Customer Reviews

Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Second Edition

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have been birding for 20 years. My life list is a respectable 445 species in North America. While some reviewers may not carry this book around, I will guarantee you the National Geographic Society (NGS) Field Guide to the Birds of North America is the #1 choice among every birder I know. On my shelf I have a dozen guides...in fact probably every one published. This one is HANDS DOWN my favorite. What makes it so good? With due respect to Roger Tory Peterson, the illustrations and written clues in the NGS guide are unmatched. Secondly, in the 3d edition, National Geographic has demonstrated a fervent desire to keep up with the ever-changing naming conventions from the American Ornithological Union. Other guides are simply not keeping pace. If you are new to this hobby, this is THE guide. If someone told you they are interested, but they don't know where to start, this is THE guide.

The one to get if you only get one. The one to use if you have many.

For birders, there's never been a better time to find a field guide. Sibley and Kauffman have both published very good guides recently, serious competition for the venerable National Geographic guide.

First, you can't go wrong with any of the three. They are all very good, although each brings different strengths and weaknesses.

Second, if you bird with a companion, carry different guides: one of you take National Geographic and one of you take Sibley or Kauffman.

Third, measure your skill level against the assumptions of the various guides. If you are a novice, then Kauffman might be your best choice. If you are a beginner who has a bit of experience, then National Geo may be your best choice. If you are an advanced beginner or better, then perhaps Sibley.

But as an overall choice, with decent art (although not quite as good as Sibley), decent identification highlights (although not quite as good as Kauffman), quite good behavior cues, excellent treatment of vagrant birds and highly readable text, National Geographic emerges as the most versatile of the three.

If you can, get all three. If you can't get all three, this is probably, by the thinnest of margins, the best choice.

Just like that holy book, you will find this excellent book by National Geographic is constantly referred to. As you would expect from any field guide, it is beautifully illustrated. That's usually not enough though to help you positively identify some species, regardless of whether you are an expert or casual birder. The field notes associated with each birds' illustration come in very handy. They give vital clues about behavior, habitat or some other factor that can help clinch the identification. Small maps showing breeding, year round and winter ranges are well placed on each page and are there to provide quick geographic checks. Helps avoid situations like this: "I just saw a Louisiana Waterthrush. Oh wait, I'm in South Florida, can't be then, it must have been a Northern."

The only other way I can endorse this book is to say that I have quite a few other guides and reference books and when going out birding with my family and I say "bring the field guides" this is usually the first one grabbed.

I've owned this book for a couple of years or so. It's a guide I'll refer to when I'm at home, but I don't like using it out in the field. It's a guide that I've never felt very comfortable using. There are better ones out there than this. I can't quite point my finger at what I don't like about this book. The information and maps are fine. I guess it would have to be the fact that the book's drawings don't seem as good as other guides illustrations. The book is quite large also, and not really pocket sized. My favorite illustrated guides are Roger Tory Peterson's Eastern Birds and All the Birds of North America (the drawings are more reliable in these I believe).

but I have, for the most part. I had always preferred Peterson b/c I (a) thought the art was better and (b) liked having a guide which filtered out species I was unlikely to see in a particular area. The new NGS guide is taxonomically, artistically, and generally better, enough so that my Peterson now rarely leaves my shelf.

Can't believe how poorly this book was printed. I was so excited to see the 80 new species included in the this Third Edition, but when I started flipping through the book I was SO DISAPPOINTED. Didn't anybody go to the press check when this book was being printed? The colors are way oversaturated and the registration on some of the pages is absolutely horrible! As I bird lover, I want to know as accurately as possible what color a bird should be when I look at a guide and as a graphic designer, I assume that color proofing would be of utmost importance in a book like this. I returned my copy right away and will look for a used Second Edition somewhere.

I've been birding for about 5 years, and this is the book I always have with me on birding expeditions - it's small enough to portable (though not small enough for a pocket,) and the illustrations are excellent in quality. Has very nice comparison pages, showing several similar-looking species, such as ducks, hawks, gulls, and warblers. The descriptions are generally very good, and contain useful distinguishing information.

Generally, I prefer drawings/paintings to actual photographs when using birding books - I've found that often times, the photographs in birding books are less than good examples of several species, especially when there are one or more variations. Also, with illustrations, the artist controls the lighting, the angle, et cetera. Since this book uses illustrations, so perhaps I'm biased toward it in that way.

