Rating: 
Summary: In 30 years, tried 'em all, but carry this one!
Review: "Birds of North America" is a truly excellent guide. It may not be the most comprehensive, but it certainly is the most useful. It's probably the all-around greatest birding field guide out there. The illustrations are very well done, and the size of the book is easily manageable. This book is detailed enough to accomodate all but the most demanding and professional birders, but user-friendly enough to not overwhelm the amateur.
I must say however, that the new St. Martin's Press re-printed is a travesty. I luckily have the 1983 printing with the original blue cover and the beautifully rendered pages. I've seen the "new" edition in the bookstore, and like many other reviewers I am very annoyed by the poor quality of the reproductions. The pictures and pages are now faded and off-colour.
I've recently been aquainted with the National Geographic bird guide, and I must admit it's a very good guide with pictures that are perhaps "sharper" than those in the Golden Guide. By today the Golden Guide is also a little out of date, due to many changes to avian nomenclature. However, one thing the NG guide will never match is the Golden Guide's immense readability. The NG guide is too detailed for its own good, and uses highly technical language that simply overwhelms the casual birder. I now tend to carry both books into the field, but the Golden Guide will always have a special place in my heart. I highly recommend it if you can find an old copy of the 1983 printing.
Rating:
Summary: Don't leave Home without it
Review: "Birds of North America" is a truly excellent guide. It may not be the most comprehensive, but it certainly is the most useful. It's probably the all-around greatest birding field guide out there. The illustrations are very well done, and the size of the book is easily manageable. This book is detailed enough to accomodate all but the most demanding and professional birders, but user-friendly enough to not overwhelm the amateur.
Rating:
Summary: Don't leave Home without it
Review: "Birds of North America" is a truly excellent guide. It may not be the most comprehensive, but it certainly is the most useful. It's probably the all-around greatest birding field guide out there. The illustrations are very well done, and the size of the book is easily manageable. This book is detailed enough to accomodate all but the most demanding and professional birders, but user-friendly enough to not overwhelm the amateur.
Rating:
Summary: Great artwork, presentation, and value
Review: How they can sell this book at such a low price is beyond me. Lots of quality here. Look at the cover with the buntings: it's not just some recycled art from the interior, but a specially painted picture just for the cover. This is part of the value that the authors offer you. More importantly, the illustrations really capture what the birds look like in real life -- to my mind better than other paintings in guides and a thousand times better than photos -- and the text is clear and to the point. Sections that showcase winter plumage of gulls or peeps or that illustrate the heads of warblers or sparrows have the page numbers right next to each picture so you can just whip over to bird in question if you need more information. I especially like the fact that the range maps are right next to the bird's picture so you don't have to thumb to some inconvenient map index the back of the book only to find that the bird is never present in your area. Everything is right there to help you make a quick identification.
Rating:
Summary: great buy
Review: I actually have the 1983 expanded, revised edition. I like photos more than a book with drawings but these drawings are almost photo quality. What I like about this book is that simular birds are pictured together on one page. Diane
Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: I actually have the 1983 expanded, revised edition. I like photos more than a book with drawings but these drawings are almost photo quality. What I like about this book is that simular birds are pictured together on one page. Diane
Rating: 
Summary: A relic
Review: I birded with this book for years, not replacing it until 1983 and the arrival of NatGeo. Unfortunately, the two 'updates' it has undergone in the last twenty years are barely cosmetic, and the book is now embarrassingly outmoded even for beginners, who would be much better served by Sibley or Kaufman.
The thorough criticisms in Rich Stallcup's "Birds for Real," which appeared as a response to the first revision of the Golden Guide, remain valid. There are still a great many birds that will be simply unidentifiable using this guide; there is no excuse, for example, for not having the shorebird plates repainted to include the distinct juvenal plumages of the small Calidris, for example.
If you want a one-volume guide for use in the field, choose the Eastern or Western Sibley, the most sophisticated and most informative American field guides available. If your ambitions are more limited, if you are a 'backyard birder' or a 'feederwatcher' or just don't care about anything brown or far away, you will be very happy with Kenn Kaufman's "Focus Guide," with its accurate but brief texts and realistic illustrations.
Rating: 
Summary: Birder from Wisconsin
Review: I bought this book for a college level ornithology calss and did not find it very helpful. I very much perfer the Peterson's field guide. The illustrations are not very detailed, and often look confusingly similar to one another. Unfortunately, the Peterson's foeld guide comes in two seperate volumes, and there is much overlap. This book is nice in that it covers the entire country in one concise volume. But, if you are planning on traveling and bringing your field guide with you, I feel that the Peterson's field guides are a much better choice.
Rating:
Summary: The definitive North American Bird Guide
Review: I first purchased this guide as a 13 year old back in 1971, graduating from the introductory Zim/Gabrielson "Golden Guide" and the Chester A. Reed classic on eastern birds. This book became my birding companion for years to come, and successive copies became dog-eared and worn out with extensive use. As a teenager growing up in southern Ontario, I used to marvel at the "Carolinian" species - those species which reached the very northern limit of their distributions in the area I grew up - on the pages of this wonderful book. Singer's renditions of Orchard Orioles, Carolina Wrens, Cerulean and Blue-Winged Warblers, amongst the other 700+ species illustrated with such precision and described in exquisite detail by Bruun, Robbins and Zim are painstakingly accurate, and not only defined my youthful birdwatching days but evoke many memories of growing up in the Canadian countryside. I have lived in Europe since 1983, but this guide accompanies me on every return trip I make to North America.
Rating:
Summary: The definitive North American Bird Guide
Review: I first purchased this guide as a 13 year old back in 1971, graduating from the introductory Zim/Gabrielson "Golden Guide" and the Chester A. Reed classic on eastern birds. This book became my birding companion for years to come, and successive copies became dog-eared and worn out with extensive use. As a teenager growing up in southern Ontario, I used to marvel at the "Carolinian" species - those species which reached the very northern limit of their distributions in the area I grew up - on the pages of this wonderful book. Singer's renditions of Orchard Orioles, Carolina Wrens, Cerulean and Blue-Winged Warblers, amongst the other 700+ species illustrated with such precision and described in exquisite detail by Bruun, Robbins and Zim are painstakingly accurate, and not only defined my youthful birdwatching days but evoke many memories of growing up in the Canadian countryside. I have lived in Europe since 1983, but this guide accompanies me on every return trip I make to North America.
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