Customer Reviews

Birds of Washington Field Guide

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I find this book to be quite helpful as I identify the birds coming to my bird feeder. I particularly like the organization. The book is organized by bird color and by bird size. If male and female birds have different coloring, they are listed separately in each section. I also appreciate the section that lists similar birds. If you're not sure that you correctly identified a bird, you can check the similar birds for confirmation. On the down side, birds sometimes appear outside of their usual territories and this book won't help you with that situation.

This compactly sized book is big on great pictures. We use it frequently at home and plan to buy 2 more to keep in vehicles. In most cases it small enough to keep in a glove compartment of your card or tucked somewhere else handy. The organization by color of bird is helpful except some birds are sort of gray/blue/brown/black and you're not sure what color to look in. Also some birds vary their color by season. Either way, it's the best I've found without carrying several books or a big 20 pounder. My only wish that that they showed both a flight pic and a ground pic.

LOVE the book. We have it in our bay window so that we can identify birds quickly and easily as we spot them. So far there hasn't been a bird that we couldn't find in the book. It's handy how you can look up by color, and it tells you what they eat. I checked out many bird books from the library before buying this one, and this one is the best.

This is a fantastic book if you enjoy watching birds here in Washington state! It is divided up by color, so if you have no clue as to what type of bird you are watching, you can look it up by the color of the bird. It also has real photos of the birds, not just drawings.

Several WA species are omitted from this text, and information regarding habitat and range is incomplete. For most visual ID's, shape and behavior is the first step, and thus a birding guide should be organized by family. Instead, this book is organized by color of bird. This is a disservice to new birders, who ought to learn to ID a bird by family first and then move to color and markings. I surmise that the author is a photographer, not an ornithological expert.

I strongly recommend Brian Bell's excellent Birds of Washington State and, if one lives in the greater Seattle area, Chris Fisher's Birds of Seattle and Puget Sound (City Bird Guides), supplemented by a comprehensive birding guide such as Sibley Field Guide Birds/West Nth Americ (Helm Field Guides). Bell and Fisher are long-time WA birders who really know their stuff. Sibley's books represent the best American birding guides, although NG and Peterson's guides are also very good.

Great little book easy to use to recognize the birds.
There is a picture for each bird, and they are organized by colors.
There are some interesting information for each bird.
The book is small enough that it holds easily in a bag.

It is not very useful to me anymore though since I installed iBird on my iphone, iBird has lots of criterion to recognize the birds in all North America, the ipod is smaller than a book, and you can hear the songs.
But if you don't have an ipod, this is a great book.

This book was better than I anticipated. It has great bird photos that are easy to just flip through, or color locator "tabs" to help you find your bird by its color fast! Lots of general information is provided as well as some useful suggestions about similar looking birds to confirm you have the found the right one. Great investment - I couldn't be happier!

I was looking for the beginner bird watcher. This book was recomended by a friend. Liked best the color coded index. Simple and easy to use. Deffinitely will recomend to my friends. Excellent book for both the novice and expert.

I was hesitant to purchase this book due to so many negative reviews, however it was for a gift...it's perfect for a beginner - the birds are noted in order of color so if you aren't sure which category a bird is in, they are easy to identify. The first day we identified several migrant birds that we had not been able to find in the other, larger books. we reside right on the idaho/washington border so bought both state books and i just ordered the oregon book last week. great photos and easy to find a bird. The only negative thing i can say is males and females are not together - obviously, due to their color, however they are excellently x-referenced. highly recommended.