Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to Bird Songs: Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guides(R))

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Once the standard field guide to bird songs for eastern North America, the Peterson guide (the present edition is its third) has now been largely supplanted by the Stokes guide in terms of usefulness. With over 200 species crammed onto a single disc, the sound samples are pitifully short, which is a shame since most of these recordings (from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology's collection) are clear and beautiful. In addition, the Stokes guide only has one or two birds per track, which makes finding the species you want much easier on that CD.

This CD really deserves two reviews, one for its technical merits, which rate highly, and one for its usefulness to the birder, which rates very poorly indeed. So I'll compromise at three stars. If you are on a budget, you can pass this over with the confidence that your pennies will be better spent on Lang Elliott's superb Stokes guide. If you want a little something extra for pleasant listening and have the cash to spend, then go ahead and buy it, but ONLY if the essential Stokes CD is already on your shelf as a definitive reference.

Most of these same criticisms apply to the Peterson guide to western bird songs, which contains two CDs, about 500 species, and must place second to Kevin Colver's western guide in the Stokes series.

Most birds, like most wild animals, avoid humans; therefore their distinct songs & calls indicate their presence when sight can not. This collection of bird songs which is organized by habitat and family, is clear, enjoyable listening. It provides an introduction to 276 bird songs and a handy means of confirming bird species by song and call.

This CD is very limited in both the number of species it covers and also the number of calls/songs for each species. For the money you are better off buying Stokes 3 CD set.

On the positive side, there are a LOT of different bird songs recorded in this cd. It would be much more user-friendly, however, if each track contained only one bird. The sheer number of different bird songs, combined with the not-so-convenient access to individual bird songs, makes this cd more appropriate as a comprehensive reference for use with the written field guide, or perhaps a field guide for someone already an expert, rather than a usable field guide for a more casual birder. Not something I would recommend if you simply want a cd that will help you recognize common bird songs as you are walking through the woods.

I researched for the audio cd to identify bird songs. Peterson Field Guides five star rated cd met all the requirements i wanted. This is not soothing new age background music, but an educational tool for beginning birders like myself. Even while multitasking along w/ listening, it is very educational. Try loading the songs on your computer or ipod & see how quickly you will recognize.

The CD identifies the band containing the bird's call. I had gotten a tape from the library; to find the call you wanted you had to listen to the tape until it was identified. This CD give a number of identifying bird call for each species.

Great resource for learning to recognize various songs and calls of hundreds of birds.

While most people expect wonderful things from Peterson guides, this CD set is sure to let you down.

It's is very limited in the number of birds it covers. And the recordings for each bird are minimal at best.

You are better off spending your money on the Stokes 3Cd set of Eastern Birds.

I had an old version of this product that came with a software program that I used for years but it wouldn't work on Win XP SP2. I searched in vain for an updated version for a long time. I was so happy to find this stand alone CD. A must for birdwatchers, and especially for backyard birders.

Excellent sound quality. Very helpful. Entertaining too. I

recognized birds songs that I hadn't seen and didn't

know were around.