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Need bird identification book
- This topic has 5 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 10 months ago by
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We have the bird feeder, stocked with food.
We have about 6 varieties of birds coming to eat.
Now I need a book to tell me what they are.
I know I can look online but the computer is so far from our bird feeding window.
I need a book that starts out by differentiating the birds based on color. I can’t use a book that starts out by listing them by family groups, b/c I don’t know the families. I went over to amazon but I can’t see enough inside the books that look promising. I need a personal recommendation.
Don’t quote me on the spelling of this but the National Auborn Society books I had bought for my dad are sorted by color and they are nice. I think you can still get them through Barns and Noble
Misty
After much searching, our family finally found an excellent bird field guide. It sorts the birds by color and has beautiful real life pictures. There is a book specifically for your state and is easy enough for even my 6 year old to use. The website is http://www.adventurepublications.net . The author is Stan Tekiela. He is a naturalist and wildlife photographer. The title of ours is “Birds of Michigan field guide” You would just have to do a search for your state. Sometimes you can get a free audio cd companion with each of the bird songs to go along with it. The best field guide we have ever seen. Let me know if can’t find a copy. Hope this helps.
Heather
I’ve always liked the National Audubon Society’s field guides. Their bird guides have photographs that are arranged by bird type. Within the songbird category the birds are arranged by color. They have two bird field guides, one for the Eastern U.S. and one for the Western states. Each picture corresponds to a page where you will find a brief description of its habitat, behavior, and what family it belongs to.
I have a friend who has a copy of the book csmamma mentions. It is pretty good, too, especially if you get the audio CD to go with it. Then, you can train your ear to know when the birds are in your yard and can watch for them at the feeder. 🙂
I agree with Heather that if you are just beginning, a state-specific book is a real plus. My state book is called “Birds of Iowa” and it is sorted by color and size, and I won’t be paging through pages of Florida or California birds to find what I see at my feeder.
That is the most helpful. The next thing I like are the Peterson field guides which do a really good job of pointing out field markings–the little things that will help you sort out one sparrow from another, and that sort of thing. Birds move so quickly sometimes, that I am glad we’ve taken the time to “train” ourselves to note field markings. We can often ID a bird with only a quick glance since we’ve trained our eyes to notice several things.
But if you have a state specific book available–search amazon for “birds” plus your state–or ask us if that doesn’t work, and perhaps someone will know of a title–that is the best thing for beginners since you won’t waste time with birds you aren’t going to be seeing, and the color sorting is very helpful in the beginning, although as you progress you’ll want to learn field markings.
A fun book I recently got, that isn’t exactly a field guide but would make a great “beginner” birding book, is The Backyard Bird Lover’s Field Guide by Sally Roth. I got it in some kind of special promotion from somewhere, although I don’t remember where, and it’s got good basic info plus a listing of birds you are most likely to see at a feeder in a given area, which can be very helpful.
Michelle D
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