I started out birding on the wrong foot, back then there weren’t many specialty shops, there wasn’t internet and although there were clubs, I wasn’t aware. When I wanted to buy a field guide I thought the logical place was a book store, so off I went to the mall and bought a guide that came “highly recommended”….by the kid who worked that weekend. I should have clued in to the fact it was the only guide they had, so what else could he recommend?
With the new guide in hand and Dad’s old binoculars, I went off to conquer the bird world. When I didn’t progress, I blamed the binoculars and bought a better pair. Still my birding was at best frustrating, I was only able to identify the most common and slowest moving birds. The sparrows and other LBB’s (little brown birds) seemed impossible, the book that was recommended was poorly arranged, the writing was in one section and the pictures in another. Male and female bird pictures were in different sections and similar birds weren’t even grouped together. I was spending all my time flipping pages and reading descriptions, but not enough time studying the birds, I eventually stopped taking the field guide altogether.
When I finally bought a different guide, it was like someone turned on a switch, almost overnight it started coming together. The guide I bought was Peterson Eastern Birds, it was the first time I used a book arranged like this, the similar birds are all on the same page, males and females are shown together, (a good thing because they often travel together), the written description is on the facing page and; the most important thing for me because I’m lazy and a slow reader; there are “arrows”. These arrows changed my (birding) life, now instead of reading two descriptions and figuring out what was different between them, I could glance at either picture, note that the arrow is pointing to a wing bar, an eye line or a different coloured rump. This leaves you more time to study the bird instead of the book. This arrangement is even referred to as the Peterson Identification System and has been called the greatest invention since binoculars.
For those impossible sparrows, Peterson was kind enough to separate them into a few categories, there’s a section for rusty capped, streaked or clear breasted, these being the most striking markings. Then the arrows help you narrow it down, hopefully to one bird.
Now instead of a big void in my Life List under sparrow, there are 11 confident check marks, in ink, not the penciled in ones that I do when I’m not sure. You’ll raise the eyebrow of doubt when you read this, most people do. In fact there are 3 or 4 more sparrows that I could have on the list if I did some driving around. All but 2, I’ve seen in our yard, the Swamp Sparrow and Nelsons Sharp-tailed Sparrow I see on the marsh below our house.
This week I’ve had several questions that lead me to believe others weren’t using the best guides either, one guide didn’t show the American Goldfinch in winter plumage, the other didn’t show the European Starling at all. The Goldfinch is a common winter visitor and the Starling one of our most common birds, although not a native species a good guide has to include Starlings, if for no other reason than to distinguish it from other birds.
These questions inspired me to write a little field guide review. One of the most frequent requests I get is for a book on New Brunswick or “just local birds”. There are a couple that fall into this category but they are mediocre at best. I suppose there just isn’t enough market for a good guide of New Brunswick birds. Thatʼs not a big deal though because the guides for eastern North America will include all our regular birds plus most of the rare birds that wonder out of the normal range.
My top 6 book picks in ascending order.
#6 My least favourite book of the ones I will mention is the Stokes Field Guide to the Birds: Eastern Region. I do get a few requests for this book, itʼs a photographic guide, which is usually less recommended for identification, but the big problem is the layout, there is only one bird per page, making it hard to compare similar species and they don’t use the arrows to highlight field marks. The best feature is that it goes page for page in the same order as the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs, East, which is a great 3 CD set containing the songs and calls of 374 birds. Some find it useful to page through the book at the same time as listening to the sounds. (This system is being rapidly pushed aside by MP3 players, there is an iPod and iPhone app with all the sounds and pictures downloaded)
#5 National Geographic Birds of North America, is an OK guide that used to be considered one of the best (until a better one came along). It is a source for the birds you’ll see that aren’t in the eastern guides, but the big down fall is the lack of arrows that draw your eye to the best field marks. This guide uses several different artists throughout, you’ll notice a difference in style and quality across groupings.
#4 Peterson, Birds of Eastern and Central North America, is one of the best beginner guides out there, it has been recently revised to include the map on each page, in the past users had to turn to the back to see each map. This was often neglected, leading to false reports of birds that are only likely to be seen in southern US. Not that it’s impossible to see these rarities, but if you can tell at a glance that it’s not supposed to be in New Brunswick, you’ll be more likely to double check.
#3 Sibley Guide to Birds of Eastern North America is the other best guide for beginners, it has all the features of the Peterson, and maybe even a little more. The only reason I wouldn’t buy this guide first is that it’s totally duplicated in the Bird Bible, but this one fits in your pocket, the Bird Bible......only really big pockets. If you don’t intend on buying the “Big” Sibley or don’t mind the duplication, I think this is the best beginner guide out there.
#2 Kaufman Guide to Birds of North America, the more I use this guide, the more I like it. Itʼs easy to use has the arrows that I so need, maps in the right place, similar species lined up together etc but the thing I like the most is the pictures. They are digitally enhanced photographs, that is they went in and added and embellished the
field marks that are so often not included in photo guides. Kaufmanʼs tips and descriptions are great, he tells us things the other guides donʼt. If you already have an artist rendering guide this is a great addition.
#1 The Sibley Guide to Birds: (The Bird Bible) this is my top pick, even though it is big and more expensive, it has the most information. Every bird is shown in flight with wings up and down, sizes include wingspan and body size, similar birds are grouped together and every possible variation of plumage is represented, even more so than his Eastern Guide. And needless to say, since it’s my favourite...it has arrows. Leave it in the car or on the coffee table if you find it too big, you will not regret this purchase. My 10 year old copy is well worn, not only from the field but the pages of the birds I most often carve have sawdust in the fold and a little extra paint around the edges, but I wouldn’t trade, it seems to fall open to the best pages.
There’s so much that can be said about field guides and so many opinions, these are only my choices. You can find more information and reviews online and most sites show a few pages of each book. Or you can do it the old fashioned way, go to a store and flip through a couple.
written by Dwayne Biggar at The Bird Garden
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