National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Sixth Edition

I always felt that when I started carrying my 5th edition of the Geographic Guide as my main field guide, that I had sort of graduated to the field guide of a serious birding hobbyist. I needed to know what else has been seen as I traveled around the nation, just in case, and with 967 species in the 5th edition, I felt like I was covered just in case. I loved the 5th field guide, though it had some issues with color that I am glad to see fixed in the 6th edition. The 6th edition now covers 990 species seen or expected in the United States, keeping up with the new additions to the ABA lists. Never before have I pre-ordered a book of any kind, but when I learned that the 6th edition was coming out, I just had to see how "America's #1 Bird Guide" was going to be made better. I did pre-order my copy from Amazon as soon as I was made aware of it's availability, I had it in my hands November 4th, 4 days after its November 1, 2011, publication date. Today I finished a page by page, bird by bird review of the new edition, and I do believe that the folks at National Geographic have made some nice improvements and kept their field guide the best that exists for North American birders. I am thrilled with the new guide. Specifically, the first thing one notices is the new maps. They are excellent, detailed and include much more information now with migration ranges noted (two excellent examples are Baird's Sandpiper and White-rumped Sandpiper), with migration routes shown separately for spring and fall. Along with those changes, they also included subspecies ranges for the species where that might be important to know. It is worth noting that for species that have complicated sub-species maps, there is a section in the back of the book with 41 detailed sub-species maps that are much appreciated. Furthermore, there are many more range maps for birds that are not regular visitors to North America (Fea's and Bermuda Petrel come to mind), or have very small ranges (Island Scrub Jay for example). These maps show the Asian, Caribbean or Mexican typical ranges for the species in much more detail and indicate how the species might find it's way to the United States. It is a small detail that I really like. There was never a need to just show where the bird was seen in the US, and I am glad the folks creating this guide didn't stick strictly to US maps only this time around, the map flexibility has really allowed a wonderful addition of knowledge that these maps impart. The next detail users of the 5th edition will notice that is different in the 6th edition is that every species entry is now broken into three distinct parts. They begin with species description, and then have clearly marked sections on VOICE and RANGE. It is the new and more comprehensive details in RANGE that are substantially improved in this edition. Clearly, they had listers in mid as they added the details they did about how often and when species are seen, or have been seen, that is just an excellent improvement, especially for the serious lister. A third major change for this edition is the addition of field note details along with the bird images. They are insightful and great reminders for the accomplished birder, but wonderful instructional notes for the learning birder. I have always loved these notes in the Kaufmann guide, and the addition of these notes, in my mind does not detract from the wonderful images. I have always hoped that this feature would be added to this guide, and I never would have expected two other changes to make this anything other than my favorite update to the guide, but both the above outweigh this fantastic change to this guide. A few small things I liked, images of the ducks flying are now WITH the species accounts. They still kept the duck, shorebird and raptor pages showing flying images of the birds for comparison to similar species, but for the ducks I always wanted the flying images with the species, and now that change has been made. The updates to Red-tailed Hawk are nice, not a comprehensive overview, of course, but more information that can be followed up on if one needs to know more. The new images of the sub-species are a nice basic update that was overdue. Finally, very minor, I loved the image of the Yellow Warbler feeding a just fledged Brown-headed Cowbird. How many times I have seen that in the field. Nice touch. My suggestions for improvement? I have a few. One, why doesn't any field guide show the ABA Species Code number? It would be easy to add and I would love to know what are code 2, 3, 4 and 5 species without having to add that information to the guide by hand. Two, I must also admit at after Crossley's ID Guide, I like having the 4 letter codes with the species accounts. I would like to see those codes added to this guide too. Three, I was disappointed to see Bachman's Warbler and Eskimo Curlew exiled to the Accidental & Extinct Species section (I love the section for accidentals, and found it surprisingly up to date). If this was my guide, I would keep the extinct North American species, Labrador Duck, Eskimo Curlew, Great Auk, Carolina Parakeet & Bachman's Warbler in their taxonomic places within the guide. It is a good way to place them inside the appropriate taxonomy, AND a great reminder of just how precious every species is, and how we need to protect the remaining species we have so we don't add to this list anytime soon. Finally, of all the images, I thought the Winter Wren image to be terrible and off color. It was the only image I had a completely negative reaction too. The Winter Wrens we get in Chicago look NOTHING like that washed out light image that they have included for this species now that it has been split from Pacific Wren. But none of these small suggestions should take anything away from how comprehensive and complete this guide is. The maps are worth the price of the book alone, the image accounts and much better with the RANGE notes, and the addition of field mark notes with the images has been done with respect and insight. This is a fantastic update, and every serious birder, or aspiring birder, needs this update for not just their library, BUT to have with them in the field.

