Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I may have finally found a relacement for my old Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds. My new Peterson guide -- BIRDS OF EASTERN AND CENTRAL NORTH AMERICA -- arrived today and is it beautiful. Best of all, it has a flexible cover and is light enough to carry into the field.

I have dozens of bird books, but this little guide is by far the best for field work. In addition to it's apparently waterproof and flexible cover, and being just the right size for a backpack (you can even carry it in your hand comfortably--no small feat for my arthritic hands), the new guide includes those nifty little arrows Peterson has used forever. The arrows, size specifications, and placement of maps on the same page as the species, allow the bird watcher to immediately locate and identify distingishing characteristics.

The Peterson guide does not contain as much detail as the SIBLEY GUIDE, or the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, or the SMITHSONIAN HANDBOOK - BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, but the Peterson guide is detailed enough for field work and much lighter. If you are a serious bird watcher you will want to buy all four books, but if you can only afford one or don't want to invest in all four, the PETERSON GUIDE is still the best bet. And, I still think the Peterson guide is the best one to use with kids.

The National Geographic guide includes some wonderfully modeled bird specimens with incredible detail that could only be produced digitally. The Peterson illustrations are hand painted and thus not as detailed. Although other books may show more detail, the question is -- will you really need all the detail in the field? Generally, you have only a few seconds to identify a bird. Peterson's arrow markers and the alternating sections of white and light bluish-grey backgrounds make it easier for me to flip around the book quickly.

The SMITHSONIAN GUIDE is fully loaded and very heavy. Each bird occupies a single page, and the guide provides a nice "rule-of-thumb" feature that allows you to gauge the bird's size by the book size. I use my Smithsonian guide for follow-up work after a trek in the field -- and in my own back yard.

Apparently, the Peterson folks have considered the effects of global warming as the winter and summer ranges of the birds have been extended. I now have five kinds of wrens visiting my small back yard in Arlington VA. And, when I travel to Wisconsin in a week or so, I can use the Peterson guide because it extends west to Minnesota.

I've had versions of R.T, Peterson's Field Guides ever since high school. I've actually watched birds my entire life from the day my mom told me I could catch a bird if I put salt on its tail and she caught me running out of the house with the salt shaker, chasing after a blackbird. (I'm not making this up.) This book is one of my key tools I use to convert friends and family into bird-o-maniacs. I begin with the provocative remark "Did you know I've recorded over 40 species of birds in our suburban back yard," then I take them out to watch birds at a national preserve nearby. Works every time.

I love the drawings because they give you the average or highlighted characteristic feature of the species. Photos can obscure, although sometimes they are indispensible to make a tough identification. The new edition has a wonderful feature: the range maps are now WITH the bird species and not in the back. Hooray! Range is critical to bird identification--if you think you are seeing a Western Jay and you are in Delaware, well, maybe it is an accidental but probably you saw some other kind of bird. The notes on songs help you identify that unseen bird, and the description of habits is essential.

I suggest if you have kids, that you get a reasonable pair of binoculars, this Field Guide and a set of index cards, a scrap book, a weblog or just use the life-checklist in the book. Have the kids note the species they see, when and where they see them. Soon they will have a fascinating list of what's in their own backyard and you will have something wonderful to do together.

This is the last Field Guide done by the great Roger Tory Peterson before his passing in 1996. Most of the plates have been reworked and many redrawn. He was working on the last plate (on Flycatchers) the day he died.

This remains probably the best Field guide for beginner to intermediate birders in the eastern US (and Canada). The illustrations and the helpfull arrows (the "Peterson System") pointing out essential ID points. His verbal descriptions often bring the birds to life, such as his now famous decriptions of Sanderlings and Swifts, and the verbal descriptions of bird songs and calls remain the best of any guide. This remains one of my favourtie Field Guides and is often the one that accompanies me out in the field. The National Geographic Guide may be a slightly more suitable choice for the advanced birder, though birders of all levels would be delighted with this guide.

A welcome change in this edition is the addition of small "thumbnail" maps on the opposite page to the illustration thus removing one of the main criticisms of previous editions. The larger maps remain in the back, still done by Mrs Peterson with help from Paul Lehman. One negative is the slight increase in size (the pages are a little bigger) making the book slightly less pocketable.

Overall an excellent Field guide, which while not reaching the exaltred heights recently set by Mullarney et al in their superb European guide, is the final effort by the man who essentially started it all.

This is a very good field guide, I've owned it for several years. The illustrations are usually accurate enough to make quick identification. There are times, though, that this is not the case. Recently I had a difficult time identifying a particular bird because what I saw versus what was drawn and the accompanying map were not all in total alignment.

