Customer Reviews

Birds of Wisconsin Field Guide, Second Edition

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book and all the other "Birds of (state)" guides by Stan Tekiela seem to bring out the worst in experienced birders. While I am a beginner at birding, this dislike of Tekiela's guides is somewhat understandable. To experienced birders, a bird guide in which the birds are listed by color, not taxonomy, is bordering on criminal. Many of those birders seem to have forgotten that they were once novices and likely confused sparrows with wrens or finches.

A beginning birder is likely to be overwhelmed by all the birds listed in a Sibley Guide, Kaufmann Focus Guide, or even a Peterson Guide. What better for a beginner than a book that lists the 100+ most common birds in their state in order of color. You see a brown bird with a small beak and a light yellow chest, you flip to the brown birds and only have to browse through 40 or so birds to try and find what you saw. Easy.

After a few months, you'll begin to recognize sparrows, finches, warblers for what they are (maybe not the exact species) and will want a more advanced book.

This book is the best at what it is. A guide for beginning birders or people who only look at birds out in their backyard feeders. Don't compare it to the Sibley, Kaufmann, etc....

Highly Recommended!

Now in an expanded second edition, Birds Of Wisconsin: Field Guide by naturalist and wildlife photographer Stan Tekiela is significantly enhanced with updated photos, information, and range maps. This easy-to-use guide is specialized and restricted to 111 common species focused upon Wisconsin birds and Wisconsin range maps. Superbly organized by a color coding approach (see a yellow bird, then go to the yellow section to find out what it is), especially helpful in trying to distinguish between similar appearing birds, hallmarked with gorgeous bird photography, and laced with Wisconsin aviary tidbits and facts, Birds Of Wisconsin: Field Guide is a compact, shirt pocket size for easy portability and designed for use in conjunction with the also highly recommended Birds of Wisconsin Audio CDs (1591930391, $14.95) featuring the recorded sounds of 110 of Wisconsin's most commonly encountered birds.

This is a nice, concise book for beginners like me. The size and pics are well done and the book is packed with info & easy to use. If you have small children who are interested in birds this book is a good choice. It only takes a few seconds to flip through the color coded pages to answer-"What kinda bird is THAT?" It will fit easily in the diaperbag or your pocket while walking.

I rarely write reviews, but I LOVE this book! You can actually find the bird you want to identify! I started with Stan's "Birds of Illinois," which was great. Now I am learning the Birds of Wisconsin (some overlap, of course). And with the addition of the CD, now I can learn their calls too. Stan tells you exactly the identifying feature that helps you tell the birds apart--features that you can actually see! And the book is small enough to carry with you when traveling. Thanks, Stan!!!

I don't do a whole lot of bird watching. However, I do look out my windows, and from time to time I'd like to know what I'm looking at. I use this book to look up the birds in my backyard.

The book is color coded by what color the bird in question is mostly composed of. For Example a Robin is in the grey section for birds that are mostly grey. The Baltimore Oriole is in the orange section for birds with prominent orange markings. The book also has an index for looking up a specific bird. The book has a great intor about observing tips, bird basics, color variables, molting, nesting, fledging, migrating, how to use this guide and understanding the range maps.

The birds are shown in very nice color photgraphs distinguishing male and female (if necessary) or in flight (if necessary). The page opposite the photgraph tells you the common name and the official name, size, distincitve characteristics between the male and female and juvenile, nest, eggs, incubation, leding, migration, food, "compare" and Stan's Notes, there is also a map of Wisconsin and it shows where you might find this particular bird by season. The compare is to relate it to a similar bird.

If you live in Wisconsin this pretty much is "the" guide to birds.

Very good reference book.I have it on my window sill.Seen alot of the birds in the book in my area. Kids love it to.

This book makes identifying birds easy - only birds found in Wisconsin are listed, large photos of both male and female birds, maps of when they are in which parts of the state (year-round, winter, summer, or migration), great organization, and even some comments to help differentiate between similar birds. Highly recommended!

nice book as a reference. I like that there are pics of males & females on most of the pages

I love to use this book because it's easy for me, a non-birder, to quickly identify the main color of a bird, use the color-coded page markings, and then, within a color group, identify the bird by the large photos (of male and female). I also like the habitat map, the information on size, nesting habits, food, migration, etc. I especially like "Stan's Notes" on each page, which etach me something about the bird in question. A well-thought-out, easy-to-use, delightful book.

This book is so easy to use that it keeps disappearing. I actually came here to order my third or fourth copy. Someone has walked off with Wildflowers of Wisconsin too. Knowing me, I probably said "oh keep it, I'll get another one."