Features

When I got into birding, I jumped in with both feet. I wanted to find out what this birding thing was all about. But how? What comes after the binoculars and field guide?

As with most any pursuit, birders need knowledge and desire to progress beyond beginner status. The desire is the “easy” part – you have to want to get better, and be willing to put in the work to do so (and it does take work). But how do you get the knowledge? There is no substitute for field experience. But even so, you can only progress so far and so fast on your own. The help of a more experienced birder is crucial. Unfortunately, they’re not always around every time you need them! Thank goodness for the collected experience and wisdom available in books. Here are a few selections that will greatly aid beginners (or anyone, for that matter) in their quest to become a better birder.

• Pete Dunne on Bird Watching: The How-to, Where-to, and When-to of Birding
  Pete Dunne

  After binoculars and field guide, this is the next thing every prospective birder should have. Dunne provides many tips and suggestions, but more than anything else, he clearly introduces what this birding thing is all about, from birdfeeding to pelagic trips. As a bonus, you get all of this with the author’s trademark wit and humor. This is more than a treasure trove of information from one of our foremost birders, it’s also a fun read.

• The Complete Birder: A Guide to Better Birding
  Jack Connor

  Even though this is older and out-of-print, it’s worth tracking down. There is a little overlap with the other books, but also provides an overview of birding seasons and some difficult families like warblers and gulls. Personal anecdotes and lively writing keep this interesting.

• National Geographic Birding Essentials
  Jonathan Alderfer and Jon L. Dunn

  This covers more technical, but still crucial, topics than Dunne and Connor, such as the parts of a bird and molt. It is profusely illustrated with great color photos to exemplify the concepts.

• Sibley’s Birding Basics
  David Allen Sibley

  This is a great guide, but contrary to the title, I think intermediate and even advanced birders will get more out of this than beginners. If the rest of these books haven’t satiated your desire for birding know-how, then turn here next.

• Good Birders Don’t Wear White: 50 Tips From North America’s Top Birders
  Lisa White

  There are some good, helpful tips here. But the scattershot approach means that it isn’t very comprehensive. It’s worth a read, but preferably after one of the prior books. (Full Review)

• Birding
  Joseph Forshaw, Steve Howell, Terence Lindsey, Rich Stallcup

  I found a prior edition of this in a bookstore’s bargain book section just after I started birding. It was surprisingly helpful. The introduction to birding, including the tools and other items you will need, is really good. Not as in-depth as some of these other books, but I found myself referring to it often.

• Birding Lite: A Humorous How-to Guide for All Who Enjoy Watching Birds
  Stan Dryden

  A good option for those who are curious about bird watching or just getting into it. They will find the information required to get started presented in a fun, though shallow, manner. But if you’re already sure that birding is for you, then one of these other options will be more helpful, particularly Dunne or National Geographic. (Full Review)

For the most part, these books won’t help you identify a particular bird. But they will give you a firm foundation to make quicker and more accurate identifications. What’s more, they will help you better enjoy and get more out of the pursuit of bird watching.

My wife and I enjoy visiting the US National Parks. She enjoys photographing the outdoors, and the parks are a great place for that. And for me there are always birds. And as anyone who’s watched the Ken Burns’ documentary knows, the parks are just fantastic places.

When looking at a map of the parks across the country, it’s hard to avoid noticing the area of the Colorado Plateau, the region encompassing southern Utah, northern Arizona, and western Colorado. It stands out because there are seven national parks there, relatively close to each other. Proceeding counter-clockwise from the south, as we would be visiting them, they are Grand Canyon in Arizona; Mesa Verde in southwest Colorado; and Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, and Zion in Utah. Collectively, this route is known as the Grand Circle.

It’s July, so it’s already time to get out there and look for shorebirds on their southbound migration. In fact, there have already been a couple reports of Upland Sandpipers here in Georgia. But this group of birds can be notoriously difficult to identify. So when you head out to the nearest beach, sod farm, or sewage treatment plant, you may want to take a specialized identification guide with you. But which one?

Here, I will be comparing the four most recent guides that cover North American shorebirds. However, two of them also cover Europe and Asia, and the other two, although focused on North America, would also be useful elsewhere.

