The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America

The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America is the companion volume to The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America.The Eastern volume covers the 650 bird species found east of the Rocky Mountains. As with any bird field guide, the user wants comprehensive, easily accessible, clear information that make identifications quick and indisputable. Sibley's field guides cover all the species within the range of the volume arranging the birds in vertical columns on the page with most two-page spreads showing four species. This means that there is room for large detailed, beautiful illustrations with field marks for the diagnostic features. These marks are extremely helpful for the new birder to show what to look for and how to distinguish one species from another. This arrangement is particularly helpful when confronted with the terrible and mysterious LBJs or little brown jobs. The reader can make quick comparisons between similar species.The text covers key identification characteristics and field marks on the illustrations, whether the species is common, uncommon, rare, etc. to an area, nesting, behavior, food and feeding, and voice description. Accompanying the text is an excellent range map showing the bird's full North American distribution.The inside of the front cover gives a quick reference guide to the parts of a bird and what the various colors mean on the range maps. The inside of the back cover provides a map of the USA and Canada, i.e., what counts as North America for birding purposes. The first leaf inside the back cover is a Quick Index to allow the user relatively fast access to the groups of species.The volume is compact enough to fit into a hip pocket with a bit of manoeuvring. Since it covers only part of North America, it is lighter than single volume field guides covering all of North America.The Sibley field guides have two exceptional features. One is that if there is some interesting or noteworthy characteristic about a bird or group of birds, Sibley put in a text box. For example, there is a text box on Woodpecker Climbing Motions explaining the roll of the feet and tail in climbing. The other feature is, if a species is more common in the east say rather than the west, then the Eastern volume will have more illustrations and adjusts the text to reflect more about the species. For example, in the Western volume, the Blue Jay has four illustrations and the text starts with "uncommon", while in the Eastern volume the Blue Jay has five illustrations and the text starts out with "common".A single field guide is never sufficient. A birder needs to compare the information and illustrations of two or more field guides. This and its companion volume are excellent choices for one of the guides and I highly recommend them.

NOTE: I'm a novice birder but reasonably experience outdoorsy-type, and this is not just my first field guide to birds, but also my first bird guide. I pair my Flexibound Sibley with Nikon Monarch 7's in 8 x 42.Without trying to write up a full review, which might be redundant (and is something I'm not in the mood for today anyway), I will tell you this: at first glance, in the gift shop of the National Aviary here in Pittsburgh, I liked the Sibley Flexibound text enough (based on its size, the quality of the binding and the pages, the clarity of the printing and the tactile sensation from handling it) to pay full retail price for it right then and there. I never pay full retail price for anything - especially books - and I will often waste time and energy scheming and scamming to get something at wholesale, rather than be normal and just pay the list price or MAP.So that's how impressed I was w/ Sibley's Flexibound text at first blush: I was willing to pay full-price for it.I've had the book for about six weeks, and I live in southwestern PA, so no chance to really take it outside wearing a pair of cargo shorts w/ big pockets or anything like that. But how I have been using it, both stationary and on short walking excursions, it's been easy to access (the content w/in, that is - not just the physical book itself) and robust (the book itself - though the content has never been inadequate for a situation I've thus far encountered). The amount of information per species seems sufficient for being "in the field". That is, I wasn't powering up an Android app. looking for supplementary photos or information I thought might be lacking in the book. But I'm also not a very experienced birder, and a denser book might just result in information overload.A couple of really specific things I like about the Flexibound field guide version: glossy paper (omg, so nice), and these fold-over tab/flap type things on the edge of each cover - they're perfect as bookmarks, like when you slightly open the dust jacket on a hardcover and use the folded-over piece to mark your page, tucking up all the pages before - or after it (depending on whether you use the front or back cover).I also like that, while there's a good index, there's also a "Quick Index" immediately after (w/ final page of book having final page of quick index on one side, and half the inside back cover map on the other.One criticism: I live in the narrow band where there are Black-capped Chickadees AND Carolina Chickadees AND hybrids of Black-capped and Carolina Chickadees! Sibley has a great comparative illustration to ease identification of these two species, but they didn't include it in the Flexibound book! But they did include a whole paragraph of text contrasting them...and included next to it a little illustration of a random chickadee hanging upside down - and no comparative sketch! So annoying! (It's so annoying b/c Black-capped is on one page (left) and Carolina is on the opposite page, so even though you have the guide open to one spot where the two birds you're trying to compare both appear, you can only really focus on the info on the left or the info on the right - and not quickly and easily see illustration of the two birds side by side.).Here is the Sibley illustration I wish was in the book: [...] I'm being persnickety though.tl;dr - Sibley Flexibound seems to be a great first guide for this amateur birder! I'd recommend it to anyone else just starting out who also values seemingly sufficient content, robustness, and portability in their field guide (or at least imagines that they would).

