Birds of North America : A Guide To Field Identification

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Summary: This is the BEST bird book out there!!
Review: The Golden Guide to Field Indentifcation of Birds of North America is a handy, not to mention effective, guide to the birds. Accidentals, rarities, stragglers, and casuals are all covered, along with the common birds. This guide includes full color illustrations of birds were and how they are most often spotted, whether gliding over the ocean or perching in dense underbrush, as well as winter, summer, eclipse, immature, chick, juvenile, adult, male, female, breeding, non-breeding, molting, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd winter plumages, if need be. Any bird spotted can quickly be indentified quickly and easily with this guide.

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Summary: Unbeatable Value
Review: There are bigger and more expensive bird guides but none pack as much information into such a portable, easy to use, inexpensive book as this. I've used it as a casual birder for several years. Among my favorite features are the taxonomic indicators (blue squares and circles indicating Order, Family and Sub Family or Genus), little bits of natural history (that some advanced guides assume you already know) and comparison silhouettes. I recommend this book to anyone wanting a first bird guide.

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Summary: This book is the best book for all bird watchers.
Review: This book is excellent for all people interested in birds. Unlike the Peterson books, this book has all birds of North America in one edition. Also, it has maps right next to the description of the bird so you don't have to go flipping pages to find it. It is fully illistrated, which in my opinion is better than photos because you it shows all the different plumages and if the light was off while the picture was taken, it might not look right. It shows all birds and if two look alike, it will tell you how to tell them apart. It shows pictures of male and female bird. It also includes sonograms of bird calls. The content of each bird's description is remarkable, telling how to attract it, etc. Golden Books has done a wonderful job on this book.

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Summary: An effective field book but I have a complaint.
Review: This book is my choice in the field when banding birds; it has been for over twenty years.The pages of sparrow and warbler heads are especially useful in the field. To improve the book's value in the field, my associates and I carefully copy considerable information from the American banding manual and other references to my BNA field book; we need the book to last a long time. Unfortunately the paper in my older less expensive hardbacks is apparently superior under field conditions to the newer versions. My latest hard cover version absorbs water excessively, pages are swelling, getting warped, and accept new ink poorly, The book rather quickly becomes awkward to use and is getting worse. The pages and page numbers in the soft and hard cover books are not the same. The first and last bit of pages are not even the same. Some useful index summaries are not correct for both and communication at a banding station is complicated when some are not using the same type cover. Without these printing and materials quality problems being solved it would be difficult for me to continue the use of the book in the field.

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Summary: A classic with uncommon features.
Review: This book's extensive use of sonograms distinguishes it from its more popular competitors. Overall, an excellent resource.

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Summary: great buy
Review: This guide is wonderful. The pictures are very descriptive and make it easy to identify different birds.

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Summary: All on one page field guide beats all other formats
Review: Tired of flipping from index to photo or illustration to description of one bird? This field guide gives you everything on pages facing one another. They also have a sonogram for bird calls and the best and most easily identifiable art work of any field guide I've ever seen.

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Summary: An indispensable companion on any road trip.
Review: We have already worn out two soft-cover copies of this book, and our current hard-cover is well worn. The illustrations are excellent, much better than the photos found in some bird books. It is easy to use and has helped us identify many unfamiliar birds for over thirty years.