	The Shorebird Guide	Shorebirds of North America: The Photographic Guide	Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia: A Photographic Guide	Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia: A Guide to Field Identification
Author	Michael O’Brien, Richard Crossley, Kevin Karlson	Dennis Paulson	Richard Chandler	Stephen Message and Don Taylor
Publish date	April, 2006	January, 2005	July, 2009	March, 2006
Price (MSRP)	$24.95	$29.95	$35.00	$35.00
Size (width x height x thickness)	6″ x 9″ x 1 3/8″	5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ x 1″	6 1/8″ x 9 1/4″ x 1 1/8″	6 1/8″ x 9 1/4″ x 1/2″
# pages	496	384	448	224
# species	91	94	134	124
Illustrations	Photos	Photos	Photos	Paintings
Account/Plate layout	Two sections: 1st has photos, with limited text and maps; 2nd has species accounts	Everything in each species account	Everything in each species account	Two sections: 1st has plates on the right (multiple species), with some text on the facing page; 2nd has species accounts, with maps, more text, and shows the bird in flight
Range maps	Color; breeding, winter, resident, and migration (with two shades to show relative abundance)	NONE	Color; breeding, winter, resident	Color; breeding, winter, resident
Species accounts	Status Taxonomy Behavior Migration Molt Vocalizations (Photo section also has short notes on Size, Structure, Behavior, and Status)	Size Plumages Subspecies Hybrids Identification In Flight Voice Behavior Habitat Range	Identification Ageing (with separate descriptions of each age class) Call Status, Habitat, and Distribution Racial Variation and Hybridization Similar Species References	Key ID Features Behavior Flight Action Voice Distribution Confusion Species

Recommendation

So, given all of these choices, which one should you get? Well, none of them are actually bad, and any would be helpful shorebirding. But in case you don’t want to carry around four shorebird guides, here are my thoughts on them.

I would immediately rule out Message/Taylor. I prefer general field guides that use paintings, but I think photographs work better for shorebirds. Plus, I just don’t care for most of the illustrations here. Some, admittedly, are pretty good. But most just look bad to me. I think it’s because the painter attempts to show the feathers in too great of detail. Personally, I just don’t care for that.

The Paulson and Chandler photographic guides are very similar in their approach and layout. The photographs are of similar quality. On average, Paulson includes just a bit more photos per species, but the ones in Chandler are larger. Chandler includes many more species, but this is largely irrelevant to North American birders since they both contain all of the birds likely to be seen here. I love the formatting and layout of Chandler’s guide; of the two, it just looks much better. After going back and forth between them, I think I prefer the newer guide from Chandler.

But there is no doubt in my mind that The Shorebird Guide is not only the best guide for shorebirds, it is the best family-specific guide that I have seen. The authors emphasize birding by impression (aka “jizz” or “giss”-based identification). They point out field marks that the others either do not mention, or bury in the text. And the photos are simply amazing! The thing I like best about this guide is that many of the photos show birds of different species together, with the captions helping to point out the differences. This is supremely helpful in learning these birds, but none of the other guides do this. Every North American birder (and probably any birder in the Northern Hemisphere) needs to have this book. It’s that good. (It also happens to be the cheapest!)

But really, can you have too many guides to shorebirds?

Full Reviews

• The Shorebird Guide
• Shorebirds of North America: The Photographic Guide
• Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia: A Photographic Guide

The most important bird books may not be the latest and greatest field guides, or the bird-finding guide to that birding mecca you’ve always wanted to visit. It may very well be books for kids. They can be instrumental in imparting a life-long love for the natural world. They were for me.

A fellow Georgia birder, Dan Vickers, has graciously allowed me to reprint his recommendations for bird books for children from an article he wrote for the Georgia Ornithological Society. Here are his suggestions, along with some of my own:

Children Ages 2-5

• Good-Night, Owl!
  Pat Hutchins
  1990, 32 pages, Color

  This is one of the all-time favorite children’s books. All poor Owl wants to do is sleep, but he keeps being awakened by the other noisy occupants of the forest.

• Owl Babies
  Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson
  2002, 32 pages, Color

  Wonderful illustrations showcase this story of three owlets awaiting their mother’s return from her night’s hunt.

• Make Way for Ducklings
  Robert McCloskey
  1941, 68 pages, Color

  This classic story of a mother’s devotion has fascinated children for generations. McCloskey received the Caldecott award for his illustrations.
  

• Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
  Mo Willems
  2003, 40 pages, Color

  Kids love this wonderful tale of a pigeon trying to convince a busload of people (and the reader) to let him drive the bus after the driver steps off for a break.

