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We've all heard of National
Geographic, the company that
publishes the famous nature magazine
with the beautiful photos, they have
the television channel, you've must
have seen there little yellow frame
logo. Well who better to do a field
guide to birds?
Why do I love this book? Well
first the superb illustrations--they
are gorgeous--all 800 of them. Then
there are range maps which show you
how the bird is distributed, while
somewhat tiny they are still easy to
understand. There are checkboxes in
the index which you can mark as you
spot each species, which is
satisfying and can be done by
anyone, including kids.
Until
this book first came out in 1983 the
most popular bird guide was
Peterson's; but it came in two
volumes, one for the East and one
for the West. This book covers all
North America.
Everywhere I go I see old shop worn
copies of the National Geographic
Guide, a true sign of devotion.
You can usually tell how well a book
is selling by the number of editions
it has, and that works for this
book, its in its fourth and keeps
getting better. Even at almost 500
pages the book is sturdy and
portable and features information on
every bird species known in North
America, even rare migrants and
extinct birds, or ones thought to be
extinct like the
Ivory-billed Woodpecker.
Everywhere I go I see old shop worn
copies of the National Geographic
Guide, a true sign of devotion.
There are some negatives, none that
are deal breakers for me, but could
bother a pro. For example the
illustrations, understandably from
lots of different artists, are not
equal, some are better than others.
I said earlier it was portable. Well
to a point. At 1.4 pounds and 8 x 5
x 1 inch its too big to fit in your
pocket, so you definitely need a
backpack to carry it.
The identification text is very
short and often does not give all
the color marks, and so you have to
draw your own conclusions sometimes,
like is the bird's vent pale yellow
or light tan. Still the text is
always very readable, and you can
tell its been reviewed a lot. And I
mean a lot, the acknowledgments
pages have hundreds of names, so
many I am not sure why they are
included. What did each of these
people contribute? Its never
explained.
If
you are just starting out in the
bird watching hobby, this is THE
guide. Or if someone told you they
are interested in birding, but they
don't know where to start, get them
this book.
See what other people think of the National
Geographic Field Guide to Birds of
North America
at Amazon.
Mitchell Waite
May 24, 2005 |
