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National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America
A completely revised and updated new edition of the popular birding handbook provides identification tips, full-color artwork, location maps, information on behavior and nesting, and other valuable facts about more than eight hundred North American birds. Original. 100,000 first printing.
464 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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1274 people want to read
About the author
National Geographic Society
4,221 books1,112 followersThe National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world.
Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical conservation, and the study of world culture and history. The National Geographic Society's logo is a yellow portrait frame—rectangular in shape—which appears on the margins surrounding the front covers of its magazines and as its television channel logo. Through National Geographic Partners (a joint venture with The Walt Disney Company), the Society operates the magazine, TV channels, a website, worldwide events, and other media operations.
Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical conservation, and the study of world culture and history. The National Geographic Society's logo is a yellow portrait frame—rectangular in shape—which appears on the margins surrounding the front covers of its magazines and as its television channel logo. Through National Geographic Partners (a joint venture with The Walt Disney Company), the Society operates the magazine, TV channels, a website, worldwide events, and other media operations.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 117 reviews
November 12, 2017
I've gotten very interested in birds this past year, and I wanted to pick up an introductory guide to bird-watching and bird-identifying. Since this edition is from 2002, it is obviously not up to date and entirely accurate, but I was able to use this guide to identify some ducks that swim in the pond next to my dorm, which got me excited. This book has inspired me to take up bird-watching as a hobby, and I'm very excited to take some time out this winter break to lure birds in front of my window with birdseed and try to identify them. It's kind of like Pokemon, almost, except you don't catch them forever, but do get to write down that you've seen several species and keep that list your whole life. This is so much fun. I'm going to use binoculars, too, to look at nests in trees!
February 18, 2022
Finally finished reading this cover-to-cover after a year of about a page a day plus many reread parts as I tried to identify birds. Anyone in North American interested in finding out more about the birds around them should own this book. Great illustrations, great facts, and great insight to help appreciate the world around us.
August 15, 2007
This is my trusty battered, mud stained bird book and I love it. The pictures are detailed, the descriptions short and concise, and there's enough space in the margins for me to write sighting notations.
March 8, 2015
While I haven't actually read through this book from cover to cover (I'm using the sixth edition), it has proven itself extremely useful. I spent quite some time reading about the various field guides online and thought I had decided on the best option. Then I went to our local bookstore to flip through the options they had (including the Sibley, Stokes, Kaufman, and a few other guides), and this one really stood out from the rest. What I love about the book are the quick indexes on the front and back inside covers and the tabs for quick searching. My son and I have been able to identify a few birds in our backyard and it has been really fun to use! The illustrations are also beautiful.
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February 21, 2009I wish I had the newest edition of this book. I've been carrying around this edition for almost 20 years and it is the best guide that I've come across. I have several other guides and I use them to complement this one.
May 16, 2018
I actually have a copy of the 7th Edition of this book.
I am a beginning birder and this volume has proven enormously useful in helping me identify different types of birds that are endemic to my region of the U.S.A. The illustrations are clear and the guide does a really great job at pointing out the subtle differences between species of birds that look very similar, as well as giving seasonal maps of bird migrations. I highly recommend it.
I am a beginning birder and this volume has proven enormously useful in helping me identify different types of birds that are endemic to my region of the U.S.A. The illustrations are clear and the guide does a really great job at pointing out the subtle differences between species of birds that look very similar, as well as giving seasonal maps of bird migrations. I highly recommend it.
November 3, 2018
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 7th Edition, by Jon L. Dunn, Jonathan Alderfer is a very highly recommended fully revised edition of the best-selling North American bird field guide. It is perfect for those just beginning to use a field guide as well as advanced birders. The guide is organized to match the new 2016 American Ornithological Society taxonomy and nomenclature classification system. The 7th edition includes 37 new species for a total of 1,023 species; 16 new pages allow for 250 fresh illustrations; 80 new maps; and 350 map revisions.
National Geographic field guides are the most frequently updated guides around which makes them the most up-to-date guides available. All the art work included was carefully selected and updated where needed. I absolutely loved the detailed illustrations that are hand-painted and represent the most distinctive plumages likely to be encountered in the field. Although I have an irrational love of the photos in an unnamed field guide, I can fully support the much superior choice made by National Geographic guides to use illustrations that do a superior job to accurately depict the various birds for identification purposes.
