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In case you haven’t noticed, The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds is getting just a little attention online. But that’s to be expected when you produce something so different and useful. I’ve posted a brief initial review, but there is still much to discuss about this work and many more possible perspectives on it. Here are all the reviews of it that I’m aware of, in roughly the order in which I found them. If I’ve missed one, please let me know in the comments.

I was first introduced to Richard Crossley’s striking photographic bird plates nearly two years ago. A post on 10,000 Birds linked to Crossley’s gallery and asked if this could become North America’s best identification guide. A year later, Princeton University Press announced that they would publish The Crossley ID Guide. The sample plates were unique and utterly amazing. I couldn’t wait to see the book for myself.

In the past month, the buildup to the book’s publication has seen more plates revealed, video interviews with the author, and a few early reviews. I was starting to wonder if it would live up to my lofty expectations. Finally, the day came when I had in my hands The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds.

After my initial look-through, I was distinctly…whelmed. I neither loved nor hated it. I still appreciated the reality birding concept that Crossley was going for, where the birds are shown as a part of a lifelike scene in their actual habitat, at various distances, and in all sorts of plumages. But maybe the novelty of the plates was starting to wear off. Some of them also looked “off” somehow, in a manner that I couldn’t quite articulate.

But as I continued through the guide, I started looking at the images more closely. I found myself trying to find all of the birds in each scene, which is not as easy as it sounds. It’s not unusual for songbird plates to have as many as 15 (or more) representatives portrayed. I also started to notice some small details, such as the House Finch that had conjunctivitis. Some images also showed behaviors that aren’t usually mentioned in field guides, much less actually illustrated, like a Rough-legged Hawk perched on a limb that looks much too small to support it, or a Blue-winged Warbler poking its head into a cluster of dead leaves.

I had to further reconsider some initial impressions when I read Crossley’s blog posts explaining some choices concerning color and sharpness in his images. To keep the plates as realistic as possible, many of them are darker and less sharp than photos we’re used to seeing in field guides. I realized that was the main source of my nebulous consternation regarding the images. Once I understood what was being attempted, it bothered me much less. However, there are some images that still seem too dark, like the Bay-breasted Warbler below. The lighting may accurately reflect the conditions in the spruce-bogs where they breed but, call me crazy, I’d like to be able to see at least one of the breeding males well.

The text, overshadowed by the images literally and figuratively, is more extensive than it appears. It covers abundance, behavior, habitat, voice, and identification. It’s very informal, and more than once certain phrases or descriptions reminded me of something Pete Dunne would write (a very big complement coming from me). Don’t skip it. The range maps are pretty standard, though unfortunately they don’t include migratory range.

I should also mention that this thing is huge. You’re not going to want to take this in the field with you. But that’s ok; everything about this book was designed to be studied at home, before you go birding.

I’ve got plenty more to say about it, including additional distinctive features and, sadly, some issues. But that’s going to have to wait for the full review. The more time I spend with The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds, the more I enjoy it and the more I learn from it. This is one book that anyone interested in North American birds needs to see.

Continue on to the full review of the Crossley guide.

Want a sneek preview of The Crossley ID Guide? Or maybe the chance to ask the author a question? If so, register today for the Crossley ID Guide webinar.

When

February 22, 2011, 12 PM-1 PM EST
February 22, 2011, 2 PM – 3 PM EST

You can bet that I’ll be there!

Here are some bird book reviews from January. Shiny.

2011 has the makings of a great year for bird books. It’s just the end of January and there are already several that I’m anxiously awaiting. Here’s a little of what we have to look forward to.

• I always look forward to getting the latest field guide. I like to see what new features and innovations the authors have incorporated. In that regard, this year’s new North American field guide – The Crossley ID Guide – will be a doozy. Crossley’s digitally created plates, incorporating photos of birds from many different angles and distances, are groundbreaking. Hopefully they will be useful as well.
  February 21, 2011; Princeton University Press
• I generally enjoy “big year” books, so Extreme Birder: One Woman’s Big Year caught my eye. The author, Lynn Barber, is an ABA board member, and contributor to their blog.
  March 19, 2011; TAMU Press
• Hawks at a Distance: Identification of Migrant Raptors is Jerry Liguori’s followup to his excellent Hawks from Every Angle. According to the book’s description, this will be “the first volume to focus on distant raptors as they are truly seen in the field”. Sounds like a must-have for any hawk watcher.
  March 30, 2011; Princeton University Press
• Kenn Kaufman’s Advanced Birding has long been a required book for anyone wanting to come to grips with gulls, flycatchers, and other difficult-to-identify groups of North American birds. I’m sure his updated Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding will be just as indispensable.
  April 19, 2011; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• After the Crossley guide, Peter Goodfellow’s Avian Architecture: How Birds Design, Engineer, and Build is probably the book I’m most looking forward to this year. How birds are able to build such marvelous structures has always been a mystery to me. I’ve been waiting a long time for a book that could explain and demonstrate the process. Hopefully that wait will be over shortly.
  May 26, 2011; Princeton University Press

•  

  Just today I ran across this title – Binocular Vision: The Politics of Representation in Birdwatching Field Guides. The title piqued my curiosity; I had to find out what this was about. The publisher’s catalog says:
  

  By putting field guides into direct conversation with concerns about species conservation, environmental management, the human alteration of the environment, and the problem of toxic pollution, Binocular Vision is a field guide to field guides that takes a novel perspective on how we think about and interact with the world around us.

