National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Fifth Edition

Nat Geo has done a great job with this book, at least for the non-professional bird watcher! A great resource!

Better size than Sibley for a field guide and almost as good as Sibley as a guide.Best to have both.

A single field guide is not sufficient. A birder needs to compare the information and illustrations of two or more field guides. The trick is to pick field guides that provide comprehensive, easily accessible, clear information that make identifications quick and indisputable. I believe that the Fifth Edition of the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America has a number of qualities and features that make it an admirable and worthy choice as one of the field guides one should use.

First, it has the very sage advice, "The time you spend at home with your field guide will be repaid when you go out birding." Using its maps as a guide, a birder can peruse the pages to obtain a good idea of what to expect in the field.

Among this field guide's qualities are an easy to use quick find index on the back cover flap, a convenient size, illustrations of the 967 species seen in North American (including the extinct ones) and a wonderfully helpful Introduction with many hints on bird identification, parts of a bird, the range of maps, and how to be a better birder. For example, the Introduction provides an illustration of what to look for and how to tell a Lesser Scaup from a Greater Scaup.

The text is comprehensive, providing the diagnostic features for males, females, and juveniles when these vary. Although the diagnostic features of a species are not pointed out in the illustrations, which is a drawback in my eyes, the concise text clearly sets out the features. An experienced birder will have no difficulty finding the correct family or grouping of birds even if they still cannot tell the Empidonax flycatchers apart. (That is not the fault of the field guide.)

The field guide does have a few draw backs. It promotes itself as "comprehensive, authoritative, portable, sturdy, and easier than ever to use". Without field testing, the sturdiness of the paperback format to withstand rugged use is unknown, but in doubt. The illustrations vary in quality. While the illustration of the Greater Roadrunner is absolutely brilliant in shape and color, the Northern Cardinal's color seems muddy and dull. Any birder will still be able to identify a Northern Cardinal, but the reality will be different from the illustration, which casts some doubt on the color representations of other, less well known species.

Despite these minor flaws that emphasize the need for more than one field guide, I highly recommend the Fifth Edition of the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America as one of the field guides to study at home or carry into the field.

National Geographic's 5th edition of its Field Guide to the Birds of North America is very much improved. The illustrations are larger than those in other bird books I've used in the past, and the range maps have been both updated and enlarged. There are 80 more North American species in this edition -- 967 in all -- illustrated beautifully in color and accurately described by field marks, behavior, habitat, range, and vocalization. I especially like the handy thumbtabs -- very convenient for quick reference -- and this NatGeo 5th edition has a practical, weather-resistant cover and informative flaps that can be used as placeholders. There are other bird field guides, but this is the best I've seen.

I would have enjoyed flipping through the book first. I am seeing birds at my location that, according to the guide, shouldn't be in this flyway. But overall, I'm satisfied - it's really helpful.