There is a short quick-find index on the front cover fly-leaf and, with the cover flap open, a visual index of bird families. The visual index continues on the flap of the open back cover. You will find a short table of contents at the front and a complete index in the back. At the start of each family group is an introduction. The information on each bird includes the name and the scientific name; the description and distinctive marks are covered, including juvenile markings, winter plumage, differences between breeding plumage, and males and females; the voice, if pertinent, is described; and the range maps illustrate the range, with the range map symbols explained on the back cover flap. There is also an accidentals/extinct species section at the back.
Back to the illustrations, though, which are the stars, in my opinion, of the National Geographic guides. The left page on the guide is informational, including the range maps, and the right page features the illustrations. The illustrations show the most common identifiable markings of each bird and include the birds in flight whenever that would help with identification.
When my children were young, I always had a wide variety of field guides available for them to use, including birds, plants, trees, animals, etc. National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America would be an excellent addition to any home with children, to help instill that love of birding, as well as for the seasoned birder. There is also a National Geographic Birding App available (based on a previous edition of the field guide) that can help with identification (especially songs), that is a great companion to the updated 7th edition Field Guide. (Bonus: a great field guide doesn't require a charge to use it over long periods of time.)
Jon Dunn, a leading expert on North American birds, was the chief editor and consultant for the first five editions of the National Geographic Field Guides to the Birds of North America, and co-authored the sixth and seventh editions, which gives the guides a consistency. Jonathan Alderfer has been the art consultant and principal general consultant of the field guides since the third edition. He is a principal author and artist of all recent National Geographic birding books, and his name has been on the cover with Dunn’s as co-authors since the Fifth Edition. (I enjoyed watching a video of Alderfer illustrating harlequin ducks online.)
Disclosure: I received a copy of this guide from National Geographic Society for review purposes at TLC Book Tours.
National Geographic field guides are the most frequently updated guides around which makes them the most up-to-date guides available. All the art work included was carefully selected and updated where needed. I absolutely loved the detailed illustrations that are hand-painted and represent the most distinctive plumages likely to be encountered in the field. Although I have an irrational love of the photos in an unnamed field guide, I can fully support the much superior choice made by National Geographic guides to use illustrations that do a superior job to accurately depict the various birds for identification purposes.
There is a short quick-find index on the front cover fly-leaf and, with the cover flap open, a visual index of bird families. The visual index continues on the flap of the open back cover. You will find a short table of contents at the front and a complete index in the back. At the start of each family group is an introduction. The information on each bird includes the name and the scientific name; the description and distinctive marks are covered, including juvenile markings, winter plumage, differences between breeding plumage, and males and females; the voice, if pertinent, is described; and the range maps illustrate the range, with the range map symbols explained on the back cover flap. There is also an accidentals/extinct species section at the back.
Back to the illustrations, though, which are the stars, in my opinion, of the National Geographic guides. The left page on the guide is informational, including the range maps, and the right page features the illustrations. The illustrations show the most common identifiable markings of each bird and include the birds in flight whenever that would help with identification.
When my children were young, I always had a wide variety of field guides available for them to use, including birds, plants, trees, animals, etc. National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America would be an excellent addition to any home with children, to help instill that love of birding, as well as for the seasoned birder. There is also a National Geographic Birding App available (based on a previous edition of the field guide) that can help with identification (especially songs), that is a great companion to the updated 7th edition Field Guide. (Bonus: a great field guide doesn't require a charge to use it over long periods of time.)
Jon Dunn, a leading expert on North American birds, was the chief editor and consultant for the first five editions of the National Geographic Field Guides to the Birds of North America, and co-authored the sixth and seventh editions, which gives the guides a consistency. Jonathan Alderfer has been the art consultant and principal general consultant of the field guides since the third edition. He is a principal author and artist of all recent National Geographic birding books, and his name has been on the cover with Dunn’s as co-authors since the Fifth Edition. (I enjoyed watching a video of Alderfer illustrating harlequin ducks online.)
Disclosure: I received a copy of this guide from National Geographic Society for review purposes at TLC Book Tours.
