Best Bird ID Book

[islandtime]

I need your reccomendations on a good bird identification book. I would prefer the book to have actual photo's of the birds.

I have been using some of the ID sites listed in the Sticky at the top of the bird forum but the sites can be slow and sometimes unhelpful. The cornell site is great if you have a good idea what the bird might be but you have to click through link after link if your not sure. The Whatbird site only has drawings of the birds and their find a bird by location, size and color doesn't always lead you to the right results.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[cfcRebel]

I find The Sibley Field Guide to Birds very accurate and easy to use. I have both Guide to Birds of Eastern US (http://www.amazon.com/Sibley-Field-Guide-Eastern-America/dp/067945120X/ref=sr_1_3/002-8690822-4782455?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174578438&sr=8-3)and Guide to Birds of Western US (http://www.amazon.com/Sibley-Field-Guide-Western-America/dp/0679451218/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/002-8690822-4782455?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174578438&sr=8-2).

[WolfHeart]

I have been a birder for most of my life. I have used ones with real photos and ones with the artists rendition. If you really need photos then i would go with Birds of Alabama Field Guide (http://www.amazon.com/Birds-Alabama-Field-Guide-Tekiela/dp/1591931517) It is not done Taxonomically rather the birds are broken down via color. This is great for anyone who is starting birding, problem is the majority of the birds are LBJ's (Little brown jobs). I would recommend The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America (http://www.amazon.com/Sibley-Field-Guide-Eastern-America/dp/067945120X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/104-1496039-4787135?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174580841&sr=1-2), or the desktop reference one,The Sibley Guide to Birds (http://www.amazon.com/Birds-Alabama-Field-Guide-Tekiela/dp/1591931517) for when you come back with your photos. Another one I carry is the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America (http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Field-Guide-America/dp/0792274512), I like it because it has the map on the same page as the bird. The Sibley's and National Geographic are drawings but that IMHO is better because it can show you all of the possible field marks that can occur with in a species whereas a photo can only show you that individual.

I hope you find what you are looking and may all your days birding be happy ones.

[stefeb]

I've always had good success with Peterson's Field Guide.

[jaypie77]

As an avid birder who remembers starting out, let me suggest the Sibley guide. Also, you mention a preference for photos instead of illustrations, but you will find yourself truly frustrated with photos, eventually. Drawings can illustrate the commonly experienced details of birds better than any photos of individuals can. Sure, you won't have a problem IDing a Bald Eagle with a photo, but once you get advanced and get the bug, you will want to know your Hermits from your Bicknells and photos just can't cut it.

Go get a Sibley guide, it is the definitive guide for serious birders and it helped me go from a beginner to an advanced IDer. Good luck and good hunting!

[iterrier]

I have a bird book with photos: The Field Guide to Birds Eastern Region by Donald and Lillian Stokes. I would recommend this if you are looking for photos. What I would not recommend is recently acquired software called Guide to Birds of North America. While the bird calls are useful the pictures are not as good as the pictures posted on this forum, at least on my monitor. Happy birding.

[jorj7]

I like the Kaufman Field Guide to Birds in North America. It's small enough to
carry around in the car or back pack and has photo instead of illustrations
(which I find helps). Currently $12.89 at Amazon (no affilication).

[Ephily]

I find that using a bird guide with drawings, if they're good, are much more useful than one with pictures. Though I have been birding for only two years (as of March 18th) I managed to Identify over 150 birds. When I started out I used the National Geographic Guide to Birds of North America, but I wasn't having much success identifying birds. Then I switched to Sibley and I thought WOW! The Sibley's guides (I have the Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America and the one fro Western North America) are very easy to use, and are fairly small and light weight. Plus, the drawings are amazing, and there are notes around the birds which tell you the most prominent features. So far, I'm very, very happy with the Sibley's guides.

[csquared63]

I agree with Ephily. Illustrations are much better than the photos in the books, though they should use some from this forum and the books would improve tremendously!

Either the Peterson or Sibley guides are the best in my opinion. Having both gives you more information to help with identification because each is a little different in illustration style and descriptions.

[Ornithologist]

The National Geographic and Sibley field guides are the best. I own both and carry both when I go out of state.

[stevefossimages]

I'm with everyone who stresses illustrations over photos. Much better, much more able to make an illustration that's representative of the bird.

I have been birding for over 30 years, starting with the Peterson field guide series, eventually adopting the excellent National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America and, soon after the Sibley came out, I realized how much better it could be done than it ever had before. I have two Sibleys, one for the vehicle and one for the office.

Its full title is The Sibley Guide to Birds, and it covers all of North America. You can get the eastern and/or western, and they are smaller and easier to tote around, but I like having the whole shooting match in one volume. An excellent companion to the Sibley guide is The Sibley Buide to Bird Life & Behavior, which starts with the fossil record and traces the history of birds to today, as well as providing detailed information on familes and groups of species. When I want to ID a bird, I pick up the field guide. When I want to learn about a bird and its related species and their habits, I pick up the companion. A great one-two punch.

[snowyowl13]

Lots of good advice that I agree with. I have a collection of feld guides but I use Sibley's Eastern with National Geographic as a NA guide. At home I use the two big Sibley's. Stay away from photo format guides, they just don't cut it for fine detail.
One useful photo guide is the Audubon one, not for pictures, they're not very useful, but it does give a lot of info about the birds, habitat, range, diet etc..

[Glenn Abuja]

Two is always better then one as the little guys have a way of looking slightly different in each book. I still wind up sending a photo to a more knowlegable person for help sometimes.
Cheers Glenn

[stevefossimages]

I forgot to mention that, if you get interested enough in birds, it may also be worth your while to pick up field guides dedicated to specific families. The Peterson series has guides the deal with North American hawks and another on hummingbirds and one on warblers, for example. Probably more guides than you're interested in, but food for thought down the line. I've found them quite useful over the years.

[TenaCJed]

I still need to get books for birds in my area. I have 2 for Eastern Africa because of a recent vacation there. One has pictures and the other has illistrations. When going back and looking at pictures I found having both books to be extremely helpfull. When I do get books for my area I am definetely getting 2 books, one with pictures and one with illistrations.