I have about a dozen birding field guides, and the only one I like better than this one is the Sibley; however, the extremely large size of that book prevents me from taking it on any but short trips. The NGS book here is more than sufficient for most birders, I would imagine. Another plus is that it's all the birds of the continent, period; no need to buy an Eastern/Western edition when you travel to other areas of the country.

An excellent book, all around.

I just read some of the reviews about this book. Although I can see the points of those more critical of it, I am in the raving camp on this one. I am an ignorant, new, but passionate bird person who pores over this book with satisfaction daily. The book contains multiple illustrations of most birds, from juvenile to adult, which are both convenient and informative, but I've found some of the colors in the drawings misrepresentative of some of the birds. For example, yesterday a bird that I'd never seen before came to my feeder and a thorough search through my book yielded zero matches. How could that be! Where was that large tannish bird with the brilliant orange, ORANGE, poof on his head? Not in my book! But he was on my feeder! Finally I concluded through the process of elimination, no other bird was even close, that my visitor was a male Red-bellied Woodpecker. (The helpful maps assisted greatly!) The drawings of these birds in my book had red markings on their heads instead of the orange markings the real birds have. However, that is my only complaint. All of the other bird identifications I have made have been certain, quick, and simple because of this book. I've often wondered if the colored areas on the maps representing where certain types of birds can be found are absolute. I just know I've seen a condor here in Virginia. In my oak tree. Out back. Not! says my bird book. That's its best feature...it shows the inexperienced the way.

For years, I've used the Peterson field guides to identify birds. Most of my bird watching has taken place in the Eastern U.S. mountains and north and south of the coastal area where I live, as well as WI (summer) and LA (winter). The Petersen guide book for the Eastern region meets most of my needs, but I also own several other books (Smithsonian and Audubon). I became interested in the National Geographic book BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA because I admire the NG magazine.

The NG is a heavier book than the Eastern Peterson, perhaps because it shows birds from both the Eastern and Western areas of the country, but the Peterson maps show the full range of "Eastern" birds--even if a range extends to the West. Both books show ranges that extend into Canada. The NG book is nifty because the little maps that appear in the back of the Petersen books are on the same page as the bird illustrations.

The birds illustrated in both books are clustered by category. For example, Petersen shows male and female Downey, Hairy, Northern Three-toed, and Black-backed woodpeckers together, as does the NG. The Petersen guide has little arrows that point to distinguishing marks, but NG does not. I find these indicator arrows very helpful when I am trying to tell two closely marked birds apart. The NG does show a tiny row of variants across the bottom of the page (For example, the woodpecker page = fasciatus, dosalis, orius, etc.)

The bird colors are less differentiated in the Peterson than the NG illustrations. For example, stripes on the Peterson Three-toed woodpecker's belly are less articulated than those shown on the NG bird. I don't think this matters as one seldom gets close enough to see the mottling. The Peterson birds are hand drawn and relatively flat, while the NG birds are more rounded, i.e. modeled. The Petersen birds look like the Audubon paintings. The NG illustrations remind me of digital photos of taxidermist stuffed birds (probably why the colors are so differentiated).

Both books provide measurements and Latin names. The Peterson book provides text that describes birds that might prove confusing with your bird of interest. The NG book provides text that describes the attributes of regional variants. This latter feature won't help you in the field since you almost never see regional variants in the same location.

If you are a serious bird watcher you will probably want both books and the Audubon and Smithsonian books as well. If you can only afford one book, I recommend the Peterson book. I have used my Peterson book for so long it just falls open when I hold it in one hand, so I am probably prejudiced.

I can't say how disappointed I am with this book. I used the earlier edition for years. The problem is with the maps. NGS of all people shouldn't have this problem. The color for winter is no longer a blue streak but a series of single blue dots that you need a photographer's loupe to see. Also the text states they changed year round color to pink but my color is a burnt rust. There are new species and some birds renamed but they don't tell you what they are. The text advises to look in the index and that "see" will point out the differences but in the index "see" is also used for cross references not just a change. The paper is poorer stock and the printing of colors is way off. This looks like a slap dash project just to be able to resell the title.