Stokes Beginner's Guide to Bats

by Kim Williams

The Stokes Beginners Guides, intended for beginning nature lovers of all ages, offer a wealth of identification and behavior information in a portable pocket-sized format. Illustrated throughout with full-color photographs and range maps, each Beginners Guide is organized according to the Stokes easy-to-use and popular color-tab system. Acclaimed bird and nature authorities, Donald and Lillian Stokes have written more than 22 books. They divide their time between Carlisle, Massachusetts, and Sanibel, Florida.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Field Guides, Reference

Paperback

First published April 29, 2002

Reviews

[Robert Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great introductory field guide to the bats of North America. It's important, though, to recognize what it is and what it is not before you purchase it. It is primarily a field guide intended to aid the beginner in identifying a wide variety of bat species (specifically those found in the United States). It is not an informational text that provides great detail on bat behavior, ecology, conservation, etc.

More general information is not absent from the book, however. An introductory section of about forty pages provides a nice introduction to the very basics of bats, their ecology, their benefits to human communities, and so forth. This section makes for excellent reading if you're curious about bats but don't actually know very much about them yet, though the reader interested in this book's primary function as a field guide probably already knows most of the information provided.

The bulk of the book is not the sort of thing you're likely to read cover to cover. Instead, it's an extremely well-indexed and quite well-illustrated (with decent maps and amazing photographs) field guide that you'll want to reference from time to time as you watch the bats in your region. An index at the back of the book is quite helpful for identifying which bats are most commonly found in which states and the identifying information for each species ranges from basic physical descriptions to broad behavioral descriptions (helpfully illustrated symbolically), to even information regarding each species' echolocation frequency for those readers who might want to invest in a bat detector.

I would heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in watching bats and even to those merely interested in reading some facts and looking at some attractive photographs of our only flying mammalian cousins.

[Shelby A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty good beginners introduction to bats of North America

[Jake Watmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bats! I love bats, and this guide from the famous Stoker's tells me all I need to know about every bat apices in the states and Canada.

[Karlissa J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A handy guide for those who are interested in learning about the bats in the Canadians' or Americans' backyard. I find it particularly helpful that the entry for each species includes an "In Flight" description, providing details on the bats' usual flight patterns. Since most of the bats I've seen have been in motion, that's a worthwhile feature! The book is attractively designed as well, with quality photos and icons for where the bats fly and roost.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great for anyone traveling and wants to see bats. It is great for researching which species of bat lives in which region of the United States. The pages are easily read and it is easy and quick to find information about their roosting habits and sites, diets, migrations etc. Great book!