December 1, 2018
Although we don’t trek out to find illusive species, we are avid bird watchers from our patio. We look for a pair of cardinals to make their way to our platform feeder most every evening. We spy a lone blue jay who secretively makes his way to the feeders when no one seems to be watching. (For some reason, our jay is not aggressive and seems shy.) We watch the aggressive mocking birds chase off the chickadees. It’s an exciting time in the summer mornings when we spot a mallard pair noshing underneath the feeders. The arrival of the juncos marks the beginning of winter for us.
The Field Guide to the Birds of North America boasts “All 1,023 species,” new maps and new illustrations. We’ve found some guidebooks’ illustrations to be pretty lack luster—it’s hard to distinguish colors and sizes. That’s not the case for this seventh edition. The illustrations are realistic and colorful.
The book is categorized by species, families (following the the 2016 NACC guidelines), scientific names, and subspecies. It also describes behavior and voice for identification purposes. Individual maps mark the range. Because it covers all the species of North America, its girth might be a bit much to lug around in a back pack, but it’s perfectly fine for our patio bird watching.
National Geography Field Guide to the Birds of North America would be a great gift for any naturalist or budding bird watcher on your holiday list.
The Field Guide to the Birds of North America boasts “All 1,023 species,” new maps and new illustrations. We’ve found some guidebooks’ illustrations to be pretty lack luster—it’s hard to distinguish colors and sizes. That’s not the case for this seventh edition. The illustrations are realistic and colorful.
The book is categorized by species, families (following the the 2016 NACC guidelines), scientific names, and subspecies. It also describes behavior and voice for identification purposes. Individual maps mark the range. Because it covers all the species of North America, its girth might be a bit much to lug around in a back pack, but it’s perfectly fine for our patio bird watching.
National Geography Field Guide to the Birds of North America would be a great gift for any naturalist or budding bird watcher on your holiday list.
August 8, 2016
This is a comprehensive reference book about 800 North American birds. It is heavily illustrated, unlike some of the more condensed field guides. I especially appreciate seeing 3-5 related birds shown on one page. I also appreciate the pages that show a number of birds in flight within the same family, example shore birds or hawks, because this is often how birds are observed.
I find this reference especially helpful in narrowing the possibilities when trying to identify a bird within a family. It is also helpful for me in identifying birds that might be observed outside the usual range. Because the reference book is heavy at 450+ pages, I do not usually bring it with me when traveling out of state.
Although some bird-id groups prefer a different common field guide, I have found this guide very helpful over the years.
I find this reference especially helpful in narrowing the possibilities when trying to identify a bird within a family. It is also helpful for me in identifying birds that might be observed outside the usual range. Because the reference book is heavy at 450+ pages, I do not usually bring it with me when traveling out of state.
Although some bird-id groups prefer a different common field guide, I have found this guide very helpful over the years.
August 14, 2020
Bird-watching is a satisfying hobby. It is a great way to spend your time. I enjoy seeing birds, but I do not seek them out. If I am walking in a park or on a nature trail, bird calls add to the experience.
National Geographic brings us The Field Guide to the Birds of North America. The version I found is the seventh edition and covers 1023 species. National Geographic has organized the information to reflect our new understanding of genetics.
If you are new to bird-watching, the book has a guide for you. It tells you about specific features to look for in appearance, bird call, and range. Each bird has a distinct set of features and comes with a map.
The book has tons of information. I cannot think of any negative aspects.
National Geographic brings us The Field Guide to the Birds of North America. The version I found is the seventh edition and covers 1023 species. National Geographic has organized the information to reflect our new understanding of genetics.
If you are new to bird-watching, the book has a guide for you. It tells you about specific features to look for in appearance, bird call, and range. Each bird has a distinct set of features and comes with a map.
The book has tons of information. I cannot think of any negative aspects.
November 19, 2013
This book is about the birds of North America. It talks about how to find, identify, and the age. This book takes you through the world of birds.As you read the book it will tell you where the type of bird lives. Which you way think it is odd because a bird can go any where, but some birds have certain environments that they can only live in. There are some birds that come here from other countries as well. I think the type of people that would really like this book is bird watchers or people that like to become watchers.But,I don’t know what kind of birds people would be in to. I would definitely say check out the birds of prey.
January 28, 2009
This reference is great. In past editions it was difficult to find specific birds, but the combination of durable flap index and thumb tabs for the most frequent bird families (hawks, warblers, sparrows, etc.) make it super easy to use.
The written descriptions are fairly brief so the focus is on the drawings. The drawings are detailed and mostly include those of the different races, juveniles, and birds in flight.
