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Rating: 
Summary: Easy to Identify Birds and Great for Bird Watching with Kids
Review: I stumbled on this book when I went to look at another bird field guide. I'm glad I compared guides before making a purchase. Needless to say I purchased this one over the one I intended to buy. There are many reasons why I like this book: It's consise and it's easy to identify birds; this guide contains photographs not drawings; the book is compact. Being true to its title, it contains only birds you'll find in California. You don't have to peruse through hundreds of birds to find the one you're looking for. A bird can be found either by its predominate color or an indexed listing of names. Each decription contains information about the bird's size, decription of male, female and juvenile, nest, eggs, incubation, fledging, migration, food, comparision to similar birds and additional author notes. So far I have been able to identify every bird I have looked up. One of the best features is that the book contains color photographs and not drawings of the birds. I really do think this is why my 5 year old daughter can state with confidence which bird we're watching. For those birds that are sexually dimorphic, the author includes photos of both the male and female. Each is cross reference by color too. There are also inset photos of the juveniles. With the photos you can percisely identify each characteristic of the bird and takes much of the guess work out of identification. The book is 4 3/8" X 6" X 7/8". About half the height of many other field guides and alot thinner making it much more portable. Probably the most important reason to purchase this book is that you'll use it.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to Identify Birds and Great for Bird Watching with Kids
Review: I stumbled on this book when I went to look at another bird field guide. I'm glad I compared guides before making a purchase. Needless to say I purchased this one over the one I intended to buy. There are many reasons why I like this book: It's consise and it's easy to identify birds; this guide contains photographs not drawings; the book is compact. Being true to its title, it contains only birds you'll find in California. You don't have to peruse through hundreds of birds to find the one you're looking for. A bird can be found either by its predominate color or an indexed listing of names. Each decription contains information about the bird's size, decription of male, female and juvenile, nest, eggs, incubation, fledging, migration, food, comparision to similar birds and additional author notes. So far I have been able to identify every bird I have looked up. One of the best features is that the book contains color photographs and not drawings of the birds. I really do think this is why my 5 year old daughter can state with confidence which bird we're watching. For those birds that are sexually dimorphic, the author includes photos of both the male and female. Each is cross reference by color too. There are also inset photos of the juveniles. With the photos you can percisely identify each characteristic of the bird and takes much of the guess work out of identification. The book is 4 3/8" X 6" X 7/8". About half the height of many other field guides and alot thinner making it much more portable. Probably the most important reason to purchase this book is that you'll use it.
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