Rating: 
Summary: The Sibley Guide to Birds: Field Identification
Review: This rating should actually be a four and a half, the only drawback on the wonderful book is it is to large for a field guide. With this book you will have no doubt in identifying your bird. Have fun.
Rating: 
Summary: Eggzactly Wrong
Review: This is a book about identifying birds. The index does not include the word "egg", nor can any trace of the word be easily discovered....certainly no pictures. I am very disappointed with this monstrous oversight.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful - get it!
Review: Absolutely the best bird identification guide I have. Worth every penny of the cover price. It is not really too large for carrying into the woods though it is indeed larger than most field guids - and the precise, carefully described illustrations make it far more helpful than photographic guides, and even - I never thought I'd say this! - than Peterson's. Buy this at once - every bird lover will love this book.
Rating:
Summary: The Sibley Guide -- your choice
Review: I am always on the lookout for a good new field guide. When Sibley's new guide came out, I was anxious to see it, but went to take a look at the whole thing at a local bookstore before placing my order. I never ordered it. While the illustrations are absolutely fantastic -- my compliments to Mr. Sibley for this aspect of his book -- the text aspect is inexcusably poor. The general trend throughout the book seems to be a full page of beautiful illustrations, with a 2- or 3- sentence blurb at the bottom of the page. I would recommend Sibley's Guide to those who are looking for a book with excellent illustrations. However, this book is not as useful as some of the other guides on the market to those serious birders looking for a guide with some meat to the text.
Rating:
Summary: Sibley Guide to the Birds, a review.
Review: No single field guide is comprehensive. No single field guide so out strips all others as to make them a bunch of has-beens. And this guide is no different. Now, before we go to much further it should be noted that this is a monumental work for one person. The art work in particular is excellent and goes up from there. Where I felt it fell short was in the written material. There were several times where there was no mention of a behavior that is considered, at least in my personal experience (and by most other field guides), to be standard field marks. Examples: The call of the eastern phoebe often is a harsh, grating, "phoebe!" And there is a reason why wagtails are called wagtails. And yet there is no mention of either of these are in the Mr. Sibley' guide. I.E. I felt that many level 1001 field marks/behaviors were left out. Left me wondering what else was missed/left out. I also had difficulty with the authors song transcriptions. For myself they did not convey the tone and quality of the songs that gave me that "of yes that's it!" feeling. This, I feel, is really an issue particular to me. This guide approaches the work of R.T. Peterson and the National Geographic guide, and is far better than nearly anything else after that. In the second addition, I'm sure there will be a second addition, I hope the main improvements will be in the written material. Breaking it down to two books for eastern and western geographical areas would be a reasonable consideration as there is a natural division east and west. It would open up more room for written material. Pictures are all well and good, but I find it is often the written material that cuts to the chase and eliminates all doubt. In the final assessment this clearly is a world class effort, and should be on any birders bookshelf. I have my copy. Do you?
Rating:
Summary: The Willow Ptarmigan goes: poDAYdopoDAYdo...by fermed
Review: I am not a bird watcher. In my system, birds are classified as "large, medium, and small," and in the field I may notice a blue one, or one that is yellow, if I notice any of them at all. My only serious experience that involved gazing upon these animals was on Machias Island, when the puffins were breading. One does not, of course, see the actual breeding episodes, but there are puffins galore there, doing all sorts of things. The Canadian wildlife service maintains little blinds from which you can get pictures of puffins to your heart's content, and that is exactly what I did. That one day experience both initiated and brought to a close my bird watching career. Why then would I review this beautiful book about feathered beasties, and even compare it to other birding books? I became interested in bird guides after reading a book (which I reviewed for Amazon) called "Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classical Prose." The authors, Francis-Noel Thomas and Mark Turner, cite the description of the Northen shrike found in the Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds, Eastern Edition, as an example of classic prose. And it surely is that, as are the rest of the entries in this excellent book. I bought that book, and then I got Peterson's "A Field Guide to Birds," which is a classic in birding literature. As some people say about Playboy, I bought these books for the writing in them, not the pictures. I found the Sibley book very pleasing to look at, with the pictures as clear and as beautiful as Peterson's, perhaps even better. I will leave that for the experts to decide.The writing is also pleasing, but not as convincing as the Field Guide. In matters of fine prose, I would rank the Field Guide (Bull & Farrand)as the best of my three books, followed by Sibley and then Peterson's. Take, for example, the treatment of the euphonic Willow Ptarmigan. All three books attempt to describe these bird's voices, and here is how they do it: Peterson's claims that their sounds are a "deep raucus calls, 'go-out, go-out' and that the male has staccato crow: 'know, know, tobacco, tobacco,' etc., or 'go-back, go-back.'" Sibley says that the male in display gives comical, nasal, barking calls in series 'goBEK, goBEK, goBEK, poDaydopoDaydo..." and a smoothly accelerating laugh. The Field Guide reports: "In flight, courting males have a loud staccato 'go-back, go-back,' and other guttural calls." There it is: succint, quick, with a little detail that is missing from the others: the sound takes place while the male is in flight. Even though an outsider, I can tell that all three books are very fine. For prose I must give the Field Guide an A+, but certainly the other two deserve A's; and I did appreciate Sibley's "smoothly accelerating laugh."
Rating:
Summary: great guide - great price
Review: This is a beautiful book and so well organized. Illustrations are stunning - very clear and extremely high quality. Yes it's too heavy to drag around but its the kind of thing that you will refer to at home all the time - it'll get the kids interested too
Rating:
Summary: Lots of Info, Keep as reference
Review: This has some great information in it. More than any other American Field Guide I have ever picked up!...But with all that info comes a price...IT IS HUGE for a Field Guide! Some folks may want to stuff it there backpack anyhow. I love all the many details on each species, even more than my National Geographic Guide. I think the week point may be the maps but not enough to be highly concerned. The truth is birds fly and they all go where they want anyway (yes, I really believe this.) I like the song I.D.s and the paintings are great, sometimes a little small for the pages but for some reason it does not bother me and it seems to make up for it with all the extra paintings. Great book! If you are a serious birder you must have this in your library!
Rating:
Summary: Simply the Best
Review: As an amateur birder, I am always scrounging for ID's. This is simply the best guide I have, although it's definately not your backpacking guide. It sits on the bookshelf by the window next to the feeders.
Rating: 
Summary: A great guide that will live on the shelf
Review: Too heavy to consider taking into the field. This will have to stay on the shelf to use as a reference. Go with the National Geographic Guide if you plan to go birding.
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