• Larger images
• Replaced Next/Previous buttons with a swipe gesture
• Added one-tap enlargement of images and text
• Added the ability to rotate the device to landscape mode for larger images, bigger text and easier comparing
• Added a “Quick Search” box to “My List” when adding species
• Added additional sounds for 22 species

That’s right; you can now tap an image to make it display full-screen. And if you rotate the device, the image will rotate with it and enlarge even further. In this mode, the images are even larger than they are in the “big” Sibley print guide! Image size had been a major issue with the app, but it is now one of its strengths.

The compare function also got a major makeover. You can still compare species in the regular, vertical orientation. But now you can rotate to landscape mode and have the birds appear side-by-side. In this mode, you lose the ability to change species but the images are shown slightly larger. I’ve found it dramatically easier and more natural to compare in this new mode.

The other changes are relatively minor, but still welcome. You now enlarge the text by tapping on it and change species by swiping, instead of using buttons. Tapping maps also makes them larger, but they do not rotate, and the increase in size isn’t that substantial.

This update makes a good app even better (and all the more so because, as with all iphone app updates, it’s free to current users). The larger images, especially, are going to be extremely useful. However, it doesn’t change, so much as reinforce, the recommendation I made in my original review. This app is now an even better digital representation of the fabulous Sibley field guide. But the search function still needs to be improved to make it more usable for less experienced birdwatchers.

However, Stephen Moss has undertaken the challenge, and presents his picks in Remarkable Birds: 100 of the World’s Most Notable Birds. Here they are:

• Ostrich
• Brown Kiwi
• Emperor Penguin
• Common Loon
• Wandering Albatross
• Snow Petrel
• Red-billed Tropicbird
• Dalmatian Pelican
• Northern Gannet
• Flightless Cormorant
• Magnificent Frigatebird
• Eurasian Bittern
• European White Stork
• Shoebill
• Scarlet ibis
• Black-faced Spoonbill
• Lesser Flamingo
• Bewick’s Swan
• Snow goose
• Red-breasted Goose
• Common eider
• California Condor
• Bald Eagle
• Lammergeyer
• Montagu’s Harrier
• Harpy Eagle
• Secretary Bird
• Peregrine
• Malleefowl
• Western Capercaillie
• Satyr Tragopan
• Congo Pearfowl
• Hoatzin
• Whooping Crane
• Red-crowned Crane
• Corncrake
• Takahe
• Kagu
• Sunbittern
• Great Bustard
• Ibisbill
• Black-winged Stilt
• Egyptian Plover
• Northern Lapwing
• Red Knot
• Ruff
• Spoon-billed Sandpiper
• Red-necked Phalarope
• Plains-wanderer
• Ross’s Gull
• Arctic Tern
• Atlantic Puffin
• Mauritius Pink Pigeon
• Kakapo
• Hyacinth Macaw
• Great Blue Turaco
• Common Cuckoo
• Greater Roadrunner
• Snowy Owl
• Eurasian Eagle-Owl
• Oilbird
• Common Swift
• Sword-billed Hummingbird
• Resplendent Quetzal
• Laughing Kookaburra
• Common Kingfisher
• Blue-crowned Motmot
• European Bee-eater
• Lilac-breated Roller
• Hoopoe
• Rhinoceros Hornbill
• Toco Toucan
• Eurasian Wryneck
• Ivory-billed Woodpecker
• Gurney’s Pitta
• Bearded Bellbird
• Andean Cock-of-the-Rock
• Red-capped Manakin
• Noisy Scrub-bird
• Superb Lyrebird
• Eurasian Skylark
• Barn Swallow
• Bohemian Waxwing
• Hypocolius
• Winter Wren
• Northern Mockingbird
• American Robin
• Common Nightingale
• Dartford Warbler
• Gray-necked Picathartes
• Wallcreeper
• Long-tailed Tit
• Red-backed Shrike
• Wilson’s Bird-of-paradise
• Northern Raven
• New Caledonian Crow
• Kirtland’s Warbler
• Darwin’s Finches
• Long-tailed Paradise-whydah
• House Sparrow

For the most part, the new Peterson guide uses the same plates that Roger Tory Peterson had prepared for his Eastern and Western regional guides. However, some significant changes have been made. Some new species have been added, most due to taxonomic splits, but others because of new records. Conversely, some species have been removed, mostly rare vagrants or exotics that would not be encountered normally. Many illustrations have also been modified. In most cases this was accomplished through digital editing of Peterson’s paintings. Using this technique new field marks have been added, and other changes made that better reflect our growing understanding of field identification. In a few cases, the entire image has been replaced with a new painting.

