Rating: 
Summary: Best All Around Guide for Beginner to Advanced Birder
Review: ALL THE BIRDS is truly a unique new method for birders to find the species they're eyeing. For the beginner, you only need the covers of the book to begin your journey; and for the intermediate to advanced birder, you can enjoy the great simplicity and artistry of this new guide. The drawings are clear, concise, and wonderfully placed in their correct habitats; a real plus for the novice, and fun for others. The text is understandable, short and to the point. On page maps of when and where to find the birds while helpful, are difficult to interprept, unless you know where the (hard to locate) key is. The map colors are muted, which are slightly difficult to keep track of, otherwise they are a wonderful assistance to even us intermediate birders who sometimes question the possibility of a species locale. The articles that are interspersed are informative and interesting; there is a wealth of information in this little guide. Also included is a checklist, found in the back of the book. A real gem in the field guide world. If I could only own one guide, this could be the one
Rating:
Summary: A nice addition to your birding library
Review: An informative field guide with excellent illustrations. The size & shape (small & narrow) of the guide makes it fit easy in a medium sized pocket and the cover & pages are made of special weather resistant paper. A must have
Rating: 
Summary: Okay, but I personally wouldn't use it in the field
Review: Basically this is a try at a new organizational scheme for field guides - by habitat, generally. It doesn't really work for me when I'm hiking somewhere. On the other hand, it can be useful to read before you go out, to see the types of things you might find in a given place you're headed for.The organizational idea of putting species together by habitat is interesting, but it's not really that helpful when you're trying to ID something you're seeing. For example, a beginner sees a field sparrow singing in a smallish tree near some brushy growth on a rising slope above a wetland: What habitat is that? In the book, I mean. Quick, the bird's getting away. The essays in the book are nice, as another review mentions. Next to books like the Birders Handbook or Kenn Kaufmann's lives of North American Birds, though, this doesn't even come close to providing the full contextual information, about individual species, that you want from the book you left at home. The art, as one of the positive reviews mentioned above, is hit and miss. There are times when birds are painfully wrong. When I have a borderline bird, one I have doubts about, and I check it in the National Geographic Society guide and in Griggs, the difference in the detail and overall quality of the paintings is sometimes embarrassing. NGS has postures right; this book has the body shape wrong a fair amount of the time. There are some really lovely images, and some dogs. I bought this, from Amazon actually, hoping it would give me a sometimes, when-I-feel-like-it replacement for my battered old NGS guide. It is, as I say, a decent complement to your field guide, but it's not a replacement for it. It's basically a middling helper ID book you can refer to at home when the ID is confused. It's also nice to read before you head out at all. I find this to be an okay complement to the field guides I *would* choose to bring in my pocket when I go out birding.
Rating: 
Summary: A Terrific Field Guide
Review: Being an avid birder, this is by far the best book to take into the field. Its new design makes it extremely quick to find the bird simply by looking at its basic shape and behavior. My favorite part is how it organizes its warblers into Eastern, Western, wingbars, no wing bars, etc. Although it doesn't have as many versions of species as the National Geographic guide, it is much more field worthy being smaller and easier. Being an advanced birder, when I say easier, I do not therefore limit it to the beginner. Every birder must admit he or she has problems with certain birds. This field guide is superb at every kind of bird (particularly difficult ones like gulls, warblers, etc.). The illustrations are the most beautiful and accurate I have ever seen. The section at the beginning with computer generated images of extinct birds is very interesting (and helpful, too if you happen to find a remnant flock of Bachman's warblers). It is much more up to date and has better illustrations than Peterson (not to mention that this has maps on the same page). It beats Audubon by having illustrations instead of photographs, more plumages of species, and the descriptions and maps on the same page as the bird. It surpasses Golden with it's better illustrations and easier to understand format. It does, however, lack some important plumage variations in certain birds (i.e. the ruff). But next to everything else it is the most superb guide I have ever used.
Rating:
Summary: A Helpful Addition to the library
Review: I bought this book for the terrific artwork in the section on ducks, geese and shorebirds. A lot of my bird-watching is at the shore and lakeside, and these detailed, precise drawings have been very helpful. The drawings of warblers and vireos are weaker, I think. Also, it makes no sense to have the explanation of the maps and symbols in the middle of the book, instead of at the beginning. I wouldn't make this my only bird book. (I have a very old version of the Golden Field Guide that I still use.) It is a very useful 2nd book.
Rating:
Summary: A very good field guide.
Review: I have been a birdwatcher for many years and have several field guides on bird identification. Some of them, I never take out in the field, though. The main reason is that I don't feel confident enough with the drawings in them. I don't feel that way about this field guide, however. I got All the Birds of North America three years ago. It's one of my favorite bird identification guides. I have enough confidence in it to actually use it when I go birdwatching. The drawings of the birds are very good. They are also in full color and feature habitat backgrounds. The guide is weather-resistant and in a pocket-size format, too. The range maps are on the same page as the drawings and text descriptions of the birds. The text descriptions of the birds are very helpful and clear. The birds are organized by field-recognizable, instantly-observable characteristics. All the Birds of North America is one of my favorite field guides. It has really helped me. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: A very good field guide.
Review: I have been a birdwatcher for many years and have several field guides on bird identification. Some of them, I never take out in the field, though. The main reason is that I don't feel confident enough with the drawings in them. I don't feel that way about this field guide, however. I got All the Birds of North America three years ago. It's one of my favorite bird identification guides. I have enough confidence in it to actually use it when I go birdwatching. The drawings of the birds are very good. They are also in full color and feature habitat backgrounds. The guide is weather-resistant and in a pocket-size format, too. The range maps are on the same page as the drawings and text descriptions of the birds. The text descriptions of the birds are very helpful and clear. The birds are organized by field-recognizable, instantly-observable characteristics. All the Birds of North America is one of my favorite field guides. It has really helped me. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding for actual field use.
Review: I have been interested in birding for about ten years, and own several other bird guides, and have examined closely several more. As you might imagine, most guides share quite a lot in common. If I were using a field guide to simply look at a backyard bird, I might equally well use my Peterson's Guide or my NGS Field Guide to the Birds of North America. All three of these guides have good art and organization, and are very usable. I think this is the best guide for FIELD use for several reasons: 1) The size and shape easily fit in a normal pocket. 2) The weather resistant materials the book is made of. 3) The way birds are grouped, by similarities in behavior, habitat, and appearance, allows for easy comparison and rapid identification of a species. The authors have obviously put a lot of thought into the design and organization of this book and it has a lot to offer both the beginning and advanced birder.
Rating:
Summary: A recommended fieldguide.
Review: I have had a copy of this fieldguide for quite a while, and it's usually the one I always take birding. It's got great information and good drawings. This guide is a must for the serious birder.
Rating:
Summary: Almost all the birds
Review: I noticed that this guide does not include the Arizona Woodpecker (a not particularly rare species) and wonder whether other species might also be missing. This is a bit disconcerting and makes me wonder how suitable it would be as your sole field guide.
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