Besides the obvious answer that it allows crazy, obsessive types the excuse to create entire websites devoted to them, it’s a good question. Of course, you have to start with field guides. We legitimately need them for identification, and since birders tend to travel all over the place the field guides can really pile up. But even then, we aren’t satisfied with just one field guide. We need a guide that utilizes paintings as well as one that uses photographs, a larger guide that encompasses the entire continent and smaller regional guides, all-encompassing guides and family-specific ones.

But even so, field guides make up a relatively small portion of my birding library. So why have all the rest? Corey postulates two reasons, and both apply in my case. The first is that I want to learn all I can about birds. That includes how to identify them, obviously. But I also want to know about their biology and behavior. Birds are endlessly fascinating; you can read all you want but you’ll never know it all. Three of the books I’ve read recently have dealt with this, and I learned many interesting things from each one (National Geographic Bird Coloration, The Private Lives of Birds, and Molt in North American Birds).

The other reason Corey gives why birders may be such bibliophiles is that we tend to be a bit obsessive. We have lists for everything else, why not books we’ve read? This is definitely me. I’ve always been a collector. As a kid, it was Star Wars and Batman toys, baseball cards, and comic books. Now it’s bird books (as well as movie, comic, and baseball memorabilia – I don’t think I’ll ever grow up). I’ve wondered if my collector’s mentality is one of the things that attracted me to birding in the first place. Listing is, after all, just another word for collecting.

The final reason that I think I have so many bird books is that I simply enjoy reading about birds and birding, beyond reading for knowledge. I love big year-type accounts and other birding narratives. You’d think that reading about someone else birding would be the most boring thing in the world, but I devour it. I’d wager that the appeal of the numerous bird-art books is readily apparent. And then there’s anything written by Pete Dunne…you get the point.

I don’t think I ever stood a chance. My predisposition to collect, life-long love of reading, and the fact that a bird book got me into birding all conspired to make me a bird book lover. I’m glad that I’m not the only one.

Bayshore Summer is the second entry, following Prairie Spring, in Pete Dunne’s four book series exploring each of the seasons in a special place. When I think of birding in the summer, I first think of Southeast Arizona’s hummingbird bonanza or the explosion of life in the Arctic. However, Dunne takes us to an unexpected location – New Jersey’s Delaware Bay shore.

Following the same pattern as Prairie Spring, Dunne explores the natural world of Jersey’s bayshore through mostly independent, vignette-like chapters. Naturally, since the author is one of North America’s preeminent birders and writer about birds, birds play a role in this narrative. But it is not as much as I was expecting, and much less than in the series’ first volume.

Most of the attention is given to the people who interact with this ecosystem. Through the author, the reader goes out on a large fishing party boat with dozens of recreational fishermen as well as small skiffs with lifelong baymen. You will tag along with game wardens during a sting operation designed to catch a poacher. You will also work alongside those bailing hay in the marshes and visit local farming operations that grow the famous “Jersey Tomato”. Through all of this, you will gain an insight into this endangered environment, including its inhabitants and culture.

While this series’ initial entry filled me with a desire to visit the prairie and know it the way Dunne did, this one did not accomplish the same. The entire chapter devoted to the horrors inflicted by the hoards of biting and stinging critters that emerge in summer didn’t help in this regard. (Though I must say that chapter is classic Dunne*.) Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy learning about this place that I knew virtually nothing about beforehand. It just didn’t make me want to jump on a plane and explore it myself.

But I think that’s ok. Dunne isn’t trying to convince the reader to visit this particular location as much as he’s beseeching you to pay attention to what is going on around you, wherever that is. To me, the heart of the book is a brilliant chapter on the unseen (or more likely, unnoticed) natural dramas playing out even in the middle of summer, when it’s so easy to miss or think that “just the usual” is going on. But throughout Bayshore Summer, Dunne encourages us to not just observe, but to actively engage the natural world.

Recommendation

Honestly, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as Prairie Spring. Personally, I would have preferred more writing about birds and other creatures and less about fishing. But I also understand that’s not the story Dunne wanted to tell. He’s written plenty about birds, this is about something greater. Interaction with nature can take many forms – birding, fishing, farming, hunting, even poaching. It’s not so much how you do it, but just that you get outside and do it. (Although poaching is probably not the best choice.) And Dunne succeeds in this regard; Bayshore Summer makes you yearn for a greater connection with nature and place, whether that be along Jersey’s bayshore or somewhere else. (And just for the record, I’d still rather read Dunne’s writing on a subject I have no interest in than just about anyone else’s about something I love.)

*I love this quote:

As a species, we have certainly been guilty of many affronts to nature and the divine order, and a reckoning in the here or the hereafter is due.
There is still no excuse for chiggers.

It’s funny because it’s true.

Peru is a birder’s paradise. With over 1800 species, it is second only to Columbia in terms of bird diversity. And new species are still being discovered! Thus, it is vital that the country have an excellent field guide. And it does.

