My mother’s birthday is coming up. Once upon a time, she was an ornithologist, but she has commented that she can scarcely remember anything, and that she would like a reference book so she can recognize the birds around her house. She lives in Northern California near the coast and has a cabin in the Sierras. Can anyone recommend a good book I could get her for her birthday?
Well, you’ve got a lot of good choices. If you’re looking for a nice field guide that’s easy to carry around, I’d recommend Kenn Kaufman’s Birds of North America, or the old standby, Roger Tory Peterson’s A Field Guide to Western Birds. Most serious birders think THE best guide currently available is David Allen Sibley’s The Sibley Guide to Birds . But it’s not a good quick reference book; more something to read at a desk and study in preparation for a birding session.
The very best bird-watching guide for North America is probably the **The Sibley Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley. Big, comprehensive, and well-suited to someone who already has a background in birds.
- Tamerlane
artemis makes a good point about the size of the Sibley guide, though since I tend to bird within a few miles striking distance of a car most of the time, it is generally not an issue for me ( and it’s not huge - just bigger than average ).
For a more field-oriented field guide, I’m partial to the Field Guide to the Birds of North America by National Geographic. Personally I’m not so crazy about the Kaufmann book, but that’s personal bias - I tend to dislike photographic guides, preferring illustrations.
- Tamerlane
What about Field Guide to Birds of the West Indies by Bond, James Bond.
Tamerlane has it right - the illustrated books beat the photo books all to pieces. But in my experience it is best to have two books. It can be very difficult to make a match with only one drawing of a species, YMMV of course.
I’d also recommend any books by David A. Sibley. If your mom is an avid bird lover, I’d suggest The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior. It’s a mighty swell tome. For a smaller birdwatcher book, there is a Sibley guide to birdwatching,specifically. Oddly enough, I couldn’t find it by google, but I know it exists, because I gave a copy to my Dad for Xmas, signed yet, but I can’t get it to show up on google. It’s a smaller book, with Sibley’s insight on birding. The ultimate gift would be all three of Sibley’s books!
I love love love Sibley’s, but it’s sometimes just a little to much to stick in a pocket, so I also have the little red-covered (eastern version is. . yellow? Dunno) Audubon guide. I also take notes in this more dispensible one, marking off what I’ve seen. Sibley’s great to have when you need see a freaky variant colored bird.
The Master’s Guide to Birding is in three volumes and has far more info then you could possibly need. I think it’s from the Audobon folks.
Thank you, everyone! The Sibley Guide to Birds is on the way to her now. I think that will be perfect, as she is not looking for a field guide that she can carry so much as a guide to the birds she sees in her own back yard and around the nearby lake. (We saw a hawk on the fence right outside the house at Thanksgiving, and she gets tons of little and big birds in her garden).