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Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America [Paperback]

Ted Floyd
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)

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Book Description

May 27, 2008
Enjoy birding like never before. A complete guide to birds with superb color photography, up-to-date and detailed range maps, clear and concise text, and a DVD of birdsongs. 1.50 inches tall x 6.00 inches long x 8.00 inches wide

Frequently Bought Together

Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America + National Geographic Backyard Guide to the Birds of North America (National Geographic Backyard Guides) + National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Birds of North America
Price for all three: $45.95

Buy the selected items together


Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This new field guide provides a suite of modern tools to effectively aid in the identification of more than 750 species of birds across North America. It introduces a "whole bird" approach by concisely gathering a collection of information about birds into one portable and well-organized volume.

  • 2,000 stunning color photographs of birds in natural habitats show the most important field marks, regional population differences, life stages, and behaviors
  • 700-plus detailed and up-to-date color range maps show summer, migration, winter, year-round, and rare but regular occurrences of every major species
  • A DVD of birdsongs for 138 major species (587 vocalizations in all for 5½ hours of play); each high-quality MP3 file is embedded with an image of the bird, perfect to view on home computers and portable MP3 players
  • Concise descriptions of habits and ecology, age-related and seasonal differences, regional forms, vocalization, and informative captions pointing out the most important aspects of the bird
  • 46 group essays with information outlining taxonomy, feeding, migration, habitats, behaviors, and conservation status
  • A thorough and accessible introduction to birds and birding includes sections on parts of a bird, plumage and molt, food and feeding, migration, habitats, conservation, tips on bow to become a better birder, and more
  • A detailed glossary of terms, species checklist, and quick index

The new Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America is perfectly designed to give birders the most powerful and user-friendly collection of information to carry into the field or wherever they enjoy learning about birds and nature.

A Look (and Listen) Inside the Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America
Click on an image below to sample one of the 587 different downloadable bird songs included with the guide.

American Wigeon Common Loon Mallard
Red-Winged Blackbird Mourning Dove Northern Cardinal


From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This new Smithsonian field guide, written by Birding magazine editor Floyd, is ideal for beginners, but also has formidable resources for experienced birders. What gives this guide the most value is the included CD-ROM, with 587 songs and calls (for 138 bird species) in mp3 format. Not only are they an immense improvement on written descriptions (frequently incomprehensible), they're field-ready-just download them onto your favorite mp3 player. The text is generally thorough, but the focus is on images; each bird's entry is accompanied by at least two photographs and often more, showing specimens in flight, variations in coloring, and differences among males, females and juveniles. Compared with similar guides from National Geographic, Floyd's has considerably less textual description, helpful in identifying rarer birds and hybrids, but the strikingly crisp photography compensates. Appropriate for even elementary-age readers, the book's excellent range maps are very clear, and the introduction to each group is readable and highly informative. Clean design, sharp (not heavy) print and moisture-resistant materials make it perfect for field use. Birders of any experience level will be happy with this volume on their bookshelf.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 528 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial; Pap/DVD edition (May 27, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0061120405
  • ISBN-13: 978-0061120404
  • Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.4 x 7.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
(76)
4.7 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 49 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars WONDERFUL ADDITION TO MY BIRD LIBRARY July 23, 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
While I certainly do not consider myself an expert birder, I have been active in this wonderful pastime for around fifty years now. I do spend quite a lot of time in the field and my wife and I do travel quite a lot, she perusing her interests and mine. My first field guide was the old Roger Tory Peterson publication; actually it was the 1941 edition, which I still have. My goodness, we have come along way.

This new Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds is an absolute delight to use and a delight to the eye and ear. It is a rather large and heavy book, quite a lot larger than your average guide and weighs probably close to two pounds. This may not seem like much on a short stroll through the park, but it is of major consideration when spending day after day in the field, much of it walking. That cannot be helped though, as the size is indeed needed to record the plethora of information found between its covers. The book is well bound, which is very important. I have had more than one guide over the years that I have completely destroyed simply from over use and dragging in through the bush. I must admit that I have not had this particular book long enough to truly abuse it, but I suspect that it will hold up better than most. A day or two crouching in a swamp should tell that tale.

