It’s July, so it’s already time to get out there and look for shorebirds on their southbound migration. In fact, there have already been a couple reports of Upland Sandpipers here in Georgia. But this group of birds can be notoriously difficult to identify. So when you head out to the nearest beach, sod farm, or sewage treatment plant, you may want to take a specialized identification guide with you. But which one?
Here, I will be comparing the four most recent guides that cover North American shorebirds. However, two of them also cover Europe and Asia, and the other two, although focused on North America, would also be useful elsewhere.
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The Shorebird Guide
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Shorebirds of North America: The Photographic Guide
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Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia: A Photographic Guide
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Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia: A Guide to Field Identification
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Author
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Michael O’Brien, Richard Crossley, Kevin Karlson
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Dennis Paulson
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Richard Chandler
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Stephen Message and Don Taylor
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Publish date
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April, 2006
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January, 2005
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July, 2009
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March, 2006
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Price (MSRP)
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$24.95
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$29.95
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$35.00
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$35.00
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Size (width x height x thickness)
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6″ x 9″ x 1 3/8″
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5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ x 1″
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6 1/8″ x 9 1/4″ x 1 1/8″
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6 1/8″ x 9 1/4″ x 1/2″
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# pages
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496
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384
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448
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224
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# species
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91
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94
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134
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124
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Illustrations
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Photos
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Photos
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Photos
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Paintings
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Account/Plate layout
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Two sections: 1st has photos, with limited text and maps; 2nd has species accounts
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Everything in each species account
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Everything in each species account
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Two sections: 1st has plates on the right (multiple species), with some text on the facing page; 2nd has species accounts, with maps, more text, and shows the bird in flight
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Range maps
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Color; breeding, winter, resident, and migration (with two shades to show relative abundance)
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NONE
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Color; breeding, winter, resident
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Color; breeding, winter, resident
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Species accounts
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- Status
- Taxonomy
- Behavior
- Migration
- Molt
- Vocalizations
- (Photo section also has short notes on Size, Structure, Behavior, and Status)
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- Size
- Plumages
- Subspecies
- Hybrids
- Identification
- In Flight
- Voice
- Behavior
- Habitat
- Range
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- Identification
- Ageing (with separate descriptions of each age class)
- Call
- Status, Habitat, and Distribution
- Racial Variation and Hybridization
- Similar Species
- References
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- Key ID Features
- Behavior
- Flight Action
- Voice
- Distribution
- Confusion Species
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Recommendation
So, given all of these choices, which one should you get? Well, none of them are actually bad, and any would be helpful shorebirding. But in case you don’t want to carry around four shorebird guides, here are my thoughts on them.
I would immediately rule out Message/Taylor. I prefer general field guides that use paintings, but I think photographs work better for shorebirds. Plus, I just don’t care for most of the illustrations here. Some, admittedly, are pretty good. But most just look bad to me. I think it’s because the painter attempts to show the feathers in too great of detail. Personally, I just don’t care for that.
The Paulson and Chandler photographic guides are very similar in their approach and layout. The photographs are of similar quality. On average, Paulson includes just a bit more photos per species, but the ones in Chandler are larger. Chandler includes many more species, but this is largely irrelevant to North American birders since they both contain all of the birds likely to be seen here. I love the formatting and layout of Chandler’s guide; of the two, it just looks much better. After going back and forth between them, I think I prefer the newer guide from Chandler.
But there is no doubt in my mind that The Shorebird Guide is not only the best guide for shorebirds, it is the best family-specific guide that I have seen. The authors emphasize birding by impression (aka “jizz” or “giss”-based identification). They point out field marks that the others either do not mention, or bury in the text. And the photos are simply amazing! The thing I like best about this guide is that many of the photos show birds of different species together, with the captions helping to point out the differences. This is supremely helpful in learning these birds, but none of the other guides do this. Every North American birder (and probably any birder in the Northern Hemisphere) needs to have this book. It’s that good. (It also happens to be the cheapest!)
But really, can you have too many guides to shorebirds?
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