The Sibley Guide to Birds, 2nd Edition

One of my favorites! The Sibley guide helps me identify all the cool birds I see. I was excited to finally get this most recent edition. Good drawings and information about each bird.

This guide includes pretty much every bird you can reasonably expect to see in the US, and some you can't. It even has a section for exotic parrots that people tend to keep, and many of the different sections have entries for rare migrants. There are birds in here with range descriptions like "seen three times in the US", things that aren't exactly likely to be seen. But they've been seen, so they're in here. I love that. It means the bird I saw is pretty much guaranteed to be in here, so if nothing stands out at first, I should look through again. The different sections have birds of similar appearances grouped together. That's really helpful, because it makes it easier to compare the options directly. Each section starts with a page or two showing all the birds in that section compared to each other, with the females on display, since they're harder to ID. Then each bird gets, on average, half a page vertically of its own. It shows male and female plumage, and usually the bird from multiple angles. Birds with more regional variation have more space, usually the full page. A few birds, like the fox sparrow, have two pages to themselves. The illustrations are nice to look at, and are good to see all the details on. The book points out specific details for ID, and in many places, tells you how to figure out if your bird was one species or another, closely related species. The type might be too small if you have older eyes. I'm not sure. My eyes are pretty good. I don't think they could make the type much bigger, without sacrificing either layout, size of illustrations, or detail of text. The only downside to this book is that it's pretty heavy. It's not anywhere naer pocket-sized. I'm sure either version of the half-a-country book would be much lighter, but I live in Texas, so neither of those would cover all the possibilities. So, I have a heavy book, because I wanted something thorough. I'd much rather have lots of detail and options, in a book I can't bring along, than much more limited options in a book I can carry. I'll take pictures and ID them at home, or flip through the book beforehand so I can try to recognize things later. The latter works better with more distinctive birds, though, like the black-throated sparrow. Its entry calls its markings "unmistakeable", and that's real hard to argue with! Anyway, get this guide. If you find yourself wanting a smaller, pocket guide, get a smaller guide also, and then you have this one for rarer or more unusual things that won't be in the smaller guide.

I purchased this book for my daughter who is an avid bird watcher. The book has beautiful illustrations and detailed information about the birds. It is a great size and not too big for what all it contains. She is very happy with it.

