), but I can't always tell the difference between similar species (i.e. sparrow versus finch). So the fact that this book is organized by color rather than type is really useful. Using this book, my family has been able to identify all but one bird that has come to our backyard feeder.

I love Stan Tekiela's books because as a beginner-birder, I find that the color coding is very helpful in identifying birds. His "Stan's notes" section under each bird is also quite informative - something I've not found in most bird books. It's small - fits in most pockets - for easy reference in the field and the pictures are great.

Good pictures and basic info on each bird. There was some birds that I was looking for that were not in the book. He does explain about that at the beginning of the book. Otherwise its a very nice book with good photos instead of drawings to find your bird.

I'm no ornithologist but this is my first California bird book and I'm very pleased with it. Love the large high-quality photos of 170 species, some of which show male vs. female vs juvenile plumage. Author Stan Tekiela's notes on each species add insight and interest to this little gem of a pocket guide. Kudos to the author who must have done it as a labor of love, considering the very reasonable price that I paid for this book. Highly recommended.

The easiest field guide for quick reference. Small, great pics, just enough info to confirm the correct bird 99.9% of the time. I travel around the country a good bit and buy this guide for each state I plan to visit. I wish I could get this guide for overseas travel as well. If that is a complaint, it is my only one.