The written descriptions are fairly brief so the focus is on the drawings. The drawings are detailed and mostly include those of the different races, juveniles, and birds in flight.
May 6, 2012
My favorite birding guide book. It has great pictures and descriptions. The blurbs with the range maps is fantastic and it has a lot of incidental species to South Texas (at least) that a lot of guide books lack since they are not "common enough", I guess.
There's a handy checklist in the back if you want to check off species as you see them, but since I'm a much more casual birder, I just write in the white space next to the bird where and when I saw it for the first time.
There's a handy checklist in the back if you want to check off species as you see them, but since I'm a much more casual birder, I just write in the white space next to the bird where and when I saw it for the first time.
February 9, 2016
Not my everyday field guide, but the illustrations can be useful for cross-referencing species, and it does cover all of North America so is good for travel outside of my region. I prefer The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America for regular home regional use.
May 23, 2013
We use this as a back up guide that is handy for those visiting both coasts of the United States since it contains the birds on both sides of the Rocky Mountains, a divide in the country that has lead to different species of birds like Meadowlarks and Bluebirds. It has good details on the hawks, too.
January 18, 2016
The illustrations and information contained in this field guide makes it my favorite for field use. Perhaps Sibley’s guide contains more detailed and up-to-date information, but this still remains my favorite guide - it helps of course that it contains all my hand-written notes from 3 years of field ornithology courses.
June 10, 2008
A very detailed book of birds. I don't know enough about the field to know how it compares to it's competitors, but the book does everything I want it to do. It has really come in handy with identifying all of those birds eating out of my birdfeeder.
March 18, 2007
my field guide of choice. fairly life-like renderings of the species with gendered, age-specific and seasonal plumages included. most importantly, small enough to carry without being burdensome.
Read
October 31, 2008I want to look birds up by state and color and size--this is a little more challenging than that, but it's very helpful. And it makes me feel smart :)
Read
April 15, 2008This is the bible of bird watching. I was turned on to bird watching when I married Kevin and I love it.
October 14, 2008
Still my field guide of choice, well the 3rd edition is, in spite of new editions and Sibley's. This is the book I like to carry around.
July 12, 2009
Invaluable to any birder...open it countless times during the year especially helpful identifying hawks and warblers. One of my Top 10!
May 17, 2010
This is a great field guide, but sometimes I have a little trouble identifying the real bird from the drawings, but at least they have all stages of a birds life
November 10, 2013
This detailed and handy field guide is a wonderful hiking companion. The full colored illustrations remove the guess work while identifying birds, and the range maps are accurate and trustworthy.
June 23, 2014
This is the perfect book for identifying that bird in your back yard or to take along camping or on a Sunday walk through a wooded park.
January 4, 2015
Most informative and well written. This is a great book to get a start and/ or to brush up on your facts of Bird species in North America.
May 23, 2015
woww :)
July 22, 2019
This is it. If you're a serious birder or looking to get deeply into bird-watching, then this is the ultimate field guide to North American birds that you've been hoping for in a single, easily carried volume. For a field guide with features oriented towards beginner bird-watchers we recommend the Sibley or Peterson field guides, each of which have their merits.
In National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 7th Edition all 1,023 bird species to be observed in North America are crammed into approximately 570 color pages. Literally crammed, as some of the illustrations are fairly small, however they're certainly larger on average than those in the Sibley field guides. With over 3,500 illustrations and more than 900 of the latest range maps, NatGeo's latest edition is a worthwhile compromise to keep this an informative yet easy-to-carry volume. Filled to the brim with the latest information on bird species and subspecies, it's sure to be a significant upgrade to one's field guide collection. It also includes enlarged maps at the back of the book covering the ranges of 55 subspecies of interest, though this is paltry compared to the over 500 in each of the Peterson guides (covering Eastern and Western North America individually).
One of the most obvious and defining features of NatGeo's latest field guide are the thumb-indexes, much like on high-quality dictionaries and a feature we haven't seen on other field guides. It's very easy to pick up the book and immediately flip to the start of sections on sandpipers, gulls, hawks, flycatchers, thrushes, warblers, and sparrows. Oddly enough ducks do not get their own thumb-index or other identifier, despite the section on ducks being the formal start of the field guide. There are also family names at the top of each page, further sub-dividing each section, although these families are not listed alphabetically by common or scientific name. While the major groupings aren't used in other field guides, it does lend itself to a certain accessibility -- and serious birders will ignore the simplified nomenclature and still be able to jump straight into the specifics or skim through using the families listed at the top of each page. Still, we're sure these groupings will provide the pedants with plenty to squabble over.
