The Crossley ID Guide: Waterfowl
by Richard Crossley, Paul Baicich, and Jessie Barry
From Crossley Books:
The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds, published in 2011, revolutionized birding and books by providing the first real-life approach to ID. The Crossley ID Guide: Waterfowl, the fourth of these user-friendly guides, is for both hunters and birders.
Unlike other guides, which provide isolated individual photographs or paint illustrations, this book features large, lifelike scenes that are ‘painted in pixels.’ Nearly 300 pages of waterfowl scenes – showing waterfowl in a wide range of views – near and far, from different angles, in various plumages and behaviors, including flight, and in the habitat in which they live. These beautiful compositions show how a bird’s appearance changes with distance, and give equal emphasis to characteristics experts use to identify birds: size, structure and shape, behavior, probability, and color. This is the first book to convey all of these features visually – in a single image – and to reinforce them with accurate text. Each scene provides a wealth of detailed visual information that invites and rewards careful study.
By making identification easier, more accurate, and more fun than ever before, The Crossley ID Guides redefine how readers look at nature. Essential for anyone interested in waterfowl, it also promises to make new birders of many people who have despaired of using traditional guides.
This waterfowl guide also carries a strong underlying conservation message. If all the readers of this book come together as one, we can better protect the things we love.
- Covers all of North America’s ducks, geese, and swans
- More than 5,000 photos in Crossley-style scenes – seen near and far, from different angles, and in various plumages and behaviors, including flight
- Includes other wildlife, beautiful scenery, and wing cutouts. Good teachers are fun, create
reaction, and are interesting!- Lots of mystery photos to challenge you
- Painting with pixels, rather than a paint brush, created apples to apples imagery
- Friendly, interactive writing style, cutting-edge ID, conservation, fun facts… and everything between
I’m a big fan of the Crossley ID Guides (if you’re not familiar with them, see my reviews of his guides to Eastern NA and Raptors). They’re excellent “workbooks”, as the author calls them, designed to help you learn the bird before going into the field. This latest volume on the ducks, geese, and swans of North America is no exception. There are tons of images, including the mystery plates that I love so much, and a surprising amount of information.
The Crossley ID Guide: Waterfowl
by Richard Crossley, Paul Baicich, and Jessie Barry
Flexibound; 510 pages
Crossley Books; June 22, 2017
ISBN: 9780692900352
$39.95
Posted by Grant McCreary on September 22nd, 2017.
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