Birds of Texas Field Guide

by Stan Tekiela

Learn to Identify Birds in Texas! Make bird watching in Texas even more enjoyable! With Stan Tekiela’s famous field guide, bird identification is simple and informative. There’s no need to look through dozens of photos of birds that don’t live in your area. This book features 170 species of Texas birds, organized by color for ease of use. Do you see a yellow bird and don’t know what it is? Go to the yellow section to find out. Fact-filled information, a compare feature, range maps, and detailed photographs help to ensure that you positively identify the birds that you see.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Reference

436 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2004

About the author

Author, naturalist and wildlife photographer Stan Tekiela is the originator of the popular state-specific field guide series and many easy-to-use identification guides for the U.S. Over the last 30 years he has authored around 200 field guides, quick guides, nature books, children's books, wildlife audio CDs, puzzles and playing cards, presenting many species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, trees, wildflowers and cacti found across the U.S. and in Canada.

Stan has a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural History from the University of Minnesota, and he has received national and regional awards for his books and photography. Also a well-known columnist and radio personality, his syndicated column appears in more than 25 newspapers and his wildlife programs are broadcast on a number of Midwest radio stations.

Stan leads instructional photo workshops and wildlife tours across the U.S. for both beginner and advanced photographers. He also gives detailed presentations about wildlife, complete with his award-winning photographs, to audiences of all sizes across the country.

Reviews

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our favorite Texas bird book--the family go-to for bird identification, Easier to use than others, so works for kids/young adults, too. They have them for other states, too: we've also used the Minnesota one.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the North Carolina version and loved it. I got this to help me identify birds in my new home.

This book isn't designed for experienced birders; there are far better books out there such as The Sibley Guide to Birds. This is designed for the backyard, casual person who wants to know, "What is that blue bird?" Arranged by color, this helps the person who doesn't know where to start. The birds I've spotted around Amarillo are in the book. Each bird description does include a tiny map with the counties marked on it and with the ranges of the birds.

Since it says it is a field guide, the binding is important. I think it will hold up to normal usage for a paperback, but not careless handling. It's small enough that it could ride in my purse.

There's a good bibliography for those who want to know more and the index includes a checkbox to track which birds you've spotted.

This is an excellent book for those who are casually interested in birds.

[Mariah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Best feature: organized by color of bird and color photos are good. Small photo of male is inset in corner of large photo of female and vice versa. Biggest bummer: this is not a comprehensive book, so some birds or features cannot be found. For example, no purple martins. This is a useful guidebook, but must be supplemented with one or two additional field guides.

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good field guide and reference for those new to birding and/or the birds of Texas. The first section gives a nice introduction (or refresher) on bird identification. The main section consists of the more common birds one would encounter in Texas. This new edition reportedly contains additional photos of many of the birds.

(I'm a casual bird-watcher who is more or less new to Texas.)

[James Biser · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another great book by Stan Tekiela. It is a perfect introduction to birding in the state of Texas for young people interested in learning about the world around them. It is a great education for everyone.

[Diana McCutcheon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for identification and bird watching

[Donna Lee Dicksson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great easy-to-use reference book on Texas birds. The identification organization is based upon the color of the bird. It's usually pretty handy to quickly identify a bird in my back yard.

[SheriC · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been a pretty handy guide for identifying birds at my feeders. It's organized in a way that makes it easy for the novice to identify unknown birds. The color pictures are good, but on some occasions it has been less useful for identifying alternatives to the most common - when the female, juvenile, or winter markings are different. Also, the cover quickly separated from the binding after some hard use, though I haven't had any lost or torn pages.

[Stacie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I use this all the time. Really easy to use because it is based on the color of the bird. It always helps me to more quickly identify them.