1) Stokes, Donald and Lillian. The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America. 2010. Little, Brown and Company. Paperback: 791 pages. Price: $24.99 U.S.
SUMMARY: The culmination of many years of research, observation, and study, the new STOKES FIELD GUIDE includes more species, more photographs, and more useful identification information than any other photographic field guide.
The guide features 853 North American bird species and more than 3,400 stunning color photographs. And yet it's portable enough to fit in your pocket (if you have really BIG pockets!).
The photographs cover all significant plumages, including male, female, summer, winter, immature, morphs, important subspecies, and birds in flight. Also included
* the newest scientific and common names and phylogenetic order;
* special help for identifying birds in flight through important clues of behavior, plumage, and shape;
* detailed descriptions of songs and calls;
* important behavioral information;
* key habitat preferences of each species; and
* the newest range maps, detailing species' winter, summer, year-round ranges, and migration routes.
* includes a downloadable CD with more than 600 bird sounds and 150 photographs: the calls and songs of 150 common North American species.
RECOMMENDATION: For intermediate and advanced birders. For beginners I recommend the Kaufman Field Guide here:
Thank you for your review. There are many beginning birders who have already bought our new Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America and have told us they are enjoying it and learning a great deal from it, so we would not want to exclude beginners from the opportunity to buy our guide. There are many aspects of our guide that were designed for beginners — the CD of the songs and calls of 150 common birds, the very user-friendly alphabetical index on the front flap and the color-coded index to groups of birds, the up-front diagrams of the parts of a bird, the inclusion of many plumages (transitional, winter, immature, etc.) which beginners see but cannot find in their existing field guides, the description of shape which can help speed-up the learning curve for beginner's, and the ABA rarity codes which help beginners know which species they are most likely to see.
ReplyDeleteThere is a great deal more in the book, such as inclusion of all subspecies, more rarities than other guides, inclusion of multiple plumages, and latest ID clues which will, understandably, be of keen interest to more intermediate and advanced birders.
Thank you,
Don and Lillian Stokes