The following is a list of major changes between this guide and the latest editions of the regional guides: the 5th edition of the Eastern (2002), and 3rd of the Western (1990). I have included every new, removed, and completely redone image that I found. I started noting every digital enhancement as well, but there proved to be too many to list.

• Barnacle Goose – new full illustration, previously just the head was shown
• Cackling Goose – new species, “Richardson’s” and “Aleutian” are shown
• “Mexican Mallard” – added
• Eiders – the outlines of the heads are redone
• King Eider –male in flight has been redone, and the bill-shield is now bright red
• Tufted Duck – male and female redone
• Smew – redone
• Stray Waterfowl Added: Mandarin; Bar-headed, Chinese, and Egyptian Goose
• Stray Waterfowl Removed: Bean, Pink-footed, Lesser White-fronted, Red-breased Goose; Whooper Swan; Baikal Teal; Red-crested Pochard
• Greater Sage-grouse – now shows full female, instead of the male; male in display redone
• Gunnison Sage-grouse – added male in display
  The displaying male sage-grouse do not show the yellow air sacs. This is one of the sage-grouse’s most well-known features, so their absence is surprising and conspicuous.
• Himalayan Snowcock – added
• Loons – the head outlines are gone, and replaced by nonbreeding birds in flight, which have been redone from the 5th edition
• Black-capped Petrel – the “under” image, with a slight change to the bill and white collar, had been labeled as a Bermuda Petrel in the 5th edition. Based on other guides, it looks ok.
• Sooty Shearwater – upperside in-flight removed
• Removed: Stejneger’s, Streaked, Solander’s Petrel
• Added: Fea’s Petrel
• Redone: Band-rumped, White-faced, European, and Fork-tailed Storm-petrels
• Leach’s Storm-petrel – dark-rumped form added
• Cormorants in flight plate is redone and now only shows immatures
• Scarlet Ibis – removed
• Removed: Western Reef-heron, Little Egret, Jabiru
• California Condor – redone; immature’s head removed (I don’t know why, there was room for it)
• Removed: White-tailed Eagle, Steller’s Sea Eagle
• King Vulture – inset of head removed (no big loss, as they aren’t likely to recolonize this region)
• Common Black-hawk – redone
• Added: Eurasian Kestrel, Eurasian Hobby
• “Dark Birds of Prey Overhead” – dark morph Broad-winged redone, and Short-tailed Hawk added; Snail Kites removed (disappointing, as there was room for them on the page with the overhead kites)
• “Gallinule” chick renamed to “Moorhen” chick – corrected a label change that was missed in the 5th edition
• Removed: Corn Crake, Paint-billed Crake, Spotted Rail
• European Golden-plover – standing birds removed, now only shown in flight
• Removed: European Woodcock, Great Snipe, Jack Snipe, Far Eastern and Eurasian Curlew, Spoonbill and Broad-billed Sandpipers
• Bar-tailed Godwit – “European” form in-flight added
• Whimbrel – “Eurasian” form added in-flight
• Short-billed Dowitcher – “coastal breeding” added
• Long-toed, Red-necked, Little Stint –winter illustrations removed
• Common Snipe – added in-flight
• The gull molt sequence page gets rid of the standing birds and now only shows the in-flight images
• Slaty-backed Gull – standing bird removed
• Lesser Black-backed Gull – added a first year in-flight
• Added: Black-tailed and Yellow-legged Gulls
• Ruddy Ground-dove – portrait of head replaced by in-flght painting
• Parrots – full illustrations of Green and Yellow-chevroned Parakeet added; the exotics included have been changed extensively
• Thick-billed Parrot – removed
• Redone: Western and Whiskered Screech-owl
• Flammulated Owl – gray phase no longer shown
• Calliope Hummingbird – redone
• Green-breasted Mango – adult male added
• Blue-throated and Magnificent in-flight removed
• Removed: Bahama Woodstar and Bumblebee Hummingbird
• Removed: White-collared, Common, and Fork-tailed Swifts; White-throated Needletail
• Red-bellied Woodpecker – immature’s head removed
• Flicker/Sapsucker plate taken from Western, therefore female Yellow-shafted and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker immature are no longer shown
• Ivory-billed Woodpecker – female head removed
• Empidonax – all have been retouched, some extensively. The Buff-breasted and Pacific-slope/Cordilleran (“Western”) have been completely redone
• Redone: Vermillion Flycatcher, Northern Beardless-tyrannulet, La Sagra’s Flycatcher
• Removed: Couch’s Kingbird (painting only, account still present), Cuban Pewee, Greenish and Caribbean Elaenia, Variegated and Social Flycatcher, Loggerhead Kingbird, and Masked Tityra
• Removed: Eurasian Jackdaw and immature Brown Jay
• In-flight comparison of American, Fish, and Tamaulipas Crows added
• Redone: Black-capped, Black-tailed, and California Gnatcatchers
• Bluethroat – redone
• Bluebirds: all redone; female Eastern removed!!!!!
• Bicknell’s Thrush – illustration added
• Aztec Thrush – redone
• Removed: Olive-backed and Pechora Pipit; Gray Wagtail
• Added: Hill and Common Myna
• Crested Myna – removed
• MacGillivray’s Warbler – redone
• Removed: Crescent-chested and Fan-tailed Warbler, Slate-throated Restart
• Golden-crowned Sparrow – now only heads are shown
• Pyrrhuloxia – redone
• Redone: Cassin’s Finch and Lawrence’s Goldfinch