Frank Lambert has already written a great, detailed review of the first edition of this field guide. I won’t attempt to cover the same ground, since he has a much greater expertise and experience with neotropical birds than I do. Instead, I’ll provide an overview of the guide, some general impressions, and how this “revised and updated” edition differs from the prior one.

The guide follows a fairly standard format of illustrations on the right-hand page with text and maps on the left. The illustrations, paintings provided by several artists, are labeled with the species name. The sex, age, and subspecies name are indicated where appropriate.

The maps are all lined up on the far left-hand side. The species accounts contain:

• Length – in centimeters and inches (bravo!); wingspan where appropriate
• Geographic Variation – an * next to the name indicates that there are two or more subspecies (across the entire range)
• Relative Abundance – common, uncommon, etc
• Habitats
• Behavior
• Elevational Distribution
• Voice
• Regional Distribution – indicates the countries surrounding Peru where the species is also present, or if it is a Peruvian endemic

The illustrations are attractive and, given the number of artists, fairly consistent. Thankfully, the plates haven’t been crammed full of tiny birds, like some neotropical guides. On average, there are about six birds per plate, and the illustration sizes are about right (with some outliers, of course). The labeling and layout are generally intuitive and well done. Still, there are some plates where I was confused as to which illustration belonged to which species. Finally, the only other thing I could wish for would be annotated arrows pointing to field marks, a la the Sibley and Collins guides. It appears that there is actually enough room for them on these plates.

The maps are also quite helpful, using seven different colors to indicate a bird’s range within the country. The department (state) boundaries and some major rivers are shown, thankfully. I found nothing to complain about concerning the handling of the maps.

There is not enough room for an extensive species account. Thus, the text focuses on that which will assist in field identification. Still, the authors were able to include a good bit of information. I was especially pleased to see relative abundance and elevational information included.

Subspecies identification and distribution are critical in the neotropics, where many of them are likely to be elevated eventually to full species. Birds of Peru does a decent job illustrating and discussing field-identifiable subspecies that occur within the country. However, in the case where there is only one subspecies found in Peru, I would have liked the subspecies name to be given. The asterisk indicating geographic variation is a step in the right direction, but I think the actual name would have been much more useful.

Changes in the Revised Edition

I don’t have the previous edition, so I cannot make a direct comparison. But here are the changes that I’m aware of.

The most obvious change is in the binding – from a jacketless hardcover to paperback. This change will obviously lighten the guide somewhat, making it more portable. But I don’t know how much of a practical difference this actually makes. The new binding seems like it would be fairly durable.

This revised guide includes an additional 25 species not covered in the first. Most have been found in Peru for the first time since the first edition’s cutoff date, but some are the result of taxonomic splits and at least one is an entirely new species discovered recently. 21 of these birds are grouped together on three plates appended to the end of the guide’s main section. The others, I believe all a result of splits, are included in the main body of plates.

Recommendation

Birds of Peru is a field guide worthy of the country it covers. However, if you have no plans to bird in Peru or nearby regions and have no interest in neotropical birds, then you have no reason to get this field guide (if that’s you, why are you reading this?). Likewise, if you have the previous edition and aren’t planning to visit Peru anytime soon, then there is not a compelling reason to upgrade. But everyone else should have a copy of this commendable guide. And if you’re lucky enough to be birding in Peru, you’d be crazy not to have this with you.

Birds are beautiful. Ok, so vultures aren’t the most visually appealing creatures around. But birds, from the most fantastical bird-of-paradise to the plainest sparrow, have an undeniable beauty. Color is the primary component of their attractiveness and one of the most noticeable characteristics of these remarkable creatures. But how much do we, as birdwatchers, actually know about these colors? How do birds produce them? What purpose do they actually serve?

In Bird Coloration, Professor Geoffrey Hill answers these questions and many more. He starts by introducing basic terminology and describing color variation and how birds see colors. He then moves on to the production of colors and how a bird’s genetics and environment influences them. Finally, there is a discussion of the functions and evolution of coloration.

The information presented here is, in a word, fascinating. I thought I knew a good bit about bird coloration, but I found myself learning something new on every page. You may already know, for instance, that blue feathers are not the result of pigment but rather arise from the structure of the feathers themselves. But the author demonstrates exactly how this works. Even better, he shows us what happens when the structural components are missing or don’t work as they’re supposed to (in the form of an all white Steller’s Jay). Here are just a few additional interesting facts:

• Many otherwise entirely white birds have black flight feathers. This is because the melanin that makes the feathers black also makes them more durable. Hill illustrates just how important this is with a startling case of an albino Great Frigatebird. This bird’s flight feathers were completely abraded away (by air), leaving it flightless and doomed. The picture is unbelievable.
• Color can be used to scare up prey, as when Northern Mockingbirds and American Redstarts flash their colorful wings and tails. But it has also been shown to be the case in penguins; their contrasting plumage startles fish into leaving protective schools, thus making them easier to catch.
• Contrary to what you would think, dark plumage keeps birds cool in hot climates, while white birds are warmer in cold weather.
• Black masks are very common in birds, and can serve many different functions. They hide eyes, making the bird less conspicuous, they reduce glare, and can be a signal in dominance interactions and help to attract mates.
• The dark upper mandible of Willow Flycatchers reduces glare, allowing them to forage in non-shaded habitat.