However, this book is still far and away the best field guide I've come across. It is easy to use, organized into logical sections, and is as complete as most birdes would ever need. Some of the technical descriptions are cumbersome, namely trying to describe sounds with words, but this is not a major problem.

This guide should remain the standard for years to come. The reader just needs to be aware that varaitions may likely occur in what they see on paper compared to what they see in the field.

When starting this hobby, there are an immense number of guides and (often expensive) resources to choose from.

This book should be the first one you buy (well, if you are in the eastern half of the US).

But it should not be the last. The Peterson Guide uses drawings (important -- NOT photos) to show you the typical features of the birds around you. Other great guides -- like the Audubon series -- use photos, but photos are harder for a beginner to use for a sure-fire identification. Or this beginner anyway...

No bird in the field looks exactly like the lovely Peterson drawing, but no two bird photos are ever alike, either (even of the same bird). Use the Peterson to get to know the bird species around you, and maybe next buy a guide like the Audubon Society Field Guide (just because -- I dunno, they seem like a one-two punch to me)! It's great to go looking with both, but if I had to choose one, it would be Peterson.

To learn more about birding in general, Sibley has a nice, shortish overview book called "Sibley's Birding Basics."

I'm only getting started, but this is some advice about what's helped in beginning to learn all this wonderful stuff about the living world all 'round.

I previously carried an old edition of Peterson's because the pictures are more helpful for identification than those in any other field guide. However, it was a nuisance having to search through the range maps in the back of the book to see whether a bird could be found in a given location.

In this new edition a miniature range map is printed next to the description of each bird on the page opposite the picture. (Full-sized maps are still located in the back of the book.) The new format is very helpful to those of us who don't already know the ranges of most birds. This very good field guide is now great.

If you're getting into birding, or want a good field guide to see what birds are at your cabin or in your yard, this is it.

It's got the bird listed opposite from the description and has arrows to show field marks of a species. New in the 5th edition are:

Maps on the same page as the description (maps improved too!)
The description mentions how common the bird is in the east.
The area covered doesn't take a sharp turn and leave out the tip of texas

If you're getting more into birding I'd highly recommend David Sibley's guide, it has many more views and plumages of each bird, but is a bit large to take in the field.

The Peterson Field Guide to BIRDS OF EASTERN AND CENTRAL NORTH AMERICA (5th Edition) is excellent for study and very practical for use in the field. Roger Tory Peterson's paintings have a unique charm to them that makes them enjoyable to view and easy to memorize. They combine detailed accuracy with an unsurpassed sensitivity that gives the illustrated birds that elusive life-like quality found in their living counterparts. The arrangement and number of birds on each page (ranging from around four to twelve species) provides for easy comparison between birds of the same family. This arrangement along with the arrows pointing to key field marks makes it relatively easy to pinpoint the exact bird you are looking at. For each bird there is also an easy to understand description of its song or call, a list of key identification features and a thumbnail sized range map (unfortunately limited to eastern North America). In the back of the book there are much larger and more detailed range maps (2x2 inches) for each species although they are still only of the eastern region. I own many bird guides and they are all useful but I find myself bringing my Peterson Guide to BIRDS OF EASTERN AND CENTRAL NORTH AMERICA (5th Edition) into the field most often.

Strengths:

* Beautiful artwork
* Lightweight with a durable cover making it easy to carry into the field
* One of the few guides to show the rare Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
* Practical layout (Easily confused birds shown side by side)
* Key field marks shown with arrows
* Range maps are opposite to the pictures and large detailed maps are in the back
* Easy to memorize and useful descriptions of bird calls

Weaknesses:

* Species accounts limited to eastern North America
* Range maps only show eastern North America
* Some of the art is not up to the standards set by the majority of the book (i.e. Owls and Buteos).
* Arrangement of birds by families is not as easy for beginners as Kaufman's Focus Guide to Birds
* Not all birds are shown in flight or with juvenile plumage as in the Sibley Guide to Eastern Birds

I am new to 'birding' and am not necessarily taking it up as a hobby. However, this book has been superb at helping me to identify the birds I have seen around my house and in my area (the Chesapeake Bay). I cannot imagine that anyone will have difficulty using it.

The 5th edition of Peterson's field guide is an improvement over previous edtions. The maps are included in the front with the birds now, in addition to having a separate more detailed map in the back of the guide.
These range maps are the best of all current guides because the details are easiest to see because their so big.
Sibly's is great also but because of it's size(the guide itself) I wouldn't recommend it for the field, more as a reference for back home.
So if your going to own just one field guide the 5th edtion Peterson's is the best all around guide out there.