  
  As someone who loves bird books and books about bird books, this sounds interesting to me.
  July 31, 2011; University of Massachusetts Press
• Arctic Autumn: A Journey to Season’s Edge is the third book in Pete Dunne’s series on season and place. The first two were great, but I’d be excited regardless because it’s Pete freakin’ Dunne!
  September 21, 2011; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Last, but certainly not least, is the final volume in the landmark series – Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 16. This will be “the first work to verbally and visually portray each member of an entire Class of the Animal Kingdom”. I’m especially excited due to the families covered: Tanagers, Cardinals, Buntings and New World Sparrows, and New World Blackbirds.
  October, 2011; Lynx Edicions

Here are a few book giveaways that started recently:

• The Princeton Encyclopedia of Birds – enter by “liking” the Princeton University Press Facebook page. Contest ends January 14
• Birdology: Adventures with a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur – enter by commenting on The Zen Birdfeeder’s review. Ends January 31
• Flyaway: How a Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found Her Wings – enter by commenting on this Magnificent Frigatebird post. Ends 11:59pm EST on Thursday, January 13th

Good luck everyone!

2010 was a good year for bird field guides. The highlights include new editions of the most famous field guide in history, a great new field guide for North America, a real field guide to the world’s most avian-rich country, and what was arguably the most highly anticipated field guide update ever (at least since I’ve been birding). Here’s a brief look at the field guides from this past year.

It seemed like there were an unusually high number of new editions and updated field guides in 2010, most of which were published, at least in the U.S., by Princeton University Press.

• The Collins Bird Guide, or Birds of Europe as it’s known in North America, is probably the most highly regarded field guide in the world; and deservedly so. Every birder, regardless of location, should have a copy, if only to see how good a field guide can be. But the original edition (review), published a decade ago, was starting to show its age. This second edition makes some updates and additions, but is still the same amazing guide.
• The new Birds of Peru is billed as a “Revised and Updated Edition” rather than a second edition. I don’t have the first edition to compare the two, but I think this is an accurate reflection. The binding has been changed from a jacketless hardcover to paperback, making it more portable. It also includes an additional 25 species, and some revised range maps. Anyone birding in Peru or the surrounding countries absolutely has to have it. Full Review
• In 2008 the famous Peterson field guides, which had previously only been available as separate regional editions, were updated and combined into a single book (review). It should come as no surprise that they were again split into the sixth edition Eastern and Central North America and fourth edition Western field guides.
• Australia was blessed with two updated field guides in 2010: the eighth edition of Simpson and Day’s Birds of Australia, and the second of The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds. If you’d like to learn the relative merits of each of Australia’s field guides, there is an excellent comparison on Birdforum.
• The second edition of Birds of the Middle East looks like it would be a very useful field guide for the region. I don’t have the first edition, so I can’t compare the two. But it sounds as if this guide has been completely redesigned and updated, much of it for the better. It now has a more traditional layout with birds on the right-hand page and text and range maps on the left.

But there was also a good selection of new field guides in 2010.

• Each of the last four years has brought us a new photographic field guide to the birds of North America. They’ve each had their merits, but The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America is my current favorite photo-based guide. It is an excellent reference that is worth having even if you already have a dozen other NA field guides. Here’s a look inside.
• Of all the field guides published in 2010, Field Guide to the Birds of Colombia may be the most impactful. Columbia, which boasts more bird species than any other country on Earth, is once again becoming a safe place to bird. But until now, its only field guide, while good, is old and unwieldy. I’m still not sure what magic the authors used, but they managed to produce a guide to 1800+ birds that is both useful and very portable. Full Review
• Birds of the West Indies is a very compact guide to Caribbean birds. But it doesn’t completely supplant its predecessor, a field guide with the same name by Herbert Raffaele. Having been able to use this guide in the field recently, I will be writing a review shortly.
• The Birds of Panama, like the new Columbian guide, is a very welcome addition since it’s the first good, readily portable field guide to this popular birding destination. I haven’t seen it yet, but if it’s as good as the companion book to Costa Rica (by the same publisher and illustrator), it would be highly recommended to anyone birding in Panama.
• According to the very helpful site Avian Review, the Field Guide to the Birds of Ghana, as only the second field guide to west Africa, is a book that you’ll need if you’re planning on birding in western Africa.
• Bird Feathers: A Guide to North American Species isn’t a field guide in the same manner as these other books, but is rather a field guide to bird parts. Ever find a lone bird feather and wish you could figure out to which bird it belonged? This is your book.

If I’ve missed any, and inevitably I have, let me know and I’ll add them.

The last batch of reviews from around the net for 2010.