Comments on: The Sibley eGuide to the Birds of North America

By: J. Moore

J. Moore — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:37:11 +0000

The Sibley app is now available in an android version.

By: Chris R

Chris R — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 22:26:45 +0000

Saw a similar post recently regarding the Sibley Guide, but was not aware that a Peterson version is available also. That is terrific news and, yes…should definitely create some healthy competition. This is great to hear. Thank you for the additional info.

By: Drew

Drew — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 02:52:23 +0000

I see your point. The current Sibley app is definitely not a paper replacement. Yet. With the new Peterson’s app out, there is quite a bit of competition, should be great for us birders!

By: Grant McCreary

Grant McCreary — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 02:42:13 +0000

Drew, I absolutely agree, at least in the case of print guides. My first field guide as an adult birder was Sibley, and I too feel that I was better off with it. But with digital apps…I’m not so sure. When I was starting out, I had to do a lot of flipping through the guide. A lot. Print guides allow for easy comparison like that. But although the Sibley app has a very nice compare feature, it’s not the same thing. I see the filtering/searching capability as a replacement for being able to look through a guide. And iBird is much better in that regard.

Still, I think every NA birdwatcher should have the Sibley Guide, in one form or another.

By: Drew

Drew — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 01:54:52 +0000

I agree with your conclusion that the Sibley eGuide is great and iBird more beneficial to less experienced birders. That being said, I think I would have been pretty disappointed as a beginning birder if someone had recommended iBird and I had downloaded that rather than Sibley. It takes me back to the days when I was trying to identify birds with an Audubon photo guide and Petersons. I would have been so much better of with the Sibley. There is just no comparison when it comes to the accuracy of Sibleys illustrations.