Bird watching is the largest spectator sport in America. This field guide provides the beginning birdwatcher with easily accessible facts presented in an attractive format.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
good for beginners,
By
This review is from: Birds Of New York Field Guide (Paperback)
When I saw this book I thought it was really great. It has a few features I love but also a few things I hate.The good: It features a very easy color coding method to look up birds. I think this is a great method for spotting birds quickly. Far better than other guides color coding. If you see a black bird, you go to the black tabbed area, and see all birds that are black, very easy. I also like that it documents a state, New York, instead of a region. It makes the book into a nice novelty. Well, thats really it for the good. So the bad? The book only lists 120 birds out of over 450 that have been sited in New York! Thats a big gap of missing birds! It's not even half the birds. I feel the book should have documented at least 240 of them. But, at least the 120 birds listed are the most commonly seen -I suppose. Some photos in the book are off. I think perhaps some of the birds are mounted and not live birds. The book lists only One bird as being a mounted bird, due to it's elusiveness. But if you look at the photo of the common pigeon (rock dove) you can clearly see the photo shows a purple colored pigeon? I have never in all my life in New York seen a purple pigeon?!?!?! Other photos don't seem that far off, but still... if one photo is like that, it makes you wonder if you'll stumble upon others. The book fails to record the birds wing spans, which is odd. As this is quite useful. But the other info provided is decent. For the price however, this book doesn't offer much! The "Audubon field guide to eastern birds" is a far better purchase. You get 508 different birds opposed to the skimpy 120 in this book. But my personal taste is for the "Stokes field guide: eastern region". It's better then the Audubon guide in my opinion, easier to find birds quickly, with information on each bird where it should be! So, my thoughts: This books layout and color system are great! It's the best type of layout for identifying birds in the field. The drawback is it's poor photo depictions, which in some cases, make it hard to identify birds by their color (very ironic?). The number of birds listed for the high price of this book is "far" too expensive! This book maybe useful to some leisure bird viewers, as I'm sure it's intended. Who watch birds in their own yard and neibourhood, but it is clearly not for anyone who goes out looking to identify birds. If anything, its a good coffee table book. But again, for approx. the same price, you can get a professional guide. "Stokes Field Guide to Birds", that features 449 birds with better photos, some spieces featuring multiple photos of alternate viewing angles of the same bird. With vastly more informative info! A NOTE ABOUT ILLUSTRATED FIELD GUIDES Illustrated guides are normally more useful for correct identifications due to the fact that Artists create an image of "the perfect bird". Photographic guides are great because they show an image of the actual bird. The added benefit is the photo may show the bird amongst it's natural habitat. The down side a photographic guide is the accuracy of the photo. Being dependent on the ability of the photographer to capture an optimal image of the bird. A very difficult task since the bird is normally photographed with uncontrolled conditions. Lighting differences, weather variations, and capturing the proper angle of the bird, all effect the outcome of the photo. With no way to reproduce exact results from bird to bird. Illustrated guides, like photographic their cousins, are likewise dependent on the skill of the artist. However, artists work under controlled conditions. Normally using plenty of reference to render each bird with the most discriminative details, in a consistent manner. Thus the images produced are of far more value for identification then photographic guides. Thats why most serious bird watchers and ornithologists choose an illustrated guide as their definite reference. If they need one at all that is. (EDIT Dec 2006: National Geographic just released their fifth edition of their illustrated "Field guide to birds of North America", I recommend it.)
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Easy to Identify Birds,
By A Customer
This review is from: Birds Of New York Field Guide (Paperback)
Being from upstate New York, it is great having a sharp, clear, upclose picture of the birds native to this area without having to filter out the birds of other regions. The descriptions are easy to understand and makes for enjoyable reading. As an amateur bird watcher, I highly recommend this publication which has now become my #1 birding book.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
as a beginner, this is great!,
By
This review is from: Birds Of New York Field Guide (Paperback)
Great little book for somebody like me, who just started trying to figure out what those birds are at my feeders. It's just enough info for me to take in and make me want more. So far, with great pleasure, I've found everything I've seen in western New York in this book. And I love the oddball facts.
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