The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America

• The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America
• The Sibley Guide to Birds
• National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Fifth Edition (National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America)
• Sibley's Birding Basics
• 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 (Peterson Field Guides(R))

He has drawings that give the "more common" colorations of each species. I've purchased it for several of my birding friends, keep a copy at my home site and one in my truck. This is by far the one I use the most. I own every book on bird identification that I have been able to find for birds of the western United States. Photographs seldom yield such a wide spectrum of coloration. One of the points that makes Sibley's guide so useful is that there are no actual photographs of birds. I use other bird guides because they have good information, but Sibley's guide is the one most easy to use, and the most practical for really knowing the bird you are identifying.

I purchased this book for my Biology class and it has been more than helpful. It shows each bird in various poses, stages of life and shows the differences between the two sexes. Very informative and easy to navigate.

This may be heresy, but in this instance the derivative surpasses the original, and that is no mean feat. Remarkably, the text associated with many species accounts is more informative than the information found in the larger guide: more information about habitat preferences, behavior, and description. I have noticed some separation from the binding near the middle of each of the two field guides I have (eastern and western) but in neither instance is it really a problem. Most notably, it is compact enough to carry into the field, and that's where birders try to sort through as many diagnostic puzzles as possible. This is a compact field guide derived from David Allen Sibley's highly regarded _The Sibley Guide to Birds_. Most species accounts include fewer visual representations than the corresponding accounts found in the Guide to Birds, but the illustrations selected are usually quite sufficient. This isn't going to be my primary North American guide (I'll still rely on the National Geographic field guide for that purpose) but if I carry two guides into the field this will often be the second.

This is an excellent field guide. The illustrations are well done, and to have several illustrations for each bird is a must for indentification.As an avid birdwatcher, I would recommend this book over the others available for the beginner bird watcher.

The Sibley field guides are the current standards of birding in North America. Nothing else needs to be said. If you're going to buy one birding field guide - this is the one.