Which Bird Identification Book Should I Purchase?

[crappace]

We just started feeding the birds in Eden Prairie. This winter we used the laminated "Birds at Your Feeder, A Guide to Winter Birds of the Great Plains" and it worked very well for what we had. Now there are many birds we cant identify. Which book do you all suggest? I would post some shots but...even I laugh at the quality of my photos after looking at what you guys post. Thanks, Brent

[Steve Foss]

Brent, the very best bird ID book out there, IMO (I've been birding for 35 years and have used them all), is The Sibley Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley. It is larger and offers much more detail regarding plumage variation than the other guides. It is my constant companion when photographing birds in the field and looking at others' images on the computer.

It runs about $35, but should be considered a long-term purchase, as you will get years and years of enjoyment out of it. An excellent companion book is Sibley's The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior, which explains an awful lot about individual species and groups of species. I like the field guide for ID and the companion guide to satisfy my curiosity about a species.

The field guide covers all of North America. The publishers have also come out with separate easter and western field guides that are less expensive and smaller, but birds don't respect range maps, and you never know when you may travel out west.

While larger, thicker and more detailed than other guides, Sibley is as easy to use as any of them and easier than some. All info on each species is right there on the same pages (illustrations, range maps, text), so you aren't looking in one place for the illustration and another place for the range map like some guides force you to do.

[sparcebag]

I use Petersons field guide to birds,However I have seen others I wish I had! So there are lots of good ID books,Try a library first and it may help with a decision.

[crappace]

Here are two I wont need the bird book for. The Sibley is on the way though!

[Steve Foss]

That's a sweet behavior shot! Great catch of a short-lived moment.

But, how do you know it's not really a male cardinal feeding a pyrrhuloxia that accidentally wandered here from Texas?

JOKE!!!!!!

[goblueM]

I don't really care for Peterson's or Sibleys...

I like the Birds of North America by National Geographic. Of course, its all personal preference

[dukhnt]

The Sibley guide is excellent choice. You won't be disappointed. It is an awesome book.

[art321]

I've got the Petersen's, Golden and some regional books. but I love the Sibley guide. I like that it offers more than just one view of the bird. Very nice artwork.