The book is arranged in order of families and not color or general habitat, which may take some getting use to for the beginning birder. This is really of minor concern though and of little moment. Each species addressed in this book is covered by some of the best bird photographs I have seen in any field guide at any time. In most cases we get a photograph of the female, male and juvenile. In addition, when appropriate there is a photo of the bird in molt and out. All of these photographs are of top quality. There is a range map provided with each species which covers breeding, winter, year-round, migration and rare ranges. This is most useful. As another reviewer pointed out, we are in a very dynamic period of flux at this time and some bird ranges are going through drastic changes. A current range map is quite necessary and this work provides that. Information given on each species includes measurements and average weights, molt periods, differences between mature and adult birds, geographic variations, if any and a nice written example of their call, which I find most accurate. Many of the photographs feature the bird in both flight (very helpful) and setting. Both the common name and the scientific name are given. Each bird is given its ABA Code for each area, again, most useful.

There is a nicely written and informative introduction to each family of birds. There are many little side notes of interest sprinkled here and there throughout the book addressing particular problems of identification of particular birds. Of course there is the DVD which includes 587 recordings and is completely down loadable. This is a very nice DVD and the quality is great. Now there are only 138 species of birds represented on this DVD which may be a problem for some. Personally, even after all these years, I still have problems identifying even 50 birds by their call, but then I have a tin ear for such things. Other reviews have noted, as does the book, that these songs are down loadable to a MP3 Player. To be quite frank, I have not a clued what an MP3 is, so I will take their word for it.

I do highly recommend this work. I must say though that I would strongly suggest you have a couple of other field guides stuck in your pack. No one book will fill all of your needs as to identification. I still lug around a copy of Peterson's guide (a more current copy than the 1941 edition I mentioned) and still find it quite useful. I personally like bird drawings to supplement bird photographs as I find having the two make identification much easier. This is particularly true with shore birds. The only complaint I have with this particular book, and it is a very minor complaint and is more my problem than that of the book, is that I wish the shade of ink used could have been darker. The light color with the thin font is rather difficult for me to read in dim light. This is just me though, and perhaps younger eyes will have no problems. All in all though, this is an outstanding guide and I do not see how you could possibly go wrong with it.

D. Blankenship
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent North American photographic field guide June 2, 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
As a companion to the better artwork illustated field guides such as National Geographic's, Sibley's or Peterson's, this photographic guide is a very worthwhile addition. It is the proper field-size and covers the important identification points, excellent up-to-date maps, interesting sidebars of relevant information, sizes in inches and weight in pounds and ounces (tired metric measurements?), brief summary of voice and an excellent included DVD with 587 downloadable birdsongs.

All photos are excellent and usefully descriptive by sex and age or seasonal plumage and important subspecies. Highly recommended!
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
First, I want to say that this bird book represents a fine overall effort by its author, editors, designer, photographers, devisors of range maps, and other contributors. While it has clear limitations as a field guide, it's still an excellent reference for birdwatchers.

I need to provide some background here so that folks will better understand my comments regarding this new 2008 birding field guide. Field guides are used by nature lovers and natural resource professionals mostly to IDENTIFY birds, wildflowers, rocks and minerals, reptiles, trees, and any number of other creatures, plants, and non-living objects found in our natural environment.

In regard to birds there are hundreds of available field guides but their numbers shrink as one either limits the geographical area that they cover, or, as the number of species in such guides expand, (e.g., from "Hawks of the U.S." to "Birds of the U.S.").

