Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America
This field guide both excels in many ways and is pretty typical in others. The bird photographs are excellent and the book well organized. For each bird the author includes average length, weight, and wingspan as well as various notes on habitat, habits and other help for identifying the bird. Of course there is an extensive index as well as introductory information for each section to help in classifying.
If your goal is to identify birds, then I personally still prefer the Sibley Field Guide to Birds even though it contains illustrations and not photographs. It provides more information on flight patterns and more illustrations of birds at different stages and angles.
But, I did say at the beginning that there are ways in which this book excels. The greatest way it excels is the phenomenal DVD of bird calls. Most birding books do not come with CDs and you end up trying to look them up on the Internet if you are interested. This DVD has several different calls - common, variations, mating, immature, songs, cries, and other sounds as appropriate. This is the most extensive collection of bird sounds that I have ever come across and that makes it worth the price of the book by itself. The Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America is highly recommended and especially so for those who want a great collection of bird sounds to help learn to identify local birds.
Author: Ted Floyd
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
Copyright: 2008
ISBN: 9780061120404
Pages: 480 plus glossary, index and various other after matter
Price: $24.95