When the second edition of The Sibley Guide was published earlier this year, there were clearly some issues with it. The most serious of those was color reproduction on some plates and a light text font that could make it hard to read. But a recently released second printing has corrected those issues. The text is darker, making it easier to read now. The colors also look much better. The most often cited offender was the male Scarlet Tanager, which was clearly not “brilliant red”, as the text notes. The second printing is clearly redder, although not quite as much as it had been in the first edition.
Scarlet Tanager in The Sibley Guides: 1st edition on left; 2nd edition, 1st printing center; 2nd edition, 2nd printing right
So if you’ve held off getting this new Sibley Guide, it’s now safe to buy. The 2nd printings can be identified by locating the text “Second printing, July 2014” on the page after the title page. I haven’t yet seen the new ones in a store, but you can get one now from Buteo Books.
Posted by Grant McCreary on December 23rd, 2014.
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