So what about the new, “fully revised and updated” sixth edition of the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America? The quick answer is that it is more than the fifth edition with updated taxonomy. Still, is it worth upgrading? I’m not prepared to give a pronouncement on that yet, but I must say that it includes some unique and useful additions. Once I’ve had time to really get into it I’ll post a full review with my opinions. But in the meantime, to help you make an informed decision, here is a breakdown of the new features and changes.

Species

At 990 species, this new one includes 23 more than the prior. Actually, there are 26 new birds as three have been removed: Dusky-headed Parakeet and Crested Myna from the main body; and Caribbean Elaenia from the Accidentals list. Five of the 26 new ones have been added to the main section: White-chinned Petrel, Rosy-faced Lovebird, White-eyed Parakeet, Red-lored Parrot, and Loggerhead Kingbird. The rest have been added to the Accidentals:

• Townsend’s Shearwater
• Swinhoe’s Storm-Petrel
• Tristram’s Storm-Petrel
• Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
• Intermediate Egret
• Sungrebe
• Solitary Snipe
• Swallow-tailed Gull
• European Turtle-Dove
• Brown Hawk-Owl
• Amazon Kingfisher
• White-crested Elaenia
• Crowned Slaty Flycatcher
• Gray-collared Becard
• Sinaloa Wren
• Sedge Warbler
• Rufous-tailed Robin
• Brown-backed Solitaire
• Song Thrush
• Red-legged Thrush
• Yellow-browed Bunting

Size

Thanks to these new additions, along with other changes, this sixth edition is a little larger than its predecessor. At 575 pages, it is 72 pages, or 14%, thicker. But this is negligible, I don’t think anyone carrying this guide will notice it.

Taxonomy

All the latest AOU changes have been incorporated here, including renaming Common Moorhen to Common Gallinule, the massive overhaul of warblers, and moving the longspurs and snow buntings from after the sparrows to just before the warblers.

Maps

Range maps for Philadelphia Vireo (top) and Warbling Vireo (bottom) from NatGeo 5th edition

Range maps for the same species from the new 6th edition

The range maps have been revised based on the latest understanding of distribution. For instance, if you look closely at these sample maps you’ll see the isolated breeding population of Warbling Vireos in South Carolina is now indicated. Some maps, where appropriate, now show more area to the north, around Greenland, and to the south into Mexico. And there are some more noticeable changes as well. First, I’m sure you noted that the Warbling Vireo map has subspecies information on it. More about this shortly. Additionally, there are some new, shiny colors. Nowadays, it is worth noting when a field guide does not show the migration range. So it is not surprising that this has been added. But National Geographic took it a step further and included separate colors for spring, autumn, and both-way migration. This is the first guide I’m aware of to do that, and it is very helpful. [Update: Thanks to Georgann for reminding me that the old Golden Guide by Zim and Robbins also did this. That guide really was ahead of its time.] The Philadelphia Vireo map, for example, suggests that my best chance for seeing one where I live in Georgia is in the fall (yellow=fall migration and orange=both). And that is, indeed, the case.

The maps of 59 birds with multiple subspecies are marked to show the ranges of the constituent subspecies. For others, the maps are not large enough to include the necessary information, so there are new, larger subspecies maps for 37 species in the back. These appear very well done, and I’m looking forward to studying them further. But note, not all birds have their subspecies mapped.

Visual Index

The inside of the front and back covers now has a visual index to bird families.

Illustrations

The pointers and plate annotations introduced in the 2008 NatGeo Eastern and Western regional guides have been carried over here. I find these very useful and am glad they are here. They do not come without a cost, however. Most illustrations are reproduced slightly smaller than in the 5th edition in order to accommodate them.

The in-flight plates for ducks, raptors, shorebirds, and immature gulls are retained, but the in-flight illustrations have also been added to most of the regular accounts as well.

I’ve gone through this guide and compared it, plate-by-plate, to the previous edition. The front cover claims there are “300 new art pieces”. That wouldn’t surprise me. Here are all of the changes that I’ve found. Two caveats: I make no claims as to the comprehensiveness of this list, and some of these changes may have been made in the regional guides, but I don’t have those so I can’t be sure.