Useful index. Decent descriptions and artwork etc.

I bought the Sibley field guide for an ornithology class and was really pleased. I had done some casual birdwatching growing up, but not at the college level, and the Sibley was a great study and field tool.I really enjoyed that both the English and Latin names for each bird are listed in the index in the back, and that the layout was easy to understand. The illustrations are great, and the detailed female illustrations are really helpful as well. Surprisingly, the pages held up rather well in heavy rain, even though the book is designed for dry weather/indoor use. I have some water damage from standing out in heavy downpours for hours at a time for class, but not nearly as much as I expected.One part that could be improved: the onomatopoeia for the bird calls and songs were not very helpful (for me) in identifying birds by sound. The descriptions that Sibley gives were rather different from how I would describe the call or song, and often not for the sound I was listening to anyway.Overall, great book, especially for beginning birders!

Fantastic for our Girls to pick out birds in the backyard. Would recommend for anyone who wants to get closer to nature wherever they live whether it be a concrete jungle or rural farmhouse!

El paquete llegó incluso con un día de antelación y en perfecto estado. Esta guía la recomendaría a todo aquel que quiera conocer las aves norteamericanas de la zona este.

Habe mir das Buch für den Urlaub (Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida) gekauft und konnte damit sehr gut die gefiederten Freunde bestimmen.Das Buch ist vom Aufbau, Abbildung, Größe und Gewicht ähnlich dem "Kosmos Vogelführer/Svensson/Collins Bird Guide" für die Bestimmung europäischer Vögel jedoch ist der Aufbau beim Sibley besser gelungen. Für jede Vogelfamilie (jedes Kapitel) gibt es 1-2 Seiten Übersicht mit Abbildungen der einzelnen Vogelarten und auf welcher Seite diese zu finden sind, was sehr dabei hilft die einzelnen Arten zu vergleichen und Vögel zu bestimmen. Mir gefällt ebenfalls dass jede Vogelart mit Abbidlungen, Text und Verbreitungskarte auf einer Seitenhälfte zusammengefasst ist, sodass das gesamte Buch etwas sortierter erscheint.

Bottom line - if like me you are a semi-serious birder on the first trip to Eastern North America, this is the guide to buy. Carefully illustrated, comprehensive, with detailed observing notes. It's perhaps a little bigger than ideal, but it fitted into my jacket pocket and was a constant companion. My trip to Hudson Bay would have been incomplete without it. (The section on sandpipers was especially helpful here!)

... ist ganz ausgezeichnet. Ich habe inzwischen - soweit ich herausfinden konnte - für den Teil der Vogelwelt, den ich mutmaßlich sehen werde, zusätzlich noch die deutschen Namen neben den englischen und lateinischen der Vögel notiert. Und hoffe nun darauf, möglichst vielen davon auch tatsächlich zu begegnen und sie dann identifizieren zu können.Aber das werde ich erst beurteilen können, wenn die Reise hinter mir liegt.