I previously had the 3rd edition, and there are some good improvements. I love the quick find index on the front flap of the book. This is going to make flipping to a specific bird a lot easier than sifting through the index in the back. I look forward to having that handy in the field. The range maps for each bird are bigger, and seem more detailed. I wish they had kept the little boxes next to each bird species in the index, which I use to keep track of my life list. The illustrations and detailed and helpful, and much better than having photographs. I can't say that it's better than Sibley's, but I still prefer it, partly because it's what I grew up using.

I purchased the book because I knew it to be a top-notch, well organized guide to identifying birds. It is organized somewhat differently than other guides I have, i.e.birds that I am used to seeing grouped side by side by common name or similar appearance e.g. rosebreasted grosbeak and evening grosbeak, are in separate sections because they are actually in different "families." I'm learning a lot. The quick find index inside the front cover and the visual indexes are extremely helpful for quick reference. This guide is too heavy / bulky to be easily portable into the field and that is not its intent. The introduction actually says " Remember that the most important thing when birding is to look at the actual bird. There will be plenty of time to consult this field guide later." Good advice!

Pros: Very easy navigation, light, satisfying images Cons: Possible outdated map ranges and names in future Bottom line: This book is worth every penny as it provides easy navigation, point’s outs every detail on identifying birds, and is very easy to carry anywhere. As a person who has been bird watching for a decade, no field book that contains all bird species in North America has been able to fit easily in my bag except for this one. I tend to go out in the field quite often and often need a field book to confirm my ID on birds especially the birds that give a majority trouble with identifying (Gulls). I am a fan of technology and have used the electronic field guides for iPhone but I still suggest having actual book as way for you not to drain your battery. The images all matter on preference for expert birders and I believe this will leave most somewhat satisfied. I have been a fan of using Sibling guides for years as Field Guide for birds but as soon as a friend recommending me to update and look into a Nat Geo Field Guide for birds, this was by far the one of the best recommendation for a new and improved field guide for birds. Price I overall paid $11.45 used including shipping. It was really worth it as this book looks new and was most likely untouched by user. I recommend buying it used if you are unsure about Nat Geo Geo guides as I was. If this is your first field guide purchase, I believe it’s worth the price you pay and all beginning birders should have it. Content The content is overall outstanding. It provides very clear wording accompanied by imagery that can aid you in identifying in a majority of birds. It provides you range map for all birds along with brief description of birds. I believe that these will be outdated in the near future along with names but that is the con in purchasing a field guide print. It also describes the sound of birds in word which can be helpful for some. Very excellent when it comes to describing plumage, size, and other unique aspects in birds. Navigation Probably one of the best features of this book. Has a quick find index that is ordered by family taxa with the page numbers. It also has cut-out sections that outline the main families which is very helpful. If you know the taxa very well this could be very helpful for you to easily find the bird you are looking for.. If you are a starting birder, this is also very useful in getting you familiarize with your bird taxa. Weight/Size Very easy to carry around and light. Easily fits into my small backpack for a book containing all North America bird species. The font size is also large enough to read which is great for those who are far-sighted. The one thing about the font that bothers me is the text that outlines field marks. It is in a lighter font than most fonts in the book which can be troubling to read when light is hardly available. The size and weight overall makes it excellent to carry around in the field. Images This all matter on preference for art style. As a birder who often uses Sibley books, I still prefer some images of birds in the Sibley over Nat Geo but regardless this books gets the job done in helping anyone identifying birds. The print on some images of birds seem a bit odd to me but it will pass. The images also have birds placed in positions that you are likely to find them in the field which can be helpful for identification.