These species have been completely redone with new artwork, and in many cases additional images have been added. (Some of these changes were desperately needed.):

This completely redone plate is a huge improvement over the previous one (if you pardon the bad scan)

• Greater White-fronted Goose
• Bean Goose – split to Tundra and Taiga Bean-Goose, with new art
• Brant – more variation shown, all artwork replaced
• Baikal Teal
• Garganey
• Northern Fulmar – redone, with additional illustrations
• Great Shearwater
• Storm-petrels – all completely redone
• Northern Gannet
• Great Cormorant
• Neotropic Cormorant
• Reddish Egret
• Red-tailed Hawk
• King Rail
• Clapper Rail
• Virginia Rail
• Corn Crake
• Thick-billed Murre
• Rhinoceros Auklet
• Horned Puffin
• Tufted Puffin
• Common Cuckoo
• Oriental Cuckoo
• Goatsuckers – all have been completely redone, except Common Pauraque
• Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher
• Hutton’s Vireo
• Western Scrub-Jay
• Crows and Ravens – all redone (except Eurasian Jackdaw); in-flight and other illustrations added for most
• Brown Creeper – redone, now shows both eastern and southwestern
• Winter Wren
• Sedge Wren
• Marsh Wren – single illustration replaced by three: eatern (dissaeptus), south Atlantic coast (griseus), and western (aestuarinus)
• Ruby-crowned Kinglet
• Golden-crowned Kinglet
• Middendorff’s Grasshopper-Warbler
• Dusky Warbler
• Arctic Warbler
• Palm Warbler
• Louisiana Waterthrush
• Northern Waterthrush
• Wilson’s Warbler
• Common Yellowthroat
• Rufous-winged Sparrow
• Chipping Sparrow
• Clay-colored Sparrow
• Brewer’s Sparrow
• Savannah Sparrow
• Grasshopper Sparrow
• Lincoln’s Sparrow
• White-crowned Sparrow
• Gray Bunting
• Reed Bunting
• Little Bunting
• Pallas’s Bunting
• Rustic Bunting
• Painted Bunting
• Indigo Bunting
• Lazuli Bunting
• Varied Bunting
• Brown-headed Cowbird
• Bronzed Cowbird
• All 3 Rosy-finches
• Purple Finch
• Cassin’s Finch
• House Finch
• Common Rosefinch

Here are some further changes:

• Cackling Goose – “Richardson’s” redone
• Canada Goose – moffitti ssp added; flying illustration from below removed
• Swans – comparison of Trumpeter and Tundra bills added
• Mottled Duck – illustration of the “mainly Florida” fulvigula ssp added
• Green-winged Teal – female redone
• Cinnamon Teal – female redone
• Common Eider – adult and eclipse male v-nigrum removed, but added a comparison of male heads of all 4 subspecies
• Harlequin Duck – male redone
• Black Scoter – inset of Common Scoter added
• White-winged Scoter – illustration of “Velvet Scoter” added
• Common Goldeneye – illustration of courtship display removed
• Swan Goose – removed from Exotic Waterfowl
• Northern Bobwhite – added males of taylori and floridanus ssp
• Shy Albatross – “Salvin’s” illustration added
• White-tailed Tropicbird – added inset of Pacific adult head
• Brown Pelican – removed diving sequence and added breeding adult californicus
• Cattle Egret – coromandus ssp added
• Great Egret – modesta head inset added; high breeding adult modified slightly
• American Flamingo – in-flight added
• White-tailed Eagle – illustration of standing bird added
• Steller’s Sea-Eagle – illustration of standing bird added
• Red-shouldered Hawk – added two elegans in flight
• Ferruginous Hawk – added perched juvenile
• Raptors in Flight – most buteos redone; replaced adult accipiters with juveniles
• Common Gallinule – added inset of Eurasian Moorhen head
• American Oystercatcher – frazari ssp added
• Eskimo Curlew – moved to Accidentals section
• Semi-palmated Sandpiper – added breeding female
• Yellow-legged Gull – added winter adult atlantis
• Bridled Tern – first summer added
• Jaegers – for each: added standing light-morph/typical juvenile and head of light-morph/typical breeding adult
• Common Murre – in-flight illustration replaced
• Black Guillemot – added mandtii; added breeding adult in-flight
• Zenaida Dove – added female
• Smooth-billed Ani – sunning illustration removed
• Black Switf – both adult and juvenile have been slightly touched up
• Xantus’s Hummingbird – moved to Accidentals
• American Three-toed Woodpecker – added male and female bacatus and inset of dorsalis
• Willow Flycatcher – added 1st fall brewsteri
• Loggerhead Shrike – comparison of in-flight shrike and mockingbird redone
• Horned Lark – removed: juvenile and female alpestris (“Northern”); added: female, winter male and juvenile ammophila (“southwestern”)
• Purple Martin – added western female in flight
• Brown-chested Martin – moved to main section from Accidentals
• Willow Warbler – moved to main section from Accidentals
• Yellow-browed Warbler – moved to main section from Accidentals
• Northern Mockingbird – in-flight redone
• Snow Bunting – added 1st winter female in flight
• Bachman’s Warbler – moved to Accidentals
• Nashville Warbler – replaced immature female, added adult male ridgwayi
• Yellow Warbler – added immature female amnicola
• Yellow-rumped Warbler – replaced fall female Myrtle
• Yellow-breasted Chat – added head of female auricollis
• Western Spindalis – added male pretrei (from Cuba)
• Rufous-crowned Sparrow – coastal juvenile replaced with juvenile eremoeca
• Lark Sparrow – in-flight illustration removed
• Song Sparrow – juvenile melodia replaced with juvenile heermanni
• Fox Sparrow – “Red” redone
• Northern Cardinal – added southwestern male
• Eastern Meadowlark – added in-flight illustration
• Hooded Oriole – added male cucullatus
• Common Redpoll – added female rostrata

