Bird Guides and Books

A wild bird field guide is an essential tool for any birder. Bird books are packed with information, illustrations and photos necessary to make accurate identifications. Descriptions and pictures of birds help distinguish details for each bird.

There are many field guides to North American birds, each with its own format for identifying birds. Which guide should you buy? The answer to that is personal preference. Some guides have photographs of the birds, where others have illustrations; some have bird range maps on the same page while others have them indexed in a separate section. My personal preference is, A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern North America, by Roger Tory Peterson. To find the right guide for you, locate a comfortable seat in your bookstore and go through as many guides as they have for your particular region and select one that is the most appealing to you. You may have a hard time deciding on one book, many birders have several bird guides. If you find birding pleasurable, you will undoubtedly own more than one field guide, no one book contains all the information for each bird. When you have two or more bird books, comparing the illustrations and descriptions for the same bird in each book will help make you a more knowledgeable birder.

Books recommended by Wildbird-Watching.com:

Field Guides

A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America  by Roger Tory Peterson and Virginia Marie Peterson

Peterson Field Guides: Eastern Birds, Large Format Edition   by Roger Tory Peterson and Virginia Marie Peterson - Large Print

A Field Guide to Western Birds: A Completely New Guide to Field Marks of All Species Found in North America West of the 100th Meridian and North of Mexico (Turtleback) by Roger Tory Peterson and Virginia Marie Peterson

National Geographic Field Guide To The Birds Of North America, 4th Edition  by National Geographic Society

National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Fifth Edition (National Geographic Field Guide to Birds of North America)  by Jon L. Dunn and Jonathan Alderfer

National Geographic Complete Birds of North America  by Jonathan Alderfer

The Sibley Guide to Birds  by David Allen Sibley

The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America  by David Allen Sibley and Rick Cech

The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America  by David Allen Sibley

National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Region - Revised Edition  by NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY

National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Western Region - Revised Edition (National Audubon Society Field Guide)  by NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY

The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds  by John K. Terres

Bird Feeders and Birdhouses

The Audubon Backyard Birdwatcher: Birdfeeders and Bird Gardens  by Robert Burton, Stephen W. Kress, and National Audubon Society

Stokes Birdfeeder Book : The Complete Guide to Attracting, Identifying, and Understanding Your Feeder Birds  by Donald Stokes and Lillian Stokes

The Complete Birdhouse Book: The Easy Guide to Attracting Nesting Birds  by Donald W. Stokes and Lillian Q. Stokes

Essays

Thoreau on Birds  by Henry David Thoreau