Customer Reviews

Field Guide To The Birds Of Eastern North America

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I started birdwatching a year and a half ago and the Sibley Guide to Birds was the first guide I purchased. Although I had been told it was for "expert" birders, I just thought the illustrations were much clearer than any other guide. It was a joy to look at, at home on my couch. But I never wanted to take it with me in the field because it's too darn heavy.

So the Sibley FIELD Guide is the exactly the guide I've been wishing for. The illustrations are just as clear, even though they've been scaled down, and the format is a managable size and weight. The original guide had many variations, by region, sex, age, etc., and I think they had to drop a few of these, but at my level of birdwatching I don't miss them. The guide DOES still show male and female, first year, etc. I took this guide with me to Prospect Park, Brooklyn, last weekend, and I saw and ID'ed 45 species. Not bad for an amateur!

Expert birders will already be familiar with Sibley and can make up their own minds, so I would like to say to beginning birdwatchers, give this guide a shot. I really think the illustrations are the best and most helpful.

An excellent book for the serious birder. It provides most of the information one could wish for and does it in a reasonably compact form, that seems quite durable. Better than most other birding books on the market.

I love the Sibley guides. The one criticism that I have heard and will agree with is that some of the drawings are a bit "dull" in comparison to other guides. Having said that, this has never deterred from my ability to identify a bird in the field. I both watch and study birds and absolutely adore these guides. Everyone who I've spoken to agrees that these books are excellent. Probably the best feature to me is how each species is depicted in flight as well as percing. Arrows highlight key features to look for. Juvelniles and females depicted. Other unique characteristics noted or depicted (e.g. diagnostic flight patterns or other movements). Wonderful! (Western edition too).

This field guide is a nice size that's easy to carry around, has multiple drawn pictures of each bird as well as a short text and range map for each - The text generally starts out with saying if the bird is common or not and then goes into where they nest, winter etc. It talks about the typical foods, if they're solitary or not. One thing I like too is that it often tells if the bird is native or non-native to the US which I find particularly interesting. Voice/song is also discussed in the text. Excellent reference book. I keep one in the house and one in the car. Highly recommended!

Great book. Buy it. Best range maps in any North America birding field guide out there.

CAD$29.95 list price is very, very old. Published versions of this title lowered the list price to CAD$22.95 in 2007.

US$19.95 list price. We're paying $18-$20 for a $20 title and being told it is discounted +30%.

There are thousands of titles on this website requiring similar 'updates'. Get to it Amazon!

I bought this book because I live in the Northeast. However, I was surprised to discover that this edition actually has most species of birds, including those that live in the West or South, with ranges through and including Mexico. This was a wonderful surprise as I actually travel quite a bit, so I don't have to buy additional editions of Sibley's bird books.

As to the content of Sibley's guide, there is none better. His illustrations are outstanding, and descriptions are just wonderful. He describes ranges, eating habits, whether the bird tends to be solitary or fly in groups (flocks), nesting, coloration, etc. Best of all, I really like how he shows the bird in a multitude of positions, from standing to flight, so that if you saw a glint of the bird in a different point of view, you can still identify it using this guide. Top ratings.

I own Sibley's larger guide, his "birding basics", and his guide to behaviour. I adore his plain, honest writing style, and his amateur-scientific approach. Not to say that Sibley, one of the big shots in the birding world, is an amateur -- just that he knows what the serious student needs and wants.

His paintings are amazingly accurate (and beautiful -- I wish you could buy offsets.) I've made tentative identifications (later more solidly confirmed) just based on, say, the density of stippling or the exact extent of a faint color wash. Even in the small-size guide, he includes helpful "in flight" sketches, notations about wing motion, and anything else that might be helpful.

His notations next to each species are fantastic. In addition to voice, they cover some identification problems (easily confused species, variable plumage, marks that are appear obvious in pictures but are hard to see in the field), some remarks on habitat and behaviour (especially when it helps identification), and some hints for identification that you might not pick up on at first. Subspecies and crossovers are depicted when necessary.

There are a lot of field guides that rely on photographs; Sibley's work will instantly convert you to drawings. They present the "idealized" bird; you can compare your rugged, flea-bitten specimen to the text and learn a lot more than just its name.

As a scientist myself, I appriciate Sibley's cautious approach to identification, as well as his ability to quickly synthesise what is know about a population even when it doesn't admit of a quick one-liner. Sibley jumps right in and uses the ornithological terms for plumage patterns; I would have appriciated having the non-passerines diagrammed on the back inside cover (instead of in his excellent introduction, and in place of a rather superfluous map of North America) for easier reference, but that's a minor quibble.

This is not a guide you easily outgrow. My one last complaint is that the pages and binding are a little stiff and seem to have resisted "thumbing in" even after many months of use!

As a beginner bird-watcher, I was looking for a field guide that was easy to understand and contained plenty of information about the habits of birds. This book certainly meets those criteria. It is easy to read and understand, and contains lots of helpful information. It is also beautifully and accurately illustrated, making it easy to identify birds by sight.

I would recommend this book to anyone, beginner or advanced, who is interested in observing birds in eastern North America. This guide has something for everyone.

The Sibley Guide to Birds, as most mention, is a great guide but too heavy to tote into the field...this field guide solves that problem.

Yes, the illustrations are smaller, but just as useable. Yes, some of the illustrations in the original guide have been deleted, but the guide you take with is better than the one at home. (You should have the original at home anyway!)

I find that the addition of Status, Habitat and Behavior in the text more than makes up for fewer illustrations.

Well made and sturdy...buy it!

What a SHOCK to open both of Sibley's Eastern and Western Field Guides and find Alberta transposed with British Columbia on the endpaper map at the back of each book. I opened a book at the back to read the bio and look at Sibley's photo and glanced at the map and I stared and stared, not believing my eyes. I checked all the provinces and states to make sure that was the only error. Other than that, these books are great, with super illustrations and I appreciate the range maps on the pages with the birds.