Schaffner starts with an examination of the first field guides from the late nineteenth century and contrasts their treatment of birds with modern guides. He goes on to scrutinize online and digital field guides, completing a look at the evolution of this genre from its beginnings unto today. But this book is more than a history of the field guide.

The author’s main contention is that “representations of birds and the environment in field-guide literature have much broader implications” than simply identification. Schaffner uses the term binocular vision to denote a way of “seeing and thinking about birds as detached from the physical, political, and ideological worlds that greatly affect them”. He argues that, with their focus on identification, field guides serve to foster this narrow view of nature.

I don’t agree with all of the author’s conclusions, but this book forced me to take a more critical look at field guides and what their role can and should be. And that made it very much worth reading.

Binocular Vision: The Politics of Representation in Birdwatching Field Guides
by Spencer Schaffner
University of Massachusetts Press, 2011
$24.95

Disclosure: The item used to produce this review was a complementary review copy provided by the publisher.

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.

This thing is thick and hefty.

The first thing you’ll notice about this book (well, after the gorgeous bird on the cover) is the size. Not so much the trim size, which is larger than the National Geographic guide but smaller than the big Sibley and Peterson, but the thickness and heft. But 800+ pages don’t seem that bad when you realize that this guide uses over 3,400 photographs to cover 854 species.

If you do the math on the numbers above, you find that there should be an average of four photos per species. That seems about right. Most birds have a complete page devoted to them, with three to six photographs at the top, accompanied by text and range map at the bottom of the page. Some species get “only” half a page, while members of more variable groups, like hawks and gulls, usually have two pages. The layout of the guide, in which the photos are placed flush with the edges of the page, reduces white space and thus allows the pictures to be reproduced in a larger size than otherwise possible.

Most birds get an entire page all to themselves.

Though some get even more, especially the extremely variable hawks and gulls.

The text starts by focusing on the bird’s shape, and then proceeds to describe the plumages, broken down by age and gender. Notes on habitat and voice are given. Finally, it gives information on subspecies: how many subspecies are found in North America, their names, ranges, and how to differentiate them. The rather small range maps indicate the bird’s permanent, breeding, winter, and migratory ranges. They also use dotted lines to show where it rarely occurs.

Many rare and range-restricted birds are included, and get full accounts just like the more common ones.

My initial impression of the Stokes guide is very favorable. And while I think there are some improvements that could be made, this is definitely a field guide worth having. It will be impractical to use in the field due to the size and weight. But the features directly contributing to that – the number of species and generous amount of space devoted to each one – make it an ideal reference for your car or home.