Children Ages 4-8

• The Burgess Bird Book for Children
  Thornton W Burgess
  2003, 272 pages, Black and White

  A creative story about the feathered friends such as Jenny Wren, Redwing the Blackbird, Melody the Wood Thrush, Spooky the Screech Owl, Creaker the Purple Grackle, and Downy the Woodpecker.

• Song for the Whooping Crane
  Eileen Spinelli and Elsa Warnick
  2000, 48 pages, Color

  Visually and poetically captivating, this ode to the most celebrated endangered species of our time will stir an environmental awareness in any child.

• Birds, Nests, & Eggs
  Mel Boring
  1998, 48 pages, Color

  ID tips on 15 birds and the homes they build. This book contains a series of activities, 7 pages for notes or scrapbooking, and numerous safety tips.

• Owls
  Adrienne Mason
  2004, 32 pages, Color

  Easy-to-read with plenty of detailed descriptions of the owls and how they live, eat, and hunt.

• About Birds: A Guide for Children
  Cathryn Sill
  1997, 40 pages, Color

  Various North American species are illustrated in this beginner’s guide to birds. Lots of basic information is followed by an afterward which lists more detailed life histories.

• Backyard Birds (Peterson Field Guides for Young Naturalists)
  Jonathan Latimer, Karen Stray Nolting, and Roger Tory Peterson
  1999, 48 pages, Color

  A first field guide for your young birder, it describes 20 common birds as only a Peterson Field Guide could.

• Beginning Birdwatcher’s Book: With 48 Stickers
  Sy Barlowe
  2000, 32 pages, Color

  Kids can record sightings of 48 common North American birds, with sticker images, and notes on location, date and any remarks.

• Bird Log: A Kids Journal to Record Their Birding Experiences
  Deanna Bryant
  1998, 80 pages

  This is a log book for children to record their sightings. It provides observation questions to help fill in the information.

Children Ages 9+

• The Young Birder’s Guide to Birds of Eastern North America (Peterson Field Guides)
  Bill Thompson, III and illustrated by Julie Zickfoose
  2008, 256 pages, Color, Paperback

  This new Peterson Field Guide, written just for kids, gives detailed descriptions and vivid illustrations of 200 birds in Eastern North America.

• The Last Egret (The Adventures of Charlie Pierce)
  Harvey E. Oyer III
  2010, 168 pages, some black-and-white drawings

  A wonderful adventure story in which Charlie Pierce learns the value of birds and nature. This is a great introduction to the idea of conservation. (Full Review)

• For the Birds: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson
  Peggy Thomas (Author) and Laura Jacques (Illustrator)
  2011, 43 pages, color paintings, hardcover

  This book is worth it just for the gorgeous illustrations. But it also tells the story of Roger Tory Peterson’s life (he of the field-guide fame), while encouraging children to pay attention to nature and the birds around them. That makes this a great book for kids ages eight and up.

Thanks, Dan!

Author extraordinaire Pete Dunne was the keynote speaker at this year’s Colonial Coast Birding and Nature Festival, held annually on Jekyll Island, Georgia. It was a blast to hear him speak, and even more so to bird with him. It is with complete honesty that I say that if I could write (or bird) like anyone, it would be Pete Dunne. Thus, it was an honor (and a bit intimidating!) to be able to sit down and ask him a couple of questions.

Your next book, Prairie Spring, will be published next year. Can you tell us a little about it?
It’s part of a four-part series. The focus is not the season, the season is just a carriage. The focus is actually the overlap of humans and the natural world. The season is a common ground that most people can relate to.

You’ve written about your beginnings as a birder. But how did you become a writer?
It began just about the same time. I think I started to write my first book about birds when I was in the second grade. The name of the book was Turk: The Story of a Hawk. I stopped it when I realized on page one that I was actually plagiarizing the story called Rufous Redtail, which is also a wonderful book.

Do you ever want to write about something other than birds? Perhaps a novel?
I wish I had a novel in me. If I do, it’s deeply hidden. I’d love to write a novel, I think it would be incredible fun to be able to just weave a story out of air. But I actually write a great deal about things that are not birds; I write a great deal about people. I think one of the things I try to do with my writing is to write about the junction of people and the natural world. So this book series that I’ve started is just a continuation of something that I’ve been doing for a long time.