The descriptions of species are detailed and come with the latest in scientific understanding of these birds, a reason to upgrade to this field guide on its own. Descriptions come with the usual assortment of information on each species including: size approximations, behavior, voices and phonetic calls, seasonal and breeding ranges, comparisons to similar birds, notes on subspecies, and historical sightings (for accidental occurrences).
We can't speak to the color accuracy for all the species depicted, but the coloration is vivid and the high quality of the printing makes for extremely detailed illustrations. Seasonal variations in plumage, as well as color-morphs, are described in text and, for select species, given illustrations. Peterson field guides may have more and better depictions of activity and specifically the parts visible only during flight, but the size of the illustrations in NatGeo's latest edition are at least reasonably large, with larger illustrations given to more popular species (birds of prey, woodpeckers, cardinals and allies).
A noble effort is made to present illustrations waterfowl as they would be seen in flight. Birds of prey get a mix of illustrations of in-flight and perched. Unfortunately the little brown jobs (LBJs) that are so common and difficult to distinguish, rarely have in-flight depictions. For life-listers, this doesn't make identifying them any easier, but should be a relative non-issue for everyone else.
We recommend this book based on its merits for its intended audience which are veteran birders, but this field guide is also an excellent supplementary guide for everyone else. Most useful to beginners will be the visual guide index on the front and back inside covers, providing at-a-glance portraits of a variety of iconic representatives of specific bird families.
Closing Thoughts:
We strongly suggest NatGeo's latest field guide, however nothing is perfect so let's review what we didn't like and what we noted is missing in comparison to field guides aimed at a different audience:
This Field Guide to the Birds of North America does not have a life list, a glossary of terms or a comprehensive appendix on any notable topics that would satisfy inquisitive novice bird watchers. Serious birders won't need an introduction or birds or a primer on bird anatomy, and will already have these features in another resource, so we don't feel that this detracts from the value of this particular guide. It also does not feature a section dedicated to enlarged range maps as the A Field Guide to Birds of Western North America and The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America do.
Voice descriptions are much less robust than in Sibley field guides, although we expect they will be satisfactory for more experienced birders.
The fine print and the grey-colored subtext around some of the bird illustrations printed on glossy pages will make for difficult reading for some people -- and when reading in very high-/low-light conditions.
A species index at the back of the book completes the guide. It lists both common and taxonomic naming all in a single alphabetical index. No bolding or other form of highlighting is used to make common species stand out, as in Sibley field guides. There is no life list or pages identifying birds based on silhouettes.
Recommendations for Novice or Intermediate Bird Watchers:
We recommend the A Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America and Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America field guides specifically to beginner and intermediate bird-watchers and naturalists. Which pair of volumes for North America is best may come down to personal preference, but we can say for certain that National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 7th Edition is the best and most-detailed single-volume field guide on the market today.
In National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 7th Edition all 1,023 bird species to be observed in North America are crammed into approximately 570 color pages. Literally crammed, as some of the illustrations are fairly small, however they're certainly larger on average than those in the Sibley field guides. With over 3,500 illustrations and more than 900 of the latest range maps, NatGeo's latest edition is a worthwhile compromise to keep this an informative yet easy-to-carry volume. Filled to the brim with the latest information on bird species and subspecies, it's sure to be a significant upgrade to one's field guide collection. It also includes enlarged maps at the back of the book covering the ranges of 55 subspecies of interest, though this is paltry compared to the over 500 in each of the Peterson guides (covering Eastern and Western North America individually).
One of the most obvious and defining features of NatGeo's latest field guide are the thumb-indexes, much like on high-quality dictionaries and a feature we haven't seen on other field guides. It's very easy to pick up the book and immediately flip to the start of sections on sandpipers, gulls, hawks, flycatchers, thrushes, warblers, and sparrows. Oddly enough ducks do not get their own thumb-index or other identifier, despite the section on ducks being the formal start of the field guide. There are also family names at the top of each page, further sub-dividing each section, although these families are not listed alphabetically by common or scientific name. While the major groupings aren't used in other field guides, it does lend itself to a certain accessibility -- and serious birders will ignore the simplified nomenclature and still be able to jump straight into the specifics or skim through using the families listed at the top of each page. Still, we're sure these groupings will provide the pedants with plenty to squabble over.
