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

Great pictures with detailed informations. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoy birding or just being able to identify birds in their own backyard.

This guide is great! I am an 8-year old birder. National Geographic wrote a great guide; I am willing to get the companions to it including Nat. Geo. Complete Birds of North America and Birding Hot Spots of the United States. My Dad Might go with Nat. Geo. to film birds migrating long distances[he is a wildlife photographer] to some places in the eastern U.S. and southeast Mexico and I will come and use this book and The Sibley Guide to Birds - a great companion to this book.

The only thing disappointing about this book is that it does not have the bird's vocal description. I hear interesting bird calls often.

Definitely a recommended book.

The thumbnails and the flyleaf index are handy. The drawings are good. My one objection is that the fieldmarks are in the text only (other guides use arrows on the drawings/pictures). The format is a little larger than other guides, and the book a bit heavier. The introduction is fine. Since it is new, the species splits and merges are up to date.

For birders, there's never been a better time to find a field guide. Sibley and Kauffman have both published very good guides in the last few years, serious competition for the venerable National Geographic guide. National Geographic has responded with this, the 5th Edition, which has almost all of the new names, new splits and new species. How to decide among the competitors for the guide to take into the field?

First, you can't go wrong with any of the three. They are all very good, although each brings different strengths and weaknesses.

Second, if you bird with a companion, carry different guides: one of you take National Geographic and one of you take Sibley or Kauffman.

Third, measure your skill level against the assumptions of the various guides. If you are a novice, then Kauffman might be your best choice. If you are a beginner who has a bit of experience, then National Geo may be your best choice. If you are an advanced beginner or better, then perhaps Sibley.

But as an overall choice, with decent art (although not as good or as consistent as Sibley), decent identification highlights (although not quite as good as Kauffman), quite good behavior cues, absolutely excellent treatment of vagrant birds (especially Asian vagrants), pretty accurate range maps and highly readable text, National Geographic emerges as the most versatile of the three.

If you can, get all three. If you can't get all three, this is probably, by the thinnest of margins, the best choice.

Caution: this edition uses the new taxonomic order adopted by the American Ornithologists Union, putting bird families in significantly different order. It takes a while to get used to where things are.

It has been a few years since I purchased a new field guide and love the ease of handling the new edition. Love the new Thumb Tabs, and Quick-Find Index!