Many of your columns are obviously fictional. But there are some that have left me wondering whether they really happened or not. What percentage of the situations you’ve written about happened as you wrote them?
I’d say that very few of them happened exactly that way. The great thing about writing fictional accounts, even if they have foundation in fact, is that you can embellish.

There’s one in particular that I have to ask about – did some random birder at Cape May really want to find a Semi-palmated Plover for you? (as told in More Tales of a Low-Rent Birder)
Yes, that really did happen. He was a very nice guy.

Many times, you write from the bird’s perspective, such as in The Wind Masters. How do you do that so well?
I don’t know. I’d love to tell you that writing is hard, but it’s not. If you have a good idea, it writes itself. If you have a bad idea, two days later you have 3500 words on paper and you still have a bad idea.

Any chance for more books like Wind Masters, but with other groups of birds?
There’s actually elements of that in the series I’m doing right now. For instance, in Prairie Spring I have a conversation with a painted horse.

It seems to me that a proportionally high number of top-notch birders are also exceptional writers. There’s yourself, Kenn Kaufman, and Scott Weidensaul, just to name a few. Does it seem that way to you as well?
I think that maybe we’re simply the ones that because we’re accomplished communicators, that we’re known. I’m sure that there are very, very skilled birders out there on par with Kenn and David (Sibley) who might not be well known. But they’re still very good birders. I think in every endeavor communication is fundamental, no matter what you do.

Before your Field Guide Companion, it would have been hard to imagine an identification guide with absolutely no illustrations. How was your concept of it initially received?
I think the concept was very warmly received. Houghton-Mifflin (the publisher) is a wonderful house, and Lisa White (the editor) is a great person to work with. But I think the bloom was off the rose when I turned in my manuscript and it was four times longer than anticipated! They published it very much as it was written, but the original concept was for a much shorter book. It was a tale that grew in the telling.

Anything else in the works that you can talk about?
A couple collections of essays. And I’m never short of ideas, there’s a whole wall of books that I would love to write someday. I will never finish a project where I won’t have five or six other ideas vying for my attention.

Many thanks to Pete for being gracious enough to consent to this interview even when he wasn’t feeling well, and for enduring it even though I am without a doubt the worst interviewer that he has ever had to suffer through. I wish him luck in writing that wall of books that he wants to write, because I want to read them even more.

August of 2008 marks the centennial of the birth of Roger Tory Peterson, one of the 20th century’s most influential people. To commemorate the event, Houghton Mifflin is publishing a new version of Peterson’s field guide to birds, a book whose importance to birding and conservation cannot be overstated. This volume combines the previously separate field guides to eastern and western birds of North America, and is thus the first edition of the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America.

However, this new book is more than just the merger of the two regional guides. There are new features, species added and removed, and updates to all facets of the previous work. I will try to describe all of this in detail, as mentioned below.

On this page you will find links to everything I post concerning this guide. The coverage starts with a first look at the guide itself, as well as a couple of plates so that you can see some changes for yourself. A detailed list of changes will follow. Finally, a full review will be posted.

More Coverage:

• First Look – a quick look at the guide and some changes
• List of Changes to the Plates – I have compared the plates of this new guide with the latest editions of the Eastern and Western regional guides
• The Full Review

	Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America	National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Birds of North America	Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America	Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern AND Western*	National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds – Eastern Region**
Author	Ted Floyd	Edward S. Brinkley	Kenn Kaufman	Donald and Lillian Stokes	John Bull and John Farrand, Jr.
Publish date	May, 2008	May, 2007	September, 2000***	1996	September, 1994
Price (MSRP)	$24.95	$19.95	$18.95	$17.99	$19.95
Size (width x height x thickness)	6″ x 8″ x 1 1/4″	4 3/4″ x 7 3/4″ x 1 3/8″	4 3/4″ x 7 3/4″ x 3/4″	5″ x 8 1/8″ x 7/8″; 5″ x 8 3/8″ x 1″	4″ x 7 1/2″ x 1 1/4″
Weight	2 lb. (with disc and booklet removed)	1 lb., 13 oz	1 lb., 1 oz	1 lb., 5 oz; 1 lb., 8 oz	1 lb., 4 oz
# pages	522	530	384	496; 544	800
# species	750+	~760	749	unspecified, but I would guess 450; 500	508
Species per page – min/max/avg	1 / 3 / <2	1 / 3 / <2	2 / 8 / >4	1 / 2 / ~1	2 / 3 / ~2.5
Photos per species – min/max/avg	1/ 10 / 2-3	1 / 10 / ~3	1 / 8 / ~2.7	1 / 4 / ~2	1 / 2 / 1.27
Plate layout	Pics and text on same page; species arranged both vertically and horizontally	Pics and text on same page; species arranged horizontally	Birds shown on the right-hand page, with species accounts on facing page	Pics and text on same page	Photographs together in their own section, accounts in back half
Captions	Captions in the margins with sex/age; identification notes; place and time taken	Captions within the image with sex/age and identification notes	Pointers to important field marks, a la Peterson	Captions under each image with sex/age	Captions under each image with sex/age, length, page # for species account
Species order	“closely” follows AOU taxonomic order	AOU taxonomic order, with some modifications to group similar birds	AOU taxonomic order (outdated now), with modifications to group similar birds	AOU taxonomic order (outdated now)	Shape, then by color or pattern
Topography diagrams	Duck, songbird, raptor perched, raptor in flight above and below, gull, shorebird in flight	With both photos and line drawing based on that photo – 2 different perched songbirds, closeup of sparrow’s head, gull in flight both above and below	Songbird, close-up of head, raptor in flight	Songbird, generic underwing	One (very poor) perched songbird
Range maps	Color; breeding, winter, resident, migration, and rare	Color; breeding, winter, resident, migration, and rare	Color; breeding, winter, resident, migration; with lighter shades for all 3 indicating rare	Color; breeding, winter, resident	Black-and-white; breeding, winter, resident
Family intros	Usually a full-page	1/2 – 2 pages	short paragraph – 2 pages	Some of the more difficult to ID families get a 2-page intro	short to mid-sized paragraph
Species accounts	Length, wingspan, and weight Variation (molt, age, sex, seasonal, and other) Habitat and ecology Voice	Length and wingspan in inches and centimeters Habitat and habits Voice	Habitat and habits Identification notes Voice	Identification notes Feeding Nesting Other behavior Habitat Voice Conservation	Description Voice Habitat Nesting Range Various notes

Notes:
* Where the eastern and western editions differ, a semi-colon separates the values, and the eastern data is given first.
** There is also one for the Western region, but I do not have the revised edition so I am not including it here. Originally published in 1977, these guides were revised in 1994. They have been reprinted many times since then with different covers, but as far as I know, the content has not changed.
*** I’ve got the original version with the Scarlet Tanager on the cover. It has since been republished with the cover seen here. I’m not aware of any updates to the content, but there are now 8 more pages. The info here is from the version that I have.

Recommendation

The choice of which field guide to use is highly personal. As long as the guide meets certain requirements, foremost among which is that it actually helps you identify birds, there are no “wrong” choices. Thus, what I say here is only my personal opinion.

Well, there is one wrong choice. Don’t bother with the Audubon field guide. This guide will always have a place on my shelf because it was my first field guide as a kid. But that’s the only reason. The organization just does not work. And while some of the pictures are fantastic, there are not enough of them for most species. Need help with a raptor you saw in flight? This guide won’t help – most raptors are only shown perched.

The Stokes include more kinds of information than the other guides, and the layout is simple and uncluttered. Thus, it is most appropriate for kids or those who may want to look up a bird now and then. It does not include enough illustrations of most species for use as a primary field guide. And, like the Audubon guides, it is too out-of-date in terms of taxonomy.

Of all of these, the Kaufman is probably the best choice for use as a first field guide. It is simple, and for the most part has enough pictures of each species.

The NWF and Smithsonian guides are extremely similar. The species included, number of photos per species, range maps, and layout are almost identical. The Smithsonian is slightly wider, taller, and heavier, but is correspondingly thinner. A bonus DVD of bird songs is also included with the Smithsonian (full review of the Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America). They are both good, and I would recommend either.

The Kaufman, NWF, and Smithsonian are all worthy field guides. Check out those three to see which would be the best for you. Personally, if I could keep just one it would be the Smithsonian. It and the NWF book are both great, but the DVD puts it over the edge for me.

Every year I typically get about a week to go off on a solo birding trip. Earlier this year I was contemplating where to go and basically decided on either Colorado or southern Florida in April. I had never birded in either location; so many lifers awaited me in both places. So I asked another birder for his recommendation. He told me there was absolutely no choice – I had to go to Colorado!