Many of the accidental and exotic species found at the end of the plates in the Eastern guide are no longer included. The Orange Bishop has been added.

Likewise, this guide does not include most of the vagrants from Mexico and Asia that were illustrated on separate plates in the Western edition.

Most of the species additions and removals are appropriate. This field guide really didn’t need to include European Woodcock and Masked Tityra, for instance. However, some species were removed that probably should not have been. For example, Western Reef-heron and Loggerhead Kingbird have occurred in this region several times in the past few years, and Crescent-chested Warbler has even bred here (granted, some of these records may have occurred after the selection decisions for this guide had to be made). While these species are not illustrated in most North American field guides, keeping them in this one should not have been hard.

However, the other omitted illustrations are more problematic and inexplicable. These include the missing immature California Condor and Red-bellied Woodpecker, and especially the female Eastern Bluebird. The lack of any female bluebird is totally inexcusable, especially since there is plenty of room on the plate. Hopefully it is an oversight that can be corrected in future printings.

For the most part, however, the changes made have improved the guide and its usefulness.

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

United States

1. Alaska: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
2. Alaska: Gambell
3. Arizona: Southeast Arizona
4. Arkansas: Big Woods
5. California: Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
6. California: Point Reyes National Seashore
7. California: Sacramento Valley
8. Florida: St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge
9. Hawaii: Kauai
10. Maine: Scarborough Marsh
11. Massachusetts: Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge
12. New Jersey: Cape May
13. New Mexico: Bosque del Apache
14. New York: Central Park
15. New York: Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
16. North Carolina/Tennessee: Great Smoky Mountains National Park
17. North Dakota: Prairie Potholes
18. Ohio: Lake Erie
19. Oregon: Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
20. Pennsylvania: Hawk Mountain Refuge
21. Texas: High Island to Galveston
22. Texas: Lower Rio Grande Valley
23. Wisconsin: Necedah National Wildlife Refuge
24. Wyoming: Yellowstone National Park

North America

25. Greenland: Thule

Mexico, Central America, and Caribbean

26. Belize: The Ruins
27. Costa Rica: San Gerardo de Dota
28. Guatemala: The Highlands
29. Jamaica: Blue Mountains and Beyond
30. Mexico: El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve
31. Trinidad and Tobago: Caroni Lagoon

South America

32. Brazil/Peru: Amazonia
33. Ecuador: Podocarpus National Park
34. Ecuador: Tandayapa-Mindo
35. United Kingdom: South Georgia Island
36. Venezuela: The Llanos

Europe

37. England: Cley Next the Sea
38. Hungary: Hortobagy National Park
39. Iceland: Jokulsargljufur National Park
40. Spain: Tarifa

Asia

41. Kingdom of Bhutan
42. Borneo: Danum Valley
43. India: the Andamans
44. Papua New Guinea: Tari Valley
45. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan: The Silk Road

Africa

46. Madagascar: Masoala Peninsula
47. Tanzania: Serengeti National Park

Australia/New Zealand

48. Australia: Bruny Island
49. Australia: Capertee Valley
50. New Zealand: Sub-Antarctic Islands

REVIEW of Fifty Places to Go Birding Before You Die

5th Edition

4th Edition

For polytypic species where all or most of the illustrations are of one subspecies (ssp), the ssp name is added under the common name on the plate. The fourth edition did this for some species, but the new edition does it for many more. This is actually a very nice feature as it will keep you from having to consult other sources if you need this information.

Introduction – there have been some slight changes, such as a more extensive section on species selection.

