Field Guides
References for North and Central American Birds

Books on Birds

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 More than 10 years in the making, David Sibley's Guide to Birds is a monumental achievement. The beautiful watercolor illustrations (6,600, covering 810 species in North America) and clear, descriptive text place Sibley and his work squarely in the tradition of John James Audubon and Roger Tory Peterson; more than a birdwatcher and evangelizer, he is one of the foremost bird painters and authorities in the U.S. Still, his field guide will no doubt spark debate. Unlike Kenn Kaufman's Focus Guide, Sibley's is unapologetically aimed at the converted. Beginning birders may want to keep a copy of Sibley at home as a reference, but the wealth of information will have the same effect on novices as trying to pick out a single sandpiper in a wheeling flock of thousands. The familiar yellow warbler, for instance, gets no less than nine individual illustrations documenting its geographic, seasonal, and sex variations--plus another eight smaller illustrations showing it in flight. Of course, more experienced birders will appreciate this sort of detail, along with Sibley's improvements on both Peterson and the National Geographic guide.
 

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by David Allen Sibley

Not to be confused with standard field guides to birds, this
far-reaching companion to last year's The Sibley Guide to Birds
complements the best of those avian catalogues that birders take along
on their quests for more species to add to their "life lists." Here, the
editors have compiled essays from leading ornithologists on bird
anatomy, ethology and behavior to round out bird-watchers'
knowledge. This National Audubon Society publication details the 80
families of birds found in North America, with hundreds of Sibley's
acclaimed full-color paintings, maps, charts and illustrations. Topics
range from the familiar migration, feeding, mating, nesting to the
esoteric, including feather structure, eye configuration, DNA
classification, evolution, hybridization and much more. 
 

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National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America : Revised and Updated 
by Jon L. Dunn (Paperback - April 1999)

 The field reference of choice for serious birders since its inception, the third edition has been updated to reflect new bird ranges in North America as well as the always controversial reclassifications of species and subspecies. The expanded text includes even more notes on identification, behavior, habitat, and song, while the illustrations--now revised and sharpened--depict individual species in varying plumage, often with habitat cues in the background. Like the first two editions, the guide combines accurate illustrations with useful maps and text in a portable format. Beginners and experts alike will flock to this handy field guide. 
 

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A Field Guide to Western Birds : A Completely New Guide to Field Marks of All Species Found in North America West of the 100th Meridian  
(Peterson Field Guides)
by Roger Tory Peterson (Illustrator) 

 The Birder's Bible for more than 60 years, Roger Tory Peterson's
classic Field Guide to Western Birds includes all species found in
North America west of the 100th meridian and north of Mexico.
Featuring the unique Peterson Identification System, Western Birds
contains 165 full-color paintings that show more than 1,000 birds
from 700 species. Summer and winter ranges, breeding grounds, and
other special range data are shown on easy-to-read range maps.
 

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Roger Tory Peterson, one of America's pre-eminent artist-naturalists and arguably the inventor of the field guide, made people love birds like no one since John James Audubon. A Field Guide to the Birds, first published in 1934, remains his most famous and wonderful work. The manual stood instantly apart from the dichotomous keys zoologists used to identify species, since Peterson grouped paintings of related species together and used arrows to, as he explained, "pinpoint the key field marks." This way, watchers could spot birds from a distance and avoid, as he archly put it, "the bird-in-hand characters that the early collectors relied on. In addition to detailed illustrations, Peterson offers charming (and useful) descriptions of each avian citizen's appearance, behavior, voice, and range. There is also priceless anecdotal information, based on decades of field experience, as in this description of the common house sparrow (Passer domesticus): "Familiar to everyone. Sooty city birds often bear little resemblance to clean country males with the black throat, white cheeks, chestnut nape." His transliterations of song are just as quietly marvelous. 
 

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Focus Guide to the Birds of North America 
by Kenn Kaufman, et al (Paperback)

 Beginner or expert, every birder needs a field guide that is accurate, readable, and easy to use. BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA is a back-to-basics guide produced by one of the foremost birding experts, with a clear and direct approach to recognizing every North American bird. Kenn Kaufman's innovative technique of combining the best features of photographs and paintings results in the most accurate and helpful images ever to appear in any field guide. The photographs, by some of North America's top nature photographers, are digitally enhanced to illustrate the field marks necessary for quick and easy identification. 

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Stokes Field Guide to Birds : Western Region (Stokes Field Guides)
by Donald Stokes, Lillian Q. Stokes

 From Book News, Inc. , March 1, 1996: Notable for its numerous identification keys including a quick, full-color visual guide to the most common backyard birds, a quick alphabetical index on the inside covers (as well as a complete one within) and a color tab index to bird groups. Superb color photographs include relevant plumage variations.
 

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Stokes Field Guide to Birds : Eastern Region (Stokes Field Guides)
by Donald Stokes, Lillian Q. Stokes

 From Book News, Inc. , March 1, 1996: Notable for its numerous identification keys including a quick, full-color visual guide to the most common backyard birds, a quick alphabetical index on the inside covers (as well as a complete one within) and a color tab index to bird groups. Superb color photographs include relevant plumage variations.
 

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A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America
by Steven N. G. Howell, Sophie Webb

A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America is astonishingly comprehensive, covering the identification, status, and distribution of all 1,070 birds species known from Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, and western Nicaragua. No other book approaches the thoroughness of this unique field guide. Beautifully illustrated with seventy-one color plates and thirty-nine black and white drawings, the guide shows 750 species and includes many plumages never before depicted. With the U.S. birder in mind, the guide also includes birds that can be seen north of the border, showing these American migrants on plates when they could be confused with similar Mexican species, thus enabling the birder to make quick and ready comparisons in the field. And, with readable and fascinating presentations of the natural history of Central American birds, this guide will be welcomed not only by seasoned birders, but by any traveler exploring the rain forests, coastlines, and deserts of Mexico and the Central American isthmus.