Field Guide to Eastern/Central Bird Songs (Peterson Field Guides) [Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Roger Tory Peterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 1990 | Series: Peterson Field Guides(R) Series

The best-selling bird-song collection ever recorded. Includes 267 species -- all the most common and vocal birds found east of the Rockies.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Roger Tory Peterson, one of the world's greatest naturalists, received every major award for ornithology, natural science, and conservation, as well as numerous honorary degrees, medals, and citations, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Peterson Identification System has been called the greatest invention since binoculars, and the Peterson Field Guides® are credited with helping to set the stage for the environmental movement.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; Book and Cassette edition (April 30, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395531500
• ISBN-13: 978-0395531501
• Shipping Weight: 7.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,952,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The birder's bible, July 18, 2005

By 

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Peterson Field Guide(R) to Eastern Birds: Fourth Edition (Peterson Field Guides) (Paperback)

Even when I lived in the city, I liked to feed and watch the birds (mainly sparrows and pigeons). Now that we live up in the woods, we're in bird paradise. Using this Peterson Field Guide for "Eastern Birds" plus a good pair of binoculars for visual identifications, and the "Birding by Ear Eastern/Central" CDs (Richard K. Walton and Robert W. Lawson) I've identified 42 species of birds in just over a month, as a casual observer for the Michigan Breeding Bird Atlas II project.

I have other bird books, but it is Peterson's Field Guide that I use most frequently. Roger Tory Peterson's 'system' "is based on patternistic drawings with arrows that pinpoint the key field marks." You don't have to have the bird in hand in order to make an identification. In addition to 136 full-color plates of Eastern birds (male, female, and immature, or summer and winter plumage if they differ markedly), there are also 390 three-color maps (first introduced in the 1980 edition).

The maps are absolutely essential for an amateur like me. If I've narrowed down a blurry little gray bird to X and Y, and Y never makes it north of the Mason-Dixon Line, I can be pretty certain that the bird is X. Here's an actual example on the utility of the maps: I was trying to distinguish a trilling song that could either belong to the Swamp Sparrow, the Pine Warbler, or the Northern Junco. We do see Juncos at our feeders in the winter, but this is July and according to Peterson's map, the Juncos spend the summer north of here, mostly in Canada. So I've narrowed the trill down to the Swamp Sparrow or the Pine Warbler (actually I'm positive we've got both as I've made tentative visual identifications. It makes sense since we live in the Pine Barrens which is dotted with numerous swamps).

This book begins with a generalized introduction to identifying birds by shape, distinctive features and behavior. Physically, it is tightly bound and just the right size to slip into a backpack. The pages are glossy and 'relatively' waterproof if you wipe them quickly dry. There is even a 'life list' up front where you can check off the birds you have seen.

Don't go birding without it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent beginner book for myself and my sister., April 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Peterson Field Guide(R) to Eastern Birds: Fourth Edition (Peterson Field Guides) (Paperback)

The Peterson field Guide to Eastern American Birds turned out to be the best birding book I've ever read. The book was well thought out and had the format that we needed in our suburban environment. The illustrations were concise and made identifying the birds extremely easy. We have a large population of Red-Winged Blackbirds and Mourning Doves, and its great to actually know what in the world we were looking at. It was great!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent guide to identification of birds., May 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Peterson Field Guide(R) to Eastern Birds: Fourth Edition (Peterson Field Guides) (Paperback)

This is the best of the field guides for the amature birder in my opinion. I purchased a guide that had actual photos of birds in their habitats, thinking it would be the best, but it definately was not as good or as easy to use as the Peterson field guide. If you are looking for a good all around field guide to keep near your binoculars, this one is my pick.