Changes in illustrations:

• Cackling Goose – new species. Added illustration of “Taverner’s” ssp
• Canada Goose – added illustration of “Lesser” ssp
• Spot-billed Duck – replaced with a swimming instead of standing bird. The color of the speculum changed from purple to blue.
• White-winged Scoter – added illustration of an adult male stejnegeri ssp
• Barrow’s and Common Goldeneye – on both species the size of the adult male’s white facial marking has been reduced. There is also an added illustration of an adult male Barrow’s x Common hybrid
• Common Merganser – added depiction of an adult male “Goosander” ssp
• Blue Grouse split into Sooty and Dusky Grouse. No change to illustrations
• The page of small grebes has been completely reworked. No illustrations have remained the same.
• Least Grebe – addition of a juvenile bird. All trace of brown and rufous has been removed from the adults and they are now more gray
• Pied-billed Grebe – addition of a juvenile bird.
• Horned Grebe – “darker winter” and “adult in spring molt” birds have been added
• Eared Grebe – “paler winter”, first fall, and downy young illustrations have been added.
• There is also a new side-by-side illustration of winter Horned and Eared from the rear, showing a subtle difference in shape and coloration.
• Parkinson’s and Great-winged Petrel – new species
• Mottled, Cook’s, and Stejneger’s Petrels – completely new illustrations
• Cory’s Shearwater – new above and below illustration of the borealis ssp (the only one shown in the 4th), and the addition of the diomedea ssp (which I believe is recognized as a full species in Europe)
• Cape Verde Shearwater – new species
• European Storm-Petrel – new species
• Northern Harrier – completely changed. Previously there was only a perched juvenile and one in-flight picture of a male and female. There is now a much better looking perched juvenile, along with a perched male. And there are above and below view of in-flight males and juveniles, along with a below view of a female.
• Harris’s Hawk – the perched bird has been replaced with a new one
• Roadside Hawk – new species
• Prairie Falcon and Gyrfalcon – the in-flight images have been replaced with new ones
• Peregrine Falcon – added image of an in-flight adult anatum ssp
• Purple Swamphen – new species
• Willet – in the 4th, only the breeding, winter, and juvenile of the western ssp was shown. Those illustrations have been replaced by new ones, and have been joined by a breeding and juvenile eastern Willet. There is also a comparison of the two “early March in molt”.
• For many of the shorebirds an in-flight illustration has been added. The images are not new, but have been copied from the separate plates of shorebirds in flight.
• Marsh Sandpiper – new species
• Eskimo Curlew – someone messed up the image and chopped about half the bill off. The bird shown in-flight is correct.
• Sanderling – all three images have been replaced
• Dunlin – the breeding, winter, and juvenile images have been replaced, and there are new illustrations of breeding sakhalina, pacifica, and schinzii ssp
• Curlew Sandpiper – the breeding and juvenile birds have been replaced, and a winter one added
• Dowitchers – the winter birds, both standing and in-flight, have been recolored slightly. They are now more brownish, and less gray
• Kelp Gull – new illustration of a Kelp x Herring hybrid winter adult
• Lesser Black-backed Gull – new winter adult intermedius ssp
• Ross’s Gull – a first winter bird was added to the Immature Gulls in Flight plate
• Broad-tailed Hummingbird – the male’s facial pattern was changed slightly
• Great Spotted Woodpecker – new species
• Pewees – the entire plate has been redone and looks much, much better
• Tufted Flycatcher – new species
• Fork-tailed Flycatcher – juvenile added
• Gray and Thick-billed Kingbirds – illustrations replaced
• Sky and Horned Larks – completely redone and many new images added
• Wrentit, Titmice, and Chickadees – these have been completely redone with new images. The older plates really bugged me – they just looked bad. These are much improved.
• Eyebrowed Thrush – both images replaced
• Dusky Thrush – the old illustration has been discarded and replaced with new images of a male, female, and male naumanni ssp
• White and Black-backed Wagtails – lumped together. Breeding male alba ssp added
• American Pipit – images replaced and the breeding alticola ssp added
• Red-throated Pipit – all images replaced
• The details of the tail and upper tail-coverts of the American and Sprague’s Pipits have been removed.
• Black-and-white Warbler – all three illustrations replaced and look much better. The male in the 4th edition looked very awkward.
• Bachman’s, Botteri’s, and Cassin’s Sparrows – all their images have been replaced, and a new illustration of the texana ssp of the Botteri’s has been added
• Sage Sparrow – added the canescnes ssp
• Vesper Sparrow – in the 4th there was just one illustration, of the western (confinus) ssp. In the 5th, this has been replaced with a new one. Also, an illustration of the eastern (gramineus) ssp has been added as well as a bird in flight (excellent, since they are often seen flushed up and their white outer tail feathers are distinctive)
• Dark-eyed Junco – the existing “Pink-sided” illustration has been replaced, and a new image of a bird from the front has been added

I’m sure there are more changes that I did not find. The only illustration that was in the 4th edition and is not contained in the 5th is the tail images of the pipits. Another curious change is that in the new edition the index no longer includes check boxes next to the species’ common name.

Full review of the 5th edition.