The descriptions of species are detailed and come with the latest in scientific understanding of these birds, a reason to upgrade to this field guide on its own. Descriptions come with the usual assortment of information on each species including: size approximations, behavior, voices and phonetic calls, seasonal and breeding ranges, comparisons to similar birds, notes on subspecies, and historical sightings (for accidental occurrences).
We can't speak to the color accuracy for all the species depicted, but the coloration is vivid and the high quality of the printing makes for extremely detailed illustrations. Seasonal variations in plumage, as well as color-morphs, are described in text and, for select species, given illustrations. Peterson field guides may have more and better depictions of activity and specifically the parts visible only during flight, but the size of the illustrations in NatGeo's latest edition are at least reasonably large, with larger illustrations given to more popular species (birds of prey, woodpeckers, cardinals and allies).
A noble effort is made to present illustrations waterfowl as they would be seen in flight. Birds of prey get a mix of illustrations of in-flight and perched. Unfortunately the little brown jobs (LBJs) that are so common and difficult to distinguish, rarely have in-flight depictions. For life-listers, this doesn't make identifying them any easier, but should be a relative non-issue for everyone else.
We recommend this book based on its merits for its intended audience which are veteran birders, but this field guide is also an excellent supplementary guide for everyone else. Most useful to beginners will be the visual guide index on the front and back inside covers, providing at-a-glance portraits of a variety of iconic representatives of specific bird families.
Closing Thoughts:
We strongly suggest NatGeo's latest field guide, however nothing is perfect so let's review what we didn't like and what we noted is missing in comparison to field guides aimed at a different audience:
This Field Guide to the Birds of North America does not have a life list, a glossary of terms or a comprehensive appendix on any notable topics that would satisfy inquisitive novice bird watchers. Serious birders won't need an introduction or birds or a primer on bird anatomy, and will already have these features in another resource, so we don't feel that this detracts from the value of this particular guide. It also does not feature a section dedicated to enlarged range maps as the A Field Guide to Birds of Western North America and The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America do.
Voice descriptions are much less robust than in Sibley field guides, although we expect they will be satisfactory for more experienced birders.
The fine print and the grey-colored subtext around some of the bird illustrations printed on glossy pages will make for difficult reading for some people -- and when reading in very high-/low-light conditions.
A species index at the back of the book completes the guide. It lists both common and taxonomic naming all in a single alphabetical index. No bolding or other form of highlighting is used to make common species stand out, as in Sibley field guides. There is no life list or pages identifying birds based on silhouettes.
Recommendations for Novice or Intermediate Bird Watchers:
We recommend the A Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America and Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America field guides specifically to beginner and intermediate bird-watchers and naturalists. Which pair of volumes for North America is best may come down to personal preference, but we can say for certain that National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 7th Edition is the best and most-detailed single-volume field guide on the market today.
May 22, 2017
I have always really liked science and animals and someday I would like to be a veterinarian. This book was a lot of fun for me to read because it taught me a lot about birds, where they come from, how they look and what perspective I should look at them from. For example, if I had to do a medical procedure on a raven, I would have to put it under very heavy anesthetic so that it wouldn't come back in the middle of the procedure and kill itself accidentally while trying to get away.
This book also taught me about warbles and what kind of bird they are. Warbles are like finches but more colorful and some of the species are actually so colorful that they blend in with all the reds in the rainforest. If you are a non-colorful species like the ones we find in North America, you would stick out like a sore thumb in the jungle and the jungle species would not blend in very well or camouflage.
I learned about Allen's Hummingbird species which is interesting because it's orange which is my favorite color. These birds are native to New Mexico, the coasts of California and Oregon. Their sizes range from 3.75" at the largest to 2.2" or 10cm at the smallest. My other favorite bird was the sparrow because these birds kill their prey the same way that hunters do by swooping down and impaling them on thorns in bushes. I found this interesting because it showed me how intelligent these birds are, especially with how well they clean up after themselves. Overall, they're the opposite of the hummingbirds because they're so violent.