Continue on to the Full Review.

North America’s most popular field guide is now available as an app on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Here is an initial review, focusing on the meat of the app – the species accounts. A full review will follow.

The majority of the screen is devoted to the art, with the text on the bottom. You can scroll up and down to see additional images, and tap to enlarge them. The text is also scrollable.

The map button replaces the bird images with a map. You cannot scroll, but can tap to zoom in slightly. Tap the button again to deselect the map and again show the bird.

Tapping the sound button brings up a list of available sounds. The selected one is automatically played.

Tapping the text makes it appear full screen, making it much easier to read.

The app is a fairly straightforward and faithful port of the Sibley print guides, both the “big” Sibley and the two regional editions. Almost all of the art is included. As best as I can tell, all of the images under each account in the book is here, but some of the sidebar/vignette images and hybrids are not. The maps are the updated ones from the regional guides. The text is mostly from the regional guides, although some additional text has been taken from the “big” Sibley where appropriate.

Overall, I am pleased to see that just about everything (including the introduction text and topography diagrams!) from the printed guides has been included in the app. However, I have found a few things that should have been included, but were not.

The app’s content, therefore, is outstanding. But some of the implementation details and features, such as the navigation, searching, and filtering capabilities, leave much to be desired. I will elaborate in the full review.

Continue to the full review of The Sibley eGuide

• My very first thought was amazement at how large and heavy the box from Amazon was.
• I was pleasantly surprised at the packing. I’m extremely anal about the condition of my books, and sometimes they can get dinged up in the mail. I was hoping that it would be shrink-wrapped, but the publisher did one better. Princeton is shipping these out in their own secure cardboard box, as befits a book of this quality (and price).
• This book is huge! Here are a couple of comparison shots…

And now on to the contents.

Art

Some of the sample artwork from this book had me concerned. While this monograph’s main purpose is to be a knowledge reference to this family, for many, the artwork is the main draw (pun not intended, at least until I caught it!). The art doesn’t absolutely blow me away, but I do like it. There are a few images that I don’t particularly care for, but there are also some really good ones.

Text

I haven’t had time to read much of it. And even when I do, I’m not an expert on this group of birds. But I will at least compare the family overview and species accounts with those from the Handbook of the Birds of the World.

This is a gorgeous, well-produced book. The only thing even slightly unattractive about it is the copious amount of white space. I know it’s not a simple either/or, but I would rather this large book with large art and a lot of white space than a smaller book with smaller art and less space.

At over $100, I can’t say that this book, no matter how nice, would be worth it for everyone. But I can say that it was for me.

Most of Peterson’s paintings have been ported over with no changes. However, some digital enhancements have been done to many of the illustrations. If you click on this comparison picture of the flycatcher plates you should be able to see some subtle differences (the new book is on bottom). Each of these empids have been modified at least slightly, although my photography probably won’t allow you to see some of it. But you can easily see, for example, that the Yellow-bellied is now more greenish above and the primary projection of the Least is shorter.

These changes have been used to add or modify field marks, change the shape, or make other subtle modifications according to the current knowledge of identification. All of the ones that I noticed on species that I’m familiar with have improved the image.

However, there are some more extensive changes as well, as evidenced by this plate of spotted thrushes. If you look closely at the thrushes shown on both plates – Veery, Gray-cheeked, Swainson’s, and Hermit – you will see that they have not only been modified, they are completely new paintings Update: actually, it is not new. See below…. In this case there are some differences, such as the amount and darkness of the breast spots, that could have been accomplished with enhancements instead of a completely new image. Thus, presumably there was another reason for the replacement. For this plate, I think it was the addition of the new bird, Bicknell’s Thrush, and the inclusion of the western forms of Swainson’s and Hermit. I am assuming that in order to include these new images it necessitated a compete redo.

There are a few cases of replacement where the reasoning is not evident to me. But most appear to be a case of plate layout, as with these thrushes, or where the changes needed were so extensive that it made more sense to start from scratch. However, it is obvious that great care has been taken to make sure that these changes and replacements do not stand out. Where possible, the birds in the new paintings have been placed in the exact same pose as in Peterson’s original. Many times I had to carefully examine the images to tell whether they had been enhanced or completely replaced. Unless you are extremely familiar with Peterson’s work, or compare the plates side-by-side, you will probably not notice the changes.