I've looked at many field guides whenever I find myself in book stores. This one caught my eye, and I when I learned that a new sixth edition had come out, I got it right away. While there are many are good bird guides out there, they usually contain pictures and art that don't show the birds from every angle. The information usually isn't that detailed either, or not there at all. I'm sure there are a lot of people who would love to know how to tell the difference between two very similar species like western meadowlarks and eastern meadowlarks. This book goes way beyond any guide I've ever seen, the information is in-depth and useful, not to mention that they show the top of the bird's wing AND the bottom of it (though unfortunately, this guide doesn't have under-tail pictures...). For some reason, many guides don't show what the bird looks like from the bottom. Which is incredibly silly since many times they flow OVER you and that's all you get to see. There's been improved migration maps, and new subspecies migration maps, which is incredible. They also have accidental species, which is mind-blowing as well. The beginning of the book teaches you all about how to read and decipher the latin/greek names, the entire anatomy for different species, basic birding identification skills, and more. I could go on forever about how great this book is, it's like a bird-college text book! I wouldn't settle for any other guide!

A great field guide. My children and I have been using an area specific field guide for many years and it needed an upgrade badly! There are more species than you can ever hope to see in the wild and their identifing marks. There is not much information on each bird like the local NatGeo field guide had calls and migratory patterns, which is slightly disappointing but understandable seeing how many birds need to fit into an easily transportable book. I gave this to my 6 year old(even though I know we will all use it) he loves to find birds that interest him in the book and learn the names. (Like Pokémon but educational haha) A great purchase for the family and a successful gift for my bird loving 6 year old

Another winner from National Geographic. I have every edition of this field guide and consider it the gold standard of guides. There have been some innovative guides in recent years, especially the Sibley with its flight drawings and the Crossley with its multi-photo scenery pages. I wondered whether this new edition would have something worthwhile to keep pace. It delivers with outstanding new range maps for each species that include migration areas and extra range maps for many subspecies. There are also lots of new drawings, new text and field-mark labels. It is a bit more crowded with the labels but it is still professional. This remains the only guide I would compare to the terrific Collins Guide the Europeans have for their birds. I am very pleased that the quality is like that of the 1st, 2nd ,3rd and 5th editions and not the mass-market 4th. The print job is better than the 5th edition as well. In particular, there was too much grey where there should have been brown hues in the 5th edition. It is a subtle difference but on some species, it is really obvious. The 6th edition corrects the problem. This edition is about 70 pages longer than the 5th edition. It doesn't include the Birding Hot Spots found in the Exclusive 5th Edition or the Identification tip boxes for difficult identification issues found in the Eastern and Western guides release after the 5th edition. Neither of those features was essential and I think they made the right decision to leave them out. No guide is perfect and so there are still shortcomings with this one. A few of the poor drawings from recent editions have been replaced but a few (night herons and bitterns page) remain a notch below the rest of the book. There are still no under tail drawings of woodwarblers. The flight drawings are not consistent. It is time to replace the harsh looking eagle on the cover. On the whole I love this guide and look forward to reading all of the descriptions. It will replace my National Geographic 5th edition in the field.

Ever since the first edition came out in 1983, I have used, marked up, and worn out these field guides by Jon L. Dunn! I give them as gifts to new birders, and recommend them to experienced folks. The illustrations are accurate and the descriptions are precise. I had thought that the 5th edition couldn't be topped, but this 6th edition is even better. Jon Dunn has included identifying characteristics on the pages beside the bird illustrations to help you separate sub-species. There are even pictures of similar species next to an illustration to help differentiate between them. It's the best of the best.

This is the best book to use in the field in North America, whilst reasonably heavy it can just about be called a field guide and will go in a large pocket. All the species are illustrated to a high standard with descriptions and range maps. This is the book I personally use in the field on all of my North American tours and recommend to all my clients. By all means take other books but this is the one to use in the field.

Molto molto ben fatto, un ottimo libro. Se non avete problemi con l'Inglese o meglio volete fornire a Vs figlio un giocattolo per esercitarsi con la lingua, se gli interessa l'argomento, sarete più che mai certi che non si stanchera'

This is one of the textbooks for my zoology class and it is wonderful! Not only does it categorize birds by taxonomic family has common and scientific names. Additionally, it has excellent illustrations of each bird in both genders, during all seasons, and even in flight and standing. It uses simple terminology that anyone can use. It also has a detailed map showing each bird's range during multiple times such as migration or breeding, or their year-round range. Excellent reference!

とても良い本です。 世界の鳥の事が書いてあり、とてもよくわかりました。

El material del papel es de alta calidad, las ilustraciones y la información de las aves es excelente, además del plus de ser de Nat Geo, en México aquellos interesados en conocer sobre las aves migratorias que vienen de los Norte América este puede ser un excelente libro para iniciar.