Don't let some initial lukewarm reviews stop you from getting this wonderful guide. It's greatly expanded and improved in nearly every respect. It's packed with much more information on ID, behavior and distribution. There are more illustrations per species and coverage of many more rare species has been added. The range maps are updated and improved. In a number of the plates the colors are noticeably darker and richer than those in the first edition. This is intentional and in almost all cases this is a welcome improvement (i.e. Accipiters, thrushes and male Redhead which were too bright/pale in the first edition). A very few species are a little too dark for my taste (such as Pink-footed Goose and White-faced and Glossy Ibis), however I don't see any illustrations so dark that they lose needed detail. I've found the illustrations- with very few exceptions- are extremely accurate and lifelike, in typical Sibley style. In most cases the newer paintings blend seamlessly with the older and retouched artwork. Nits to pick? On a few birds the reds and oranges aren't quite right. The male Scarlet Tanager is a deeper red than it should be and the Chipping Sparrow's rust cap looks brownish, while the male Rose-breasted Grosbeak's red breast is a shade too deep and dark. But to emphasize, this is the case in only a very few illustrations. Overall the new edition more accurately portrays its subjects than the first edition (which was already pretty darn good). There are perhaps a dozen paintings out of a total of over 900 species and 7000 illustrations that don't perfectly represent a particular bird in question (and for the most part these appear to be relatively minor color corrections needed the scanning/printing process). That's a tiny percentage of "errors" and I can't see where any of these very minor issues affect the usefulness of the guide. Nor do they affect the identification of the species involved- with the possible exception of Chipping Sparrow. Most of the plates in this second edition are no darker (or barely so) than in the first edition. There are a few minor labeling errors which will be corrected in subsequent printings, but considering the scope of this book they are truly minimal and don't warrant much in the way of complaints. Obviously no guide is perfect, but I really can't find anything significant to fault in the new Sibley. On the other hand, I can find plenty to praise. The quality of the paintings and printing in many cases is noticeably improved over my first edition. In fact, after looking through the new guide and then going back to the old one, I found myself even more appreciative of the changes. The excellent first edition (which I am a big fan of by the way) now looks generally overly bright and washed out by comparison. It took me just a bit of time to adjust to the deeper/darker colors in the new edition, but I'm very pleased with almost all of them. In nearly every case they accurately depict the way birds look in the field. Another plus is the layout and general appearance of the new edition. It's cleaner and more comtemporary. The amount of text is greatly expanded and very helpful. There is so much information packed into this edition. Tips on ID (and similar species ID pitfalls), range, vagrancy, behavior are many. I can definitely understand why some have a problem with the comparatively small narrow font (though for me- at 53- this is not an issue). On the other hand a large and darker font could detract from and take attention away from the images of the birds themselves. I find it to be just visible enough without distracting from the illustrations. Clearly however, this is a matter of personal preference. I find this second edition to be a second remarkable achievement by David Sibley. What you are getting is worth many times the asking price. An absolute must have for any active birder or anyone interested in North American birds. The new standard. UPDATE: I've heard of variations in printing resulting in wild variations in color reproduction. I've been able to look at three different copies of the guide (two in local bookstores and my original from amazon). The colors- in these three copies at least- were essentially identical, and all looked good to me.

Excellent book. Easy to use. Easy to find the birds. Great illustrations, notes and details. Maps right where you need them (not in some kind of index). We all know it: Sibley guides are wonderful. I give them as gifts all the time.

He adquirido recientemente este libro y me parece una pasada. Muy completo, bien maquetado, con unas buenas ilustraciones (aunque no lleguen al nivel de otras guías como la Svensson, igualmente son buenas) y a un precio realmente asequible. Personalmente, no he tenido ningún problema con el color de la impresión de las ilustraciones. ------------------------------------- I've recently acquired this book and I think it's wonderful. Very complete, well laid out, with good illustrations (although they don't reach the level of other guides like Svensson, they are still good) and at a really affordable price. Personally, I have not had any problems with the color of the printing of the illustrations.

This book is a must have for any new or experienced birder. The volume of information from one of the world's leading authors on avian species is simply unmatched. Great illustrations, range maps, details, and more.

Sensational

Muy completo en cuanto a las especies de Norteamérica

北アメリカの野鳥図鑑としては、National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Sixth Editionが一番ポピュラーだと思うが、このSibleyのガイドも評価が高い。好みの問題であるが、Sibley一人で描いたイラストは非常に美しく、1種に対するイラスト数も非常に多い。また通常のフィールドガイドは左ページにテキスト、右ページにイラストの配置であるが、このSecond Editionから1種を縦型に配置する形に変更しており、他種と比較しやすくなっている。Second Editionの発売当初 印刷上の色の問題があったが、現Printingにおいてはその問題は解消している。 大変素晴らしいガイドだが、非常に大きい。外国のフィールドガイドは、日本人には大きいものが多いが、その中でも際立つサイズである。フィールドに持参するのは困難だろう。携帯用には、西部と東部に分冊になったThe Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western（又はEastern） North America: Second Editionが適している。（もしくはNational Geographic版である） 参考までにNational Geographic版との比較は以下の通り。 掲載種数 Sibley 923種、National Geographic 990種 大きさ Sibley 16 x 3.8（実寸では3.4） x 24.9 cm、 National Geographic 13.7 x 1.8 x 20.3 cm 重さ Sibley 1,361g National Geographic 771g ページ数 Sibley 598＋使い方や名称のページ National Geographic 576