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Several times in her podcasts I’ve heard Birdchick advise her listeners not to upgrade their field guide (provided their current one is no more than a decade old, or so). As the multitude of Extra Special [fill in the blank with some annoying, vaguely title-specific phrase] Edition DVD’s on my shelves would tell you, I would never go so far as to say that. But I would agree with her about this: if all the new guide does is update the taxonomy to conform with the latest updates from the AOU and ABA, then what’s the point? For it to be worth buying, any new or updated North American field guide needs to do more than be current with all the splits, lumps, and new species for the ABA area.

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

National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Sixth Edition
by Jon L. Dunn and Jonathan Alderfer

From the publisher:

For beginning and experienced birders alike, this is the most comprehensive bird guide available anywhere—now lavishly redone with a refreshed design; 300 new illustrations; 23 new-to-North America species; major updates in text with the latest taxonomy and science; range maps with all-new migration overlays; 40 subspecies maps (unique to this guide); fully annotated illustrations with field marks; and an ultra-convenient visual index on the inside flaps.

National Geographic’s flagship bird guide is essential for bird identification—authoritative, portable, sturdy and easier than ever to use—a birding bible for all bird lovers.

This new edition adds some undeniably cool features to the venerable NatGeo field guide, such as subspecies range maps, and separate colors on maps to indicate spring, autumn, and ‘both’ migration routes (first time I’ve seen that). But is it worth upgrading? Be on the lookout for a detailed list of changes and additions that will hopefully help answer that question. [Update: here is that list – National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Sixth Edition – Initial Review]

The good folks at Princeton University Press are giving away a signed copy of The Crossley ID Guide, along with a couple of signed, poster-sized prints of plates. All you have to do to enter is “like” the new Princeton Birds & Natural History Facebook page before Halloween.

Looking through Amazon’s bargain bird books (look for the “Bargain Books” link on the left), I noticed a few great deals:

• Pete Dunne on Bird Watching: The How-to, Where-to, and When-to of Birding – $4.80
  Still one of, if not the, best book on birding.
• The Shorebird Guide – $9.98
  My favorite family ID guide.
• Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America, Sixth Edition and Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Western North America, Fourth Edition – $7.98 each
  The latest regional Peterson guides.
• The Young Birder’s Guide to Birds of Eastern North America – $5.98
  A great field guide for younger birds, although an expanded edition is coming next year.
• Gulls of the Americas: Peterson Reference Guides – $14.00
• National Geographic Bird Coloration – $10.69
  Great book.
• The Singing Life of Birds: The Art and Science of Listening to Birdsong – $6.78
• Hawks in Flight: The Flight Identification of North American Migrant Raptors – $5.60
• Birdwatcher: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson – $5.76
  Very interesting bio of RTP.
• Flights Against the Sunset: Stories that Reunited a Mother and Son – $7.39
  Stories from Kenn Kaufman.
• Good Birders Don’t Wear White: 50 Tips From North America’s Top Birders – $3.58
  Collection of tips.

At these prices, all of these books are very much worth it. And there are plenty of others, too…

FYI: these links, as with all Amazon and iTunes links on this site, are affiliate links. That means a small portion of any purchases made through them will go toward supporting this site.

It is inevitable. We have field guide, listing, and bird finding apps on our phones. It’s only a matter of time before these devices will identify birds for us. That day may be sooner rather than later. A University of Wisconsin–Madison ornithologist is working on an app that will ID bird song – WeBIRD.

Tip of the hat to Princeton University Press Blog.

Bird book reviews from September.

The field guide is an indispensable tool of the birder. Birders study them, enjoy their art or photographs, and, of course, use them to identify birds. But how often do we really think about field guides and what we should expect from them? And have you ever considered the possibility that field guides may influence their users in matters other than identification? Spencer Schaffner has. In Binocular Vision, Schaffner explores the broader implications, beyond that of ID, of bird representations in field guides.

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.

Here’s the full review.

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.

Laura Erickson has posted a great overview/history of North American field guides on her blog.