Customer Reviews

Birds of Texas Field Guide

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Stan Tekiela has prepared Field Guides of Birds for each State and they are terrific. The book fits in the palm of your hand and includes all the birds that live or migrate through your selected state. It has the birds listed alphabetically in the back, but you can also find unknown birds quickly, as the book is divided into all the main colors of the species. Each bird has a picture page of the male, female and juvenile and a page of useful information, e.g., size, bill type, feet and legs, where they nest and when, and cross references, if necessary, with all similar birds, and much more. It's a must have book for anyone who likes to watch, feed and follow birds.

This is the first field guide that I have ever bought. We are studying birds in my kids' science curriculum, so we needed to get a book to help us out. Although I can't compare it to others, I am definitely pleased with this choice. My boys are 9 and 10 and they can use it as easily as I can. And so far we have found every bird in our yard in this book. It doesn't have tons of detail, but that makes it easier to look through it, and then we can search online for further information as needed. And it has wonderful color photos. If you're looking for a basic Texas Bird Field Guide, I would recommend this book.

THIS IS ONE OF THE VERY BEST BOOKS ON BIRDS. THE PAGES ARE COLOR CODED TO THE COLOR OF BIRD AND YOU CAN LOCATE A NEW BIRD BY LOOKING FOR THE COLOR IN THE PAGE TAB. I LIKED IT SO MUCH THAT I GOT THE SAME VERSION FOR COLORADO. I GO TO IT BEFORE ANY OF MY OTHER BIRD BOOKS.

I first got the version of this book that is on birds of Connecticut, and now have purchased this one for my Grand-daughter who lives in Texas. She really got into bird watching when she visited us last summer and this book makes it so easy to get started. The book is arranged by the predominant color....so if you see a bird that is brown you look in the section of brown birds. Pictures are all photos, as opposed to drawings, and accordingly much more lifelike. When male and female differ in appearance there is an inset showing the other bird. And there is a great description of each including the feeding habits and other behaviors that may help you identify and/or notice the unique characteristics of each bird. I have many bird books...but this is truly my favorite!

I bought copies of this guide for both my husband and daughter, and they're both extremely pleased. We especially like the small size of the book. This makes it easy to carry in a car glove box or a backpack. Also, we like the way the birds are categorized. If one is curious about a particular bird, the color of the bird is all that is needed to begin the search. However, if one knows the name of a particular bird and is wondering if the bird being observed is this bird, it is extremely easy to find a picture (both male and female) by looking up that name. For example, after using this book, my daughter discovered that the red-headed woodpeckers that she was enjoying in her backyard, were in fact hairy woodpeckers. Because of its sensible format, I think that this book would also be helpful to youngsters interested in identifying different birds.

My copy is tattered and well used. I purchased this guide several years ago after covering a story on a local birder and becoming interested in identifying birds in my own backyard. This particular guide is very useful for a beginner, but also good for an experienced birder too.
It's thumb guide on the edge of the pages makes an easy start to identification first by color, then once in the color section, thumbing for the size of the bird and then comparing excellent photos of the birds for comparison.
I recently purchased a copy of this book for a man who lives at the assisted living place where my mom resides. He has thoroughly enjoyed being able to find the birds he sees by comparing the photos in this book to those in the gardens at the center.
There is a fun place at the back of the book to mark a box of birds you have seen.
Great little manual and compact!

This book covers every bird I've ever seen in the Great State (over 40 years worth). I guess if you are trying to dot the final i, you might look for a more complete reference, but for 99.4% of us, this book cannot be beat.

The pictures and descriptions are good as far as they go, but the book lacks many of the birds that serious birders travel to Texas to see. For example, the literature we received from Texas tells where to look for the Groove-Billed Ani; the Buff-Bellied Hummingbird; the Audubon's Oriole and many other species which are not presented in this book. It's hard to understand why so many were omitted.
The color-coding makes it necessary to look for the male and female of some species in different parts of the book and results in considerable duplication of the text.
We were disappointed because we have field guides to Eastern and Western birds and wanted to learn from this book about the specialty birds seen only in Texas.

Just returned from a birding trip to Texas. This book had everything I needed and more. Very helpful! Gives some details not read in other bird books.

I have both this book and the Peterson's book on birds of Eastern & central north america, and this book has color photos of the birds, not just color illustrations. This book has the information in a concise, and ordered manner for each bird species, as to length, nest, male, female, nest, eggs, food, and similar birds. The book is ordered by primary COLOR such as grey, blue, red, green, black,yellow, etc. There is an index at the back on page 411 if you wish to look up the bird by name which is mainly how I look them up, as I do not always agree with the method of the color coding. also an aggrivation to me is the fact that all the doves are not grouped, the owls are not grouped, etc. However it is a handy, easy to carry field guide.