Field Guides

I'm in the market for a field guide. In your experience, would I be better off with the Audubon Field Guide or the Petersen Guide? Or one I'm not familiar with. I'm looking for eastern North America. (or midwest)

I have Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America, 6th Edition, The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America: Second Edition, and National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America

I think you like the one you start with so I like the Peterson's. Just like the way it is organized.

>1 Tess_W: my mother had a Peterson's, and gave me my current edition, which I have used for over 30 years.

I have other bird guides, but I have found that when it comes to identifying birds the paintings in the Peterson's are better than photographs, and his field marks system is superior. I have had people pooh-pooh Peterson's, but it's still the first guide I reach for.

My Peterson's:
Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds
Peterson Field Guide to Advanced Birding
Field Guide to Western Birds Roger Tory Peterson 2nd Edition 1961

Most of these were gifts:
American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of the Carolinas…
Birds of the Carolinas Field Guide, Second Edition
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Fifth Edition

From my mother's bookshelves (not including her Peterson's):
Birds: A Guide to the Most Familiar American Birds
Guide to Field Identification of the Birds of North America

A couple guides published by Audubon:
Familiar Birds of North America: Eastern Region
The Audubon Society Field Guide To North American Birds: Eastern Region

And the one that probably started it all:
AUDUBON'S BIRDS OF AMERICA. POPULAR EDITION

My favourite guide is the National Geographic field guide to the birds of North America, I have several editions. My first copy was purchased on the advice of a very experienced birder friend of mine. I also like the Golden field guide Birds of North America for a more compact book. I really like the range maps in both books, and the pictures are pretty good. I have copies of some of the Peterson guides, and have never found them easy to use (lack of maps, pictures separated from descriptions), so I don't like them that much, although the pictures are good. I have a couple of Audubon guides, and find that the photographs are generally not as good as good drawings, and the pictures are also separate from the text. I've never had a Sibley guide, but would like to try one out.

>2 perennialreader:
>3 fuzzi:
>4 NorthernStar:

I bought 2 used ones today: Peterson's Field Guide to Eastern Birds and Golden Field Guide to North America. Thought I would check out the cheap editions, which may suffice in the long run, before deciding if I want to spend more money.

>5 Tess_W: good!

Not sure which edition of Peterson's you found, but the 1980's and newer versions have the bird information facing the illustrations. In my mother's copy you have to flip back and forth between the illustration and information pages.

>6 fuzzi: that's good to know. Having to flip back and forth was one of the reasons I've never liked my Peterson guide. Because of that I've never been tempted to buy another.

>7 NorthernStar: here is the edition I own, 1985 I think, for sale on eBay for less than$7.00:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Field-Guide-to-Eastern-Birds-Peterson-Fiel-by-Peterson-...

>8 fuzzi: I have A field Guide to Western Birds, 2nd Edition. The copyright date is 1961, but it probably dates back to the late 70s or early 80s. In very good condition because it is rarely used. Good illustrations don't make up for the lack of maps (very useful to rule out a lot of southern-only birds), the regional focus (I've moved around a bit, and where I am now, although definitely western, is on the eastern side of the Rockies, and I see some more "eastern" birds), and the text separated from the pictures. Once I found the Golden Guide, and later the National Geographic, I never went back to Peterson.

>9 NorthernStar: the newer Peterson's (at least since the 1980s) have the maps. And they also have both the descriptions/information and the pictures facing each other:



One of the reasons my mother owned more than one guide was because not every guide has all the information we desire. The Golden is good, I like the illustrations. I have her copy, and her old Peterson's and my newer one (1985).

But if I could have only one guide with me in the field, it would be Peterson's.

I just received my Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America, 2010 edition and it is beautiful. I bought it used for a total of $5.72 and free shipping. This book appears to be brand new, or at least never read, as it even has the new book smell. I can hardly wait to start using it!

I also ordered for not quite $5 Music of the Birds A Celebration of Bird Song by Lang Elliott. I also bought used and it said "includes audio CD". However, since it was used, I did not expect to get the CD. Serendipity when the CD was taped to the back inside of this hardbacked book and it still had the sealing tape on it--never used. Unfortunately, my CD player on my desktop quit reading the CD's about a year ago. I will work something out!

Just a general comment on old field guides. I have a classic 1955 guide to the birds of Sudan written by a British colonial officer (Birds of the Sudan: Their identification and distribution by Francis Oswin Cave). The hand drawn illustrations are absolutely beautiful and it's a joy to leaf through the book, but it is virtually useless as a field guide due to the way it is laid out. As far as I know there is no newer guide to the birds in Sudan and South Sudan, so I have to make do with a field guide covering the birds of all of sub-Saharan Africa, which at least has the descriptions and maps on the page directly opposite the pictures.

>11 Tess_W: woo! I hope you enjoy your Peterson's as much as I have enjoyed mine (two editions so far).

I bought my granddaughter her own 1985 edition, like new, and am holding it for when she gets older, she's not quite 5.

I have most of the common bird field guides (Peterson, Nat Geog, Audubon, Sibleys, Crossman, Kaufman, etc.) and being a collector of Peterson FG's then I have multiple versions of that. However the one I recommend for new birders but most don't is the Golden Field Guide to Birds (by Zim). You can find it commonly in used stores or buy it new. People don't recommend it as it is older and doesn't have some newer introduced species. For most people, not living in Florida, this is not an issue with the likely exception of the Eurasian Collared Dove which is spreading rapidly and often found in urban areas. But I recommend this guide because 1) the text is opposite the sketch 2) similar species (sparrows with rusty crowns) are put together 3) there are some good summary pages like one with all the sparrow's heads 4) has distribution maps with each listing (side note: I generally don't recommend regional guides like "eastern" or specific state or province guides unless you know for sure that you'll never be leaving that area. For example a FG for the summer cottage. Yet national guides can be confusing as new birders will often incorrectly ID a species that doesn't live within 500 miles of them so having the distribution map right with the listing helps you eliminate some species.) 5) Many birds have sonograms in the listing to help you ID their calls. Some people find these difficult to follow but if you find a bird you know is calling and look at its sonogram then you can envision the other calls. This is useful as many birds are identified by call. 6) It is usually the cheapest guide on the market. 7) It is still actually field guide size. The latter is important if you want to carry the guide with you as it will still fit in a back pocket (usually) or at least is smaller and lighter for your daypack. Most other field guides that gotten too big to take into the field. Having said all of that, as a birder, I keep a copy of the Nat Geog guide in my car just because I have a few copies plus specialty guides to gull or shorebird ID. (Also guides to butterflies, grasshoppers etc. as you never know when you'll need a guide when out of the house.) In the field I have the Ibirds app for my phone, mainly for calls and less for visual ID.

>14 kmscouts: I think that's a good suggestion. I have a couple (old/worn) Golden guides I use for comparison when the bird I see doesn't quite match Peterson's or one of my other guides.

Do you have a copy of the Peterson Field Guide to Advanced Birding? I bought one several years ago, and have "dipped" in on occasion. The author is the same as that of my best butterfly guide, Kenn Kaufman.