On the Wing #9: A Modern Field Guide
So often it seems in our world today that everything feels more complex than it used to, or that the world is moving much quicker than it ever has before. It's during these times that it helps to withdraw into the beauty of nature and enjoy the quiet that surrounds us in those wild places. We might go fishing at a favorite pond, bicycle along a wooded road, or bird in nearby fields search for species seen and unseen to brighten up our day. I would most likely be conducting the latter and with me would be the standard equipment of all good birders: a pair of binoculars and a field guide. The binoculars go without saying, but it's ultimately the quality of the field guide that determines if a birder or naturalist can quickly and efficiently identify the bird that has been seen. The last "great" field guide to be hailed and celebrated as "revolutionizing" the field of bird identification was David Sibley's "The Sibley Guide to Birds". While I use it as my primary source of identification, in terms of greatness, it is nothing compared to the efforts of the field manuals before him. The only revolution that was spawned was his more complex use of systematics, combined with impeccable paintings of species that regularly occur in North America. This makes it an unusual blend of easy access identification combined with the technical data that would make it useful to all classes of birder. In my mind, it has achieved a rare distinction of representing a hybrid or dual citizenship in regards to field guides.
Generally, when I think of field guides, I place them into two categories: 1. Reference volumes and 2. Field manuals. The reason for the distinction is that for a bird guide to be useful it must both provide an accurate portrait of the bird in question, but also provide a easily read text that will allow the user to gain more information about a given species. The difference can be seen in most field guides on the market today. If one compares Peterson, Kaufman, and Stokes guides, one can place them in the field manual section based on their relatively small and compact nature, their sparse, but specific use of text in their description of the bird at hand, and the relative ease with which a beginning birder can utilize them in the field to identify an unknown species, provided they have had experience with the guide beforehand. Reference volumes include older field manuals and newer reference texts such as Chapman's "Birds of Eastern North America", Forbush's "Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States", Todd's "Natural History of the Waterfowl", and Ehrlich, Dobkin, and Wheye's "Birders Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds". These are more useful in determining facts about life history, range, feeding habits, and other biological anomalies that would be too verbose to place in the confides of more minimal field manual.
The most recent addition to the field guide medley is the confusing volume entitled "The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds". I'm not sure what the original intent of the field guide was, but it's certainly too bulky to be taken afield and upon initial inspection, the sensory overload one experiences from looking at each and every one of the bird-filled plates is enough to confused you more, regardless of birding experience. After getting over the different format of the book, one can appreciate what the guide is trying to do. It appears to be a visual reference text masquerading as a field guide and that's what makes the guide harder to place in terms of its usefulness to birders. It feels like a cheat code version of "Where's Waldo" where all the Waldo's are smooshed together onto one page with a minimal paragraph of information describing the picture above. The pictures overall are spectacular and clearly detailed towards a given bird's natural poses and behavior and the backgrounds that are featured represent environments where the birds are most likely to be found. Overall, as the next modern guide to does a shoddy job as a field guide, but might make for a suitable coffee table book instead.
If only for the sake of opinion alone, I would recommend the following field guides for beginners.
1. Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America by Roger Tory Peterson and Lee Allen Peterson
2. Backyard Birds: Field Guides for Young Naturalists by Jon L. Dunn and Jonathan Alderfer
3. National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Sixth Edition by Karen Stray Nolting, Jonathan Latimer, and Roger Tory Peterson
4. Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America by Kenn Kaufman
I choose these books as they are simple to use, as well as being beautifully drawn or photographed. They provide beginners with the tools needed to start birding around their neighbourhoods and begin to recognize those many species that often go unnoticed by those who are often unaware of those creatures that live amongst us. To those who are still hesitant about trying out birding, I offer this piece of advice. Start small and grow. Even the ducks at a local pond or the birds at your feeder will do when you are starting out. Even the smallest acorn grows into the mighty oak, so if you start small you will grow into something so wonderful, that you won't even believe it was that simple to do in the first place. Happy birding. ^_^
Generally, when I think of field guides, I place them into two categories: 1. Reference volumes and 2. Field manuals. The reason for the distinction is that for a bird guide to be useful it must both provide an accurate portrait of the bird in question, but also provide a easily read text that will allow the user to gain more information about a given species. The difference can be seen in most field guides on the market today. If one compares Peterson, Kaufman, and Stokes guides, one can place them in the field manual section based on their relatively small and compact nature, their sparse, but specific use of text in their description of the bird at hand, and the relative ease with which a beginning birder can utilize them in the field to identify an unknown species, provided they have had experience with the guide beforehand. Reference volumes include older field manuals and newer reference texts such as Chapman's "Birds of Eastern North America", Forbush's "Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States", Todd's "Natural History of the Waterfowl", and Ehrlich, Dobkin, and Wheye's "Birders Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds". These are more useful in determining facts about life history, range, feeding habits, and other biological anomalies that would be too verbose to place in the confides of more minimal field manual.
The most recent addition to the field guide medley is the confusing volume entitled "The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds". I'm not sure what the original intent of the field guide was, but it's certainly too bulky to be taken afield and upon initial inspection, the sensory overload one experiences from looking at each and every one of the bird-filled plates is enough to confused you more, regardless of birding experience. After getting over the different format of the book, one can appreciate what the guide is trying to do. It appears to be a visual reference text masquerading as a field guide and that's what makes the guide harder to place in terms of its usefulness to birders. It feels like a cheat code version of "Where's Waldo" where all the Waldo's are smooshed together onto one page with a minimal paragraph of information describing the picture above. The pictures overall are spectacular and clearly detailed towards a given bird's natural poses and behavior and the backgrounds that are featured represent environments where the birds are most likely to be found. Overall, as the next modern guide to does a shoddy job as a field guide, but might make for a suitable coffee table book instead.
If only for the sake of opinion alone, I would recommend the following field guides for beginners.
1. Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America by Roger Tory Peterson and Lee Allen Peterson
2. Backyard Birds: Field Guides for Young Naturalists by Jon L. Dunn and Jonathan Alderfer
3. National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Sixth Edition by Karen Stray Nolting, Jonathan Latimer, and Roger Tory Peterson
4. Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America by Kenn Kaufman
I choose these books as they are simple to use, as well as being beautifully drawn or photographed. They provide beginners with the tools needed to start birding around their neighbourhoods and begin to recognize those many species that often go unnoticed by those who are often unaware of those creatures that live amongst us. To those who are still hesitant about trying out birding, I offer this piece of advice. Start small and grow. Even the ducks at a local pond or the birds at your feeder will do when you are starting out. Even the smallest acorn grows into the mighty oak, so if you start small you will grow into something so wonderful, that you won't even believe it was that simple to do in the first place. Happy birding. ^_^
The first paragraph sounded very transcendentalist of you :P It's probably the spirit of Massachusetts nature you've absorbed.
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