National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southwestern States: Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah (Audubon Field Guide) (Turtleback)

~ NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Filled with concise descriptions and stunning photographs, the National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southwestern States belongs in the home of every resident of the Southwest and in the suitcase or backpack of every visitor. This compact volume contains:

An easy-to-use field guide for identifying 1,000 of the state's wildflowers, trees, mushrooms, mosses, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, butterflies, mammals, and much more;

A complete overview of the southwestern region's natural history, covering geology, wildlife habitats, ecology, fossils, rocks and minerals, clouds and weather patterns, and the night sky;

An extensive sampling of the area's best parks, preserves, mountains, forests, and wildlife sanctuaries, with detailed descriptions and visitor information for 50 sites and notes on dozens of others.

The guide is packed with visual information -- the 1,500 full-color images include more than 1,300 photographs, 9 maps, and 16 night-sky charts, as well as more than 100 drawings explaining everything from geological processes to the basic features of different plants and animals.

For everyone who lives or spends time in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, or Utah, there can be no finer guide to the area's natural surroundings than the National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southwestern States.

From the Inside Flap

Filled with concise descriptions and stunning photographs, the National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southwestern States belongs in the home of every resident of the Southwest and in the suitcase or backpack of every visitor. This compact volume contains:

An easy-to-use field guide for identifying 1,000 of the state's wildflowers, trees, mushrooms, mosses, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, butterflies, mammals, and much more;

A complete overview of the southwestern region's natural history, covering geology, wildlife habitats, ecology, fossils, rocks and minerals, clouds and weather patterns, and the night sky;

An extensive sampling of the area's best parks, preserves, mountains, forests, and wildlife sanctuaries, with detailed descriptions and visitor information for 50 sites and notes on dozens of others.

The guide is packed with visual information -- the 1,500 full-color images include more than 1,300 photographs, 9 maps, and 16 night-sky charts, as well as more than 100 drawings explaining everything from geological processes to the basic features of different plants and animals.

For everyone who lives or spends time in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, or Utah, there can be no finer guide to the area's natural surroundings than the National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southwestern States.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Turtleback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (September 21, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067944680X
• ISBN-13: 978-0679446804
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 3.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #160,001 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great overviews of natural history, November 29, 1999

By A Customer

I love this series! I've singled out Southwestern just because I've been there recently and will be there again soon, but my comments here are more directed to the series as a whole.

These books are a wonderful introduction to natural history and identification. The information, though very condensed, is much more enjoyably presented here than it was in many a dull college "-ology" course. Overall, I agree with the New England guide publisher's comments about the series as a beginning to a more in-depth appreciation of natural history.

My gripes--and they are very small in comparison to the general usefulness and many great aspects of the guides--are actually with the comprehensiveness, which in some cases may lead to misidentification or confusion. It seems that the most common, conspicuous, and obvious species are generally included (good!), but there are some additions which might better have been excluded, or at least qualified: is the average person really going to be able to correctly identify, say, blue or skipper butterflies (only a couple of species included) or Brewer's and winter Chipping sparrows with the information in this book? The tougher ID's involved here take more skill and experience than the average person is likely to have, and the guide usually doesn't even caution the reader that this is so. I think it would have been better to at least alert the reader (in the proper places) that not all ID's are easy and that even experts sometimes have trouble, et cetera, just to clear things up. The only place I've yet noticed anything like this caution is the gulls ("confusing array of plumages").

Also there is the typical Audubon focus on adult males of species, while neglecting females and immatures, although this is more forgivable here than in the more specific guides--there just isn't room to cover everything here.

So, while I think it's marvelous that these guides will help so many people develop an understanding of, interest in, and love for the natural world, perhaps even more written emphasis on the variety and complexity of nature would have been better as an alert that, while the common and easier-to-ID species are included, many more species are out there to challenge us after we've acquired more in-depth knowledge.

I can't wait to return to the Southwest and use this great guide to help acquaint me with its wonders.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars buy this book..., October 11, 1999

By	Mike Ricciuti (Somerville, MA United States) - See all my reviews

if you plan to visit the southwest and spend any time outdoors. Indispensable for hiking trips, but equally useful for finding national parks, etc. Full of interesting info on geology, history, and, of course, wildlife. Top-notch printing and it's well written, too....

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you can only take one field guide on your vacation..., May 23, 2003

By	Book at Me Now (Florida) - See all my reviews

this is the one to take! Like carrying a park ranger in your backpack to help you know what you are looking at. Trees and wildflowers, animals of the land, sky and water, minerals, stars of the night sky. Increase your knowledge and understanding of the beautiful places you visit and your own backyard. Check out the Audubon Field Guides to Florida and other regions as well. Well worth the money. Lots of color photographs and well organized for easy use.