Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Second Edition

This is the most complete North American field guide there is. It illustrates every bird ever observed in North America, even extinct species and those observed only once (in which case the bird is shown in the observed plumage). North American birders may not want to have *only* this guide, but

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they will definitely want to have this guide.

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Wide variability in the quality of artists' plates. Sibley Guides are far superior

Excellent illustrations of each bird, including male and female as well as juvenile. There are illustrations of the birds in flight as well as on the ground. Maps on each page, show their range, so that you know immediately by your location if you might be looking at the correct bird.

My favorite birding guide book. It has great pictures and descriptions. The blurbs with the range maps is fantastic and it has a lot of incidental species to South Texas (at least) that a lot of guide books lack since they are not "common enough", I guess.

There's a handy checklist in the back if

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you want to check off species as you see them, but since I'm a much more casual birder, I just write in the white space next to the bird where and when I saw it for the first time.

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Great, if dated, field guide. This, the second edition, was published in 1987. Subsequent printings may have lead this book to be listed as having a publication date of 1999, but that doesn't mean the information in this book was current even in 1999. Several birds have been re-named and

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re-categorized (e.g. Green-backed heron listed is actually now recognized as two species: the Green Heron in North America and the Striated Heron in central and south America.) Range maps are dated.

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This is an excellent reference book, invaluable for both the novice and expert birder. The brief but informative introduction is well written and well illustrated. The thumb tabs for the major bird families help speed access to the desired species. The individual descriptions of species include an

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overview, range maps and data, voice characteristics, and clear, colorful illustrations. My only gripe is that the book is a bit too big and cumbersome, for me at least, to comfortably use out in the field.

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A bird watcher's must have field guide to capture every bird you see by detailed paintings, check boxes for bird previously seen. And, information by type and what other birds tend to mix in season or during migration. The fine quality one expects from National Geographic.

nonfiction/bird guide illustrated with color paintings and helpful range maps

found this old 4th ed (2002) in the used pile and picked it up to help with my casual (very amateur) birding. As mentioned in other reviews, the names and taxonomies of various species are updated annually so some of this

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info will be out of date, but then again climate change probably makes even the newest editions out of date. Supplementing with eBird resources (online and app) as well as Cornell's Merlin app (for identifying songs and calls by sound, since most birds are hard to actually spot) helps a lot.

My edition doesn't have thumb tabs, but there is a handy "Quick-find" index at the back of the book to point to relevant pages.

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