Review
Birdwatching at its best is a fantastic, close view of a wild bird, revealing the full beauty of the creature before you and allowing you to observe well not only its plumage and shape but also its behavior and habits. As such, this popular pursuit is an evolving study of detail, as the novice accumulates knowledge through experience and repetition. David Sibley’s magnificent guide is the single best reference to support such an avocation. Larger than a standard field guide and thus likely to be left in the car on field trips, it is an aesthetic delight…armchair birding at its best. The 810 species and 350 regional forms covered in this book are beautifully illustrated in flight, at rest, from above and below, and at various ages, and the same-page text, range maps, and annotations add a wealth of information that make leafing through this guide just plain fun, let alone highly informative, and a must for every nature aficionado’s bookshelves.

~ Jan Erick Pierson