Lastly, my other favorite bird - the tanager. In the adult stages, the male is very vibrant so that he can attract mates and lure predators away from the female and the nest. The tanagers are native to Mexico's coastal regions and they grow to about 7.25" to 5.25" at the smallest. Overall, this book was one of my favorite books because it had a lot of information and it had pictures to go with it so that I could identify the birds when we drove to camping trips and for weekend adventures.
This book also taught me about warbles and what kind of bird they are. Warbles are like finches but more colorful and some of the species are actually so colorful that they blend in with all the reds in the rainforest. If you are a non-colorful species like the ones we find in North America, you would stick out like a sore thumb in the jungle and the jungle species would not blend in very well or camouflage.
I learned about Allen's Hummingbird species which is interesting because it's orange which is my favorite color. These birds are native to New Mexico, the coasts of California and Oregon. Their sizes range from 3.75" at the largest to 2.2" or 10cm at the smallest. My other favorite bird was the sparrow because these birds kill their prey the same way that hunters do by swooping down and impaling them on thorns in bushes. I found this interesting because it showed me how intelligent these birds are, especially with how well they clean up after themselves. Overall, they're the opposite of the hummingbirds because they're so violent.
Lastly, my other favorite bird - the tanager. In the adult stages, the male is very vibrant so that he can attract mates and lure predators away from the female and the nest. The tanagers are native to Mexico's coastal regions and they grow to about 7.25" to 5.25" at the smallest. Overall, this book was one of my favorite books because it had a lot of information and it had pictures to go with it so that I could identify the birds when we drove to camping trips and for weekend adventures.
September 7, 2024
This is a review of the 2002 fourth edition. National Geographic gives the helpful information that 85,000 copies of this book was printed. In comparison, the first edition was 295,000 copies. Fewer birds, fewer birdwatching, fewer bird book sales, I guess.
Despite the multitude of lovely paintings, the areas found maps, the great index and decent organization, the most this book can get is four stars, since the book is sadly out of date. Ranges where birds found are now wildly inaccurate, since species have either been wiped out in areas, or they've moved because of climate change, habitat destruction, introduced into areas by people, etc.
Plenty of species have gone extinct, or that are suspected of being extinct, since this was published. The ivory billed woodpecker is listed here, suprisingly. They held out a slim hope ... which, amazingly, paid off. It's doubtful that the species will remain into the next century, since so few birds apparently still exist.
I'm not an avid twitcher, but you'd have to be blind and deaf not to notice that the birds have almost all disappeared from my area outside Philadelphia. In the 1980s, the noise of the dawn chorus would drown out the air conditioner. And all we had were the gut-rattling boxes you stuck in windows back then. Now, even with central air conditioning, you never get woken up by the birds, unless one smacks into your bedroom window.
One species that used to be common as muck in my area were blue jays. These were big, brash, and bad birds that could beat seven kinds of shit out of a cat. Every backyard at at least one pair.
Now ... nothing. The last blue jay I saw in my town was over two years ago.
This book serves as a historical record of how birdlife was in North America at the time. It's much different now, and not for the better.
Despite the multitude of lovely paintings, the areas found maps, the great index and decent organization, the most this book can get is four stars, since the book is sadly out of date. Ranges where birds found are now wildly inaccurate, since species have either been wiped out in areas, or they've moved because of climate change, habitat destruction, introduced into areas by people, etc.
Plenty of species have gone extinct, or that are suspected of being extinct, since this was published. The ivory billed woodpecker is listed here, suprisingly. They held out a slim hope ... which, amazingly, paid off. It's doubtful that the species will remain into the next century, since so few birds apparently still exist.
I'm not an avid twitcher, but you'd have to be blind and deaf not to notice that the birds have almost all disappeared from my area outside Philadelphia. In the 1980s, the noise of the dawn chorus would drown out the air conditioner. And all we had were the gut-rattling boxes you stuck in windows back then. Now, even with central air conditioning, you never get woken up by the birds, unless one smacks into your bedroom window.
One species that used to be common as muck in my area were blue jays. These were big, brash, and bad birds that could beat seven kinds of shit out of a cat. Every backyard at at least one pair.
Now ... nothing. The last blue jay I saw in my town was over two years ago.
This book serves as a historical record of how birdlife was in North America at the time. It's much different now, and not for the better.
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