There are also some changes on the facing pages, such as the increased size for the map thumbnails. As in the previous regional guides, there is a section in the back that gathers together all of the maps in a much larger format, with annotations.

Update: I finally got a chance to do some comparisons with the Western guide. It turns out that many of the paintings I thought had been redone were actually taken from the Western edition instead of the more recent Eastern. That includes these thrushes (except the Bicknell’s is still new). I had figured that the plates in the Eastern, being worked on much more recently, were more up-to-date. But there are probably more considerations that I’m not aware of.
No wonder all of those “new” paintings fit in so well!

For more information on this guide, see its featured page – The New Peterson Guide.

Here are some looks at the guide. I apologize for the quality of the pictures. They are aweful. No, they are worse than aweful. But regardless, they will give you an idea of the layout.

A unique feature of this guide is that it includes a DVD with “587 downloadable bird songs” (but only 138 species, total). It also comes with a nice booklet listing all the tracks. Here are all the species included. Again, I apologize for the format, but it was the best I could do on short notice. I’ll try to work up something better for the full review.

I haven’t had long enough with it to feel comfortable making a recommendation. That will have to wait for my full review. As a comparison, it seems most similar to the recent National Wildlife Federation guide. But in the meantime, if you normally buy every field guide that comes out (I can’t be the only one!), I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t add this one to your library as well.

A full review of the Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America is now available.

I have read most of these books, and they are without exception highly recommended. For birders, the most important is arguably the Field Guide Companion. It is so helpful with identification that every North American birder should have a copy. I would say that Pete Dunne on Bird Watching is next on the must-read list, as it is probably the best introduction to birding that I have seen. And if you just want to sit back and enjoy a great read? You can’t go wrong with The Feather Quest, which is one of the best birding travel books. Honestly, you can’t go wrong with any of them!

Birding/Identification

• Pete Dunne’s Essential Field Guide Companion: A Comprehensive Resource for Identifying North American Birds (Review)
• Pete Dunne on Bird Watching: The How-to, Where-to, and When-to of Birding
• The Art of Pishing: How to Attract Birds by Mimicking Their Calls (Book & Audio CD)
• The Art of Bird Finding: Before You ID Them, You Have to See Them
• Hawks in Flight: The Flight Identification of North American Migrant Raptors

Other

• The Feather Quest: A North American Birder’s Year
• The Wind Masters: The Lives of North American Birds of Prey (Review)
• Prairie Spring: A Journey Into the Heart of a Season (Review)
• Bayshore Summer: Finding Eden in a Most Unlikely Place (Review)
• Arctic Autumn: A Journey to Season’s Edge

Essays

• Tales of a Low-Rent Birder
• More Tales of a Low-Rent Birder (Review)
• Golden Wings, and Other Stories About Birders and Birding
• Small-headed Flycatcher. Seen Yesterday. He Didn’t Leave His Name.: and other stories
• Before the Echo: Essays on Nature (Corrie Herring Hooks Series)

Other books Dunne has contributed to

• New Jersey: The Natural State – wrote the forward
• Good Birders Don’t Wear White: 50 Tips From North America’s Top Birders (Review) – wrote the forward (complete text), and contributed one of the tips
• Hawks at a Distance: Identification of Migrant Raptors (Review) – wrote the forward
• Birds of Cape May (Review) – wrote the forward

Magazines

• Living Bird (Review) – Dunne writes a one-page column, “The Catbird Seat”, for every other issue (published quarterly)
• Birder’s World – Dunne contributes a column for every issue, usually focused on his travels (published bi-monthly)
• News from the Cape – this online magazine from the Cape May Bird Observatory has a regular column by Dunne. Be sure to check out the archives for more Dunne goodness (and after that all the other features on identification, book reviews, etc)

In addition to these, Dunne has been published in probably every birding magazine known to man (well, at least in the US).

There has to be more that I’m either forgetting or don’t know about. If anyone is aware of more, especially anything that can be accessed online, I’d love to hear about it!