Jonathan Alderfer

One of my favorite birding field guides is published by National Geographic so it’s no surprise I thoroughly enjoyed paging through the recently published Bird Watcher’s Bible. Natural history writers and bird experts have joined together to share their knowledge in this beautiful volume.

The book presents a variety of information laid out in an attractive, enticing format, perfect for browsing through the pages. This is not intended as a field guide to identify birds. It is more like a show more modern-day encyclopedia with a wealth of information. The artwork is gorgeous with beautiful color photos and illustrations. The text consists of brief narratives and, scattered throughout, numerous sidebars containing interesting facts, anecdotes and lists.

One of the recurring sidebar factoids I enjoyed was a series on the derivation of a bird’s name. If you listen closely, some birds will tell you their names. For example, the eastern Phoebe calls out fee-be, the Eastern Wood Pewee says pee-a-wee, and the Blue Jay shrieks a piercing jay, jay jay.

Enjoyable, entertaining and at times amusing, this very readable book is not just for bird enthusiasts. Highly recommended for readers of all ages and levels who enjoy nature and the wonder and joy of birds. show less

On the bird walks, there were many things I heard from other birders that I didn’t understand. And I couldn’t fathom how birders, no matter how experienced, could look up at a bird and quickly declare its species name.When I saw the beautifully illustrated book, National Geographic Birding Essentials, on the to-be-cataloged cart at the library, I flipped through it, and knew I needed to buy a copy. The writers have put together a comprehensive guide for the beginner-to-intermediate show more birder. They explain basics such as how to buy a pair of binoculars and use them effectively, and what information one can get (and can’t get) from field guides (of course using as a sample the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America that they themselves edited). Distribution and range maps are explained as is the question we beginning birders often wonder: why are the species in field guides arranged the way they are?

Chapter 4 is devoted to the parts of a bird. Probably every part that could exist on any bird is discussed in detail – crowns, beaks, wings, flank, vent bands, scapulars, primaries, chins, carpal bars, tertial steps, everything. Chapter 5 talks about how to identify birds and gives examples of specific things to look for—eye rings, face masks, tail lengths and more. Chapter 6 discusses variation in birds. Females and males sometimes look similar, but in some species the differences are striking. Juveniles sometimes look very different from adults. Chapter 7 discusses the authors’ twelve hardest species to identify. Fieldcraft, the actual how-tos of birding, is described in Chapter 8. From obvious advice about listening for birds to the more peculiar practices of phishing and listing, it’s all here. Birding hot spots, annual surveys, magazines and journals are discussed. Scopes, digiscoping, GPS units, listing software and other tools are mentioned. The last chapter is on taxonomy and nomenclature. A two-page glossary and a one-page bibliography, including websites, are included.

The only birding essential that is not discussed in detailare the specific differences between all the popular field guides, but it is understandable that the authors only discuss their own. show less

My favorite birding guide book. It has great pictures and descriptions. The blurbs with the range maps is fantastic and it has a lot of incidental species to South Texas (at least) that a lot of guide books lack since they are not "common enough", I guess.

There's a handy checklist in the back if you want to check off species as you see them, but since I'm a much more casual birder, I just write in the white space next to the bird where and when I saw it for the first time.

National Geographic Complete Birds of North America, 3rd Edition: Featuring More Than 1,000 Species With the Most Detailed Information Found in a Single Volume edited by Jonathan Alderfer, Jon Dunn is a very highly recommended desk reference guide to every bird species found in the continental USA, Canada, and Greenland. Think of this guide as an encyclopedia of birds. The guide opens with the Table of Contents listing the page number of the birds by families. The introduction follows and show more provides an overview of the additional information provided in this updated guide by ornithologists and artists. This includes updated range maps. The contents follow the latest taxonomic sequencing and naming conventions adopted by the American Ornithological Society as of July 2018. The introduction also includes information on plumage variation, feather topography, and abundance terms and codes.

For anyone interested in ornithology, National Geographic Complete Birds of North America, 3rd Edition is a wonderful reference guide. As expected the artwork is impeccable and finely detailed. The entry for each bird family provides points of identification based on structure, behavior, plumage, distribution, taxonomy, and conservation. Then the individual genus and species are presented covering identification and plumage distinctions based on gender and age, feather topography, as well as the bird in flight. Similar species are presented, as are the voice calls and songs. There is a status and distribution map and a note on the population. Included at the back are two pages on birds found in Greenland and Bermuda that are not from Canada or the USA. Following that is the list of contributors with a brief biography of each, the credits for illustrations, art and photographs and a detailed index.

After receiving the guide, I immediately put it to work identifying a hawk who decided to eat a lunch of raccoon on a deck post at my house. (It was a Krinder's Red Tail Hawk, sometimes treated by some as a subspecies, kriderii.) The illustrations were perfect and helped me enormously. And yes, the voice was a husky scream, shee-eeee-arrr. Then I was off identifying another bird from a photo (Golden-Crowned Kinglet). The National Geographic Complete Birds of North America, 3rd Edition was an ease to use.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of National Geographic for TLC Book Tours. http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/ on 11/15/21
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