In this instance we have a birder's field guide which covers all species found in the United States (including Alaska) and Canada. So, there are really only three other field guides which closely rival the instant one and they are The Sibley Guide to Birds, National Geographic Field Guide To The Birds Of North America, 4th Edition, and, Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America (Peterson Field Guides(R)). (I don't mention A Guide to Field Identification: Birds of North America ["Golden Field Guide"] because it offers very limited information). This is not to say that I use the large Sibley guide while I'm out on bird hikes - I don't because it's too bulky. The National Geographic guide is just small enough to carry in the field as is the Peterson guide but, again, they offer limited information, (which is okay if all you want to do is IDENTIFY the birds). The Smithsonian guide suffers from the same perplexing size and weight problem as the large Sibley guide, albeit the former is actually 12 percent smaller than Sibley (I refer to the "large" Sibley guide because it is now also available in essentially an "eastern" and a "western" version.)

Both my wife and I have been active birdwatchers for many years (her science is far superior to mine!) and we own every available birding field guide for our regions of study and duplicates of some. After hundreds of hikes, camping trips, and other bird outings, I'm pretty aware of the likes and dislikes of birders concerning field guides. The one conclusion that most of us share is that a field guide should be COMPACT and LIGHT so it can be comfortably carried in a large pocket. To achieve this we now know that field guides should be split into two volumes: Eastern U.S. and Canada, and, Western U.S. and Canada. One does not need a western guide for birding in say, Pennsylvania, so why deal with the excess bulk? That's what we'll be doing when we carry either the large Sibley guide or this one into the woods or marsh.

The large Sibley Guide weighs 2 ˝ pounds. The Smithsonian Guide weighs 2 pounds (I weighed them both on accurate culinary scales). That's slightly too much for comfort in the field even if your pocket is big enough. Hearty souls might carry the Smithsonian guide in a day pack or, in a new and innovative piece of birding attire called "Big Pockets". The outer dimensions of The Smithsonian Guide are: 8" x 6" x 1 Ľ".

Which field guides DO I see during outings of experienced birders? In addition to the large Sibley guide, there are only four which are used 98% of the time:

A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America
(Peterson, essentially divided into two separate volumes, "eastern" and "western")

The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America
(divided into two separate volumes, eastern" and "western")

National Geographic Field Guide To The Birds Of North America, 4th Edition

A Guide to Field Identification: Birds of North America
("Golden Field Guide")

I use The Peterson Field Guide and my wife uses the National Geographic Field Guide. I think that many of us have stayed with the Peterson guide for no better reason than the fact that it's been a real workhorse and a good friend over many years of hobbyist birding. However, we always carry the large Sibley guide in the car as a back-up reference and now, we will additionally be carrying along the Smithsonian Field Guide. And here's a good place to point out the unique Hallmark Feature of the Smithsonian Field Guide: IT HAS INCORPORATED ACTUAL PHOTOS OF ALL THE BIRDS! All the others rely solely on artwork of the birds so having actual photos is going to be a great advantage and probably offers the chief reason as to why folks should keep it close at hand on birding trips.

Here are my criteria for selecting a birding field guide. I have also rendered the "answers" as to how the Smithsonian Field Guide fits into these criteria:

1. size (will it fit in a large pocket or daypack?) - daypack, but not cargo pants pockets.

2. photos, art (color?), or line drawings? - actual photographs, from 1-5 photos per species.

3. quality of bird descriptions - superb!

4. illustrated "field marks" included? (these are little marks on the drawings to direct the birder's attention to significant nuances of each bird species' appearance) - no.

5. are both Spring and Fall plumages illustrated? (most important with warbler species and certain shorebirds) - not very much.

6. juvenile birds illustrated? - quite a bit, especially where it's important.

7. font size and type (straight-forward and big enough to read easily?) - a little dicey but readable.

8. binding types (softcover versions are always best in the field) - softcover.

9. credentials of the author(s)/illustrator(s) - superb.

10. water resistant/waterproof binding and/or pages? - yes.

11. pleasing format/layout? (this varies widely from guide to guide and is subjective from one person to another). - yes, quite usable and pleasing, not confusing.

