Stokes Field Guide to Birds : Eastern Region

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Summary: THE best guides for the backyard bird watcher
Review: A few months after I set up bird feeders in my yard, I found myself looking for a good bird identification book to help me to identify some of the feathered visitors that I had never seen before and couldn't identify. I'm not a professional bird-watcher--just someone who enjoys the variety of birds (and their antics) and who wants to be able to identify and learn something about all these new birds my feeders were atracting. Finding a good bird ID book geared towards the backyard bird-watcher proved to be a lot easier said than done. I looked through all kinds of books, and even the ones by publishers whose reputations would lead one to believe they would likely be what I desired (e.g., National Geographic, Petersen's) were disappointing. Some of the problems with these guides were: dime-sized illustrations of the birds, paintings of birds rather than pictures of them in the wild, (In spite of "professional" bird watcher's who seem to think that bird guides with paintings are the only way to go, I've never seen a painted bird in the wild so I don't find paintings very helpful.), pertinent basic facts like nesting behavior and feeding habits buried in scholarly treatises, or contrarily, very bare descriptions. When I finally found this book (and its companion book covering the western USA), I had finally found what I had looked so long for. Here was a book that had actual pictures of birds in the wild--and they weren't dime-sized either. This book also frequently has a picture of not just the male but also the female birds along with immature young whose coloring is distinct from the adults--and even variant/sub-species show up from time to time. The information in each profile is a good summary of each of the most important aspects of a particular bird species (e.g., distinguishing characteristics, feeding habits, song(s), nesting habits and patterns, and the most interesting/useful notes about miscellaneous aspects of each bird). The guides are excellently organized--and in several ways. There is a quick, color-coded index for finding pages on the most common birds as well as color-marked sections on broad types of birds. A comprensive and easy-to-use index is also included. The only negative aspect to the guides which I've found are that more than once I have found the ranges to be inaccurate--or perhaps out of date. (It's true that the ranges of some bird species seem to spread out rather quickly.) According to the range in the guide, purple finches shouldn't be even near my area; yet, thanks to the guide's comments about distinguishing house finches from purple finches, I've identified them at my feeders many times. Finally, the western region guide covers the region west of the 40th Meridian (line of longitude) which is roughly from the middle of the North Dakota border with Canada down through the "boot" of Texas. (Yes, Canadian birds are covered too.) Any birds that appear at all in that area are covered--even if most of their range is east of that line. The converse is true for the eastern region guide, so in many cases a bird species will be listed in both guides because their range covers areas on both sides of the 40th Meridian.

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Summary: Much better than most
Review: After using many inadequate field guides, this became my standard guide. Now I use it with the Sibley's field guide (the BEST field guide out there). Between the two of them, I have all the information I need. The photographs are a great complement to Sibley's drawings. But the photos often lack many of the important field marks. And the regional variation in some species may make the pictures useless or worse, misleading. Juvenile and female pictures are often missing. Many occasional visitors to New Mexico are missing from this book, although the common species are there. The maps are pretty good. The behavioral, feeding and breeding info is very helpful. It's a great resource for the backyard birdwatcher, and a good supplement for the serious birder.



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Summary: Excellent auxiliary guide, especially range maps co-located
Review: Although the photographs cannot help identify all specimens of a given species, they are reasonably good and sometimes help "translate" from Peterson drawing to life. The best aspects of the book are the maps right with the species and the colored tabs on the page sides to quickly flip to bird groups; I also enjoy the conservation status information. My #2 birding book for the east.

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Summary: The pictures are excellent and grouped well for easy ID
Review: I found Stokes Guide to be helpful and informitive. As an amateur bird watcher I enjoyed how much easier it is to identify birds while using this guide

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Summary: excellent book for the birder
Review: I found this book to be an excellent resource for birds in Wisconsin. With its companion CD they make a wonderful resource and have helped me identify many of the birds in my area.

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Summary: Probably the best Bird Guide
Review: I got this book after reading the online reviews and was not let down. I have several other bird books but this gets the most use.

Rating:
Summary: Probably the best Bird Guide
Review: I got this book after reading the online reviews and was not let down. I have several other bird books but this gets the most use.

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Summary: SUPERB FIELD GUIDE WITH LARGE PHOTOS!!!
Review: I recently got into this hobby of birding, and was looking for a good book to take with me on weekend jaunts, or to I.D. birds in my backyard. I am by no means a professional, but a casual birder. For that purpose, this fantastic book is much more than adequate! I like to 'check off' each corner page when I spot one of the birds shown, and the real color photos are an invaluable tool! Just this morning, this gorgeous Red Shouldered Hawk was sitting on a fencepost (was visiting my brother in the Cleveland, Ohio area), and I was able to readily I.D. it using this book. My next purchase will be a pair of digital binoculars with a built in digital cam. That way, I will be able to take a snapshot of these critters, and I.D. them later, if I can't at that moment! Plus, all the information on each bird is on one page! This is really a fascinating hobby, and I am glad to own this book (and the Western version) as my first guide! I highly recommend it.

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Summary: A great field guide...
Review: I've used most of the bird field guides and this one is the best. It is clear and easy to use. The photographs capture the field marks better than some others. I like the easy access to the maps (they're included with every bird description).

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Summary: This book, despite its title, is not a field guide
Review: Putting a not-so-good photo at the top of a page (1 species per page) does not make a field guide. There is little consideration given to male/female/immature or different plumages, and no ability to compare similar-appearing species that may have their photos pages away. Do yourself a favor and get a real field guide.