I may have finally found a relacement for my old Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds. My new Peterson guide — BIRDS OF EASTERN AND CENTRAL NORTH AMERICA — arrived today and is it beautiful. Best of all, it has a flexible cover and is light enough to carry into the field.
I have dozens of bird books, but this little guide is by far the best for field work. In addition to it’s apparently waterproof and flexible cover, and being just the right size for a backpack (you can even carry it in your hand comfortably–no small feat for my arthritic hands), the new guide includes those nifty little arrows Peterson has used forever. The arrows, size specifications, and placement of maps on the same page as the species, allow the bird watcher to immediately locate and identify distingishing characteristics.
The Peterson guide does not contain as much detail as the SIBLEY GUIDE, or the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, or the SMITHSONIAN HANDBOOK – BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, but the Peterson guide is detailed enough for field work and much lighter. If you are a serious bird watcher you will want to buy all four books, but if you can only afford one or don’t want to invest in all four, the PETERSON GUIDE is still the best bet. And, I still think the Peterson guide is the best one to use with kids.
The National Geographic guide includes some wonderfully modeled bird specimens with incredible detail that could only be produced digitally. The Peterson illustrations are hand painted and thus not as detailed. Although other books may show more detail, the question is — will you really need all the detail in the field? Generally, you have only a few seconds to identify a bird. Peterson’s arrow markers and the alternating sections of white and light bluish-grey backgrounds make it easier for me to flip around the book quickly.
The SMITHSONIAN GUIDE is fully loaded and very heavy. Each bird occupies a single page, and the guide provides a nice "rule-of-thumb" feature that allows you to gauge the bird’s size by the book size. I use my Smithsonian guide for follow-up work after a trek in the field — and in my own back yard.
Apparently, the Peterson folks have considered the effects of global warming as the winter and summer ranges of the birds have been extended. I now have five kinds of wrens visiting my small back yard in Arlington VA. And, when I travel to Wisconsin in a week or so, I can use the Peterson guide because it extends west to Minnesota.