12. terminology (technical or common terminology?) - anyone can understand, plus book includes a glossary of terms.

13. range maps included? (very important for new birders!) - yes, including winter, year-round, breeding, migration, and "rare" range maps.

14. migration route maps included? - refer to regular range maps.

15. a "fast" index? (this is difficult to determine in advance because it's a subjective evaluation, varying with individuals -- this involves how fast one can locate a bird drawing/description, utilizing the index to refer to the page on which it is featured) - yes, and it includes a second "quick index" which is a very nice feature.

16. price? (the least important consideration) - very reasonable for the high quality of this publication.

No field guide offers the "best of everything" for two specific reasons:

1. The book would become a tome which, in itself, would totally disqualify it as a field guide. Remember, the first purpose of any field guide is to help the user to IDENTIFY something - so, you don't need a "life history" or any other field use impedimenta.

2. No two birders could ever agree on what is "best"!

The Smithsonian Field Guide also features a birder's checklist (life-list, in the back of the book) which can be maintained as one "collects" sightings of each species. Also, secured inside the rear cover is a "birdsong DVD" which will be equally useful to experienced birders and to newbies of this great pastime as well. Be advised that if your DVD player represents older technology (as mine does) this disc will read out as "incompatible" with your player. My five year-old computer rejected it as well. A final nice feature of the Smithsonian guide is that each bird's status is noted by the ABA coding system, a device for conveying chiefly the abundance of any particular bird. I don't recall seeing this caveat in any other field guide, albeit, in a few years this feature will render the book out-of-date as the status of individual bird species change.

My career has been that of a State Park Ranger, State Game Protector, Federal Game Warden, and Instructor of Natural Resources at the local university. As a consequence of that professional exposure, in addition to my numerous informal bird outings, I have met hundreds of great birders and have had the singular privilege of discussing the frequent topic of field guides with them. Other than binoculars, no piece of equipment or accessory is more important to a birder than his or her field guide.

In summary, I award Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars A class act
I liked the classy page design beautiful pictures and quality of paper used. So far my favorite guide to USA birds. Looking for a smaller guide now for east coast . Read more
Published 2 months ago by Trevor
4.0 out of 5 stars Good basic guide
This is a nice book for the novice birder or people that are just curious about the birds they see in nature (like me). Read more
Published 2 months ago by Oleander
4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Bird Guide
I was looking for an American Bird guide with lots of pictures, and this was a good fit. It has lots of helpful information and a good index which makes it easier to use than some... Read more
Published 5 months ago by WendyCat
5.0 out of 5 stars happy
I just love this book. Had a friend that recommended it and getting this book for the price listed made me very HAPPY!
Published 9 months ago by darcy
5.0 out of 5 stars Great resource!
Great book with lots of pictures. I had a copy of my own, but my mother liked this one better than some she had and requested one for her birthday. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Connie Horst
5.0 out of 5 stars NOW, this is the BOOK to HAVE
We are Birders - was shown this Book by a friend and immediately ordered. We keep out on our Deck. Great detailed real pictures, no drawings.
Published 20 months ago by DC
5.0 out of 5 stars Bird Book
Purchased this book for my 7 year old niece who also received binoculars for her birthday. She loved the book and has now become an avid bird watcher. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Dr J
4.0 out of 5 stars Birds, Birds, Birds
This was a gift for the wife and she loved it. It came sooner than when expected. Thanks for the service.
Published 23 months ago by Robert Bansept
5.0 out of 5 stars A favorite among my collection of bird books
The Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America is a favorite among my numerous bird books. Read more
Published 23 months ago by S. J. Cowan
4.0 out of 5 stars The disc with bird sounds is worth the price by itself!
The overall contents of the book makes it just another fair book about birds but the disc included with multiple bird sounds makes it worth buying.
Published on October 17, 2010 by Ricardo Reynoso
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