One of the best things about this book is that, for all of the interesting information it contains, it encourages you to ask your own questions and think for yourself. For instance, male American Redstarts have a delayed definitive plumage, where they look similar to females during their first year even though they are capable of breeding. Hill presents some possible advantages of this scheme. But what isn’t mentioned is why don’t other sexually dichromatic warblers do this? I wonder what it is about the redstart in particular that it possesses this trait but others don’t. In the same way, likely reasons for a distinct juvenile (or juvenal) plumage are given. But there are some birds, such as Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, where the immature females look similar to adult females, but the young males have their own plumage (a red crown in this case). Why would the young males need to look distinctive but females do not?

Hill wrote this volume for non-professionals, especially birders. He did a commendable job in making a very complicated, technical topic not only readable, but also enjoyable. There were a few instances where I thought he simplified things too much, but for the most part, I felt that the writing level was spot on for the target audience. Also in keeping with this, sources are not cited in the text, but are rather listed by chapter in the back.

The topics presented here are incredibly interesting, but are they important for non-professional ornithologists to learn? It is the author’s opinion that “few realms of study improve the competence of a birder more than learning about avian coloration”. I’m not entirely convinced of that, but it is certainly relevant for all birders.

Here’s a practical example of how the knowledge of color formation can be useful for birders. Recently, an unusual light-blue bird was photographed in southern Georgia. Superficially, it looks very much like a Blue-gray Tanager, which would be a major find. However, David Sibley has identified it as a Painted Bunting, even though it doesn’t look like any Painted Bunting depicted in any field guide. If you ignore the color, you’ll see that it looks good for a bunting, but it could plausibly be a Painted or Indigo Bunting based on location. Green feathers, like those on a female-type Painted Bunting, are the product of yellow pigment combined with blue structural coloration (remember yellow plus blue makes green?). Thus, you could reasonably deduce that this bird is a female-type Painted Bunting that lacks yellow pigmentation, leaving just the blue color from the feather structures.

Naturally, you can’t discuss bird coloration and not actually show birds and their colors. You will find plenty of colorful birds here, mostly in the form of photographs along with some paintings taken from the National Geographic field guide. The illustrations, especially the photos, are certainly attractive, but they mainly serve to reinforce the concepts mentioned in the text.

Recommendation

Color permeates every part of a bird’s life. Knowing how birds perceive, produce, and respond to color will grant insight into their lives and behavior, and even hone your skills as a birder. If that sounds good to you, then I highly recommend National Geographic Bird Coloration.

Anyway, come by and check it out – Birds on the Brain.

All About Birds is a misnomer, as this book deals very little with birds themselves. Rather, its purpose is to introduce those who have made a significant contribution to the study of birds (I suppose All About Ornithologists wouldn’t have been as attractive of a title!).

Starting with Aristotle and continuing through the mid-20th Century, Chansigaud highlights the individuals, groups, and institutions that have made an indelible impact on our understanding of avian life. Encyclopedic in breadth, it covers both the prominent and obscure. A little background on the person is usually given, but most of each account is devoted to their major contributions.

The individuals included are almost exclusively European or American, with perhaps a slight bias toward the former. The bias didn’t bother me, as I was more familiar with American ornithological history and welcomed the chance to learn more about the European side. However, the lack of non-European and non-American contributors was curious. I suppose that there weren’t many to choose from during the period covered in this book.

The accounts, though fairly wide-ranging, are very brief. Alexander Wilson, the “Father of American Ornithology”, is covered in just half a page, which is about average. As you can imagine, that is barely enough space to cover the major points. Even though it is not nearly exhaustive, All About Birds does contain some fascinating nuggets of information. For example:

• Johann Ferdinand Adam von Pernau, in the early 1700’s, penned the first known written statement showing contempt for the killing of birds: “It is not my intention to describe how to capture birds…but to describe the pleasure of observing these beautiful creatures of God without killing them.”
• Most birds of prey were excluded from the first bird protection laws, and their wanton destruction continued until the mid-20th Century. However, well before Rosalie Edge protected Hawk Mountain, Karl Theodor Liebe “suggested that protection should extend to birds of prey in recognition of the role they played in the balance of nature”. I found that to be a remarkably prescient notion in the late 1800’s.

The writing is adequate, but not very engaging. With the quick succession of names and facts, everything tends to run together. The other recent histories of ornithology, The Wisdom of Birds (my review) and Of a Feather, are more detailed and much longer, but are actually easier and more pleasurable to read.

Another issue I had was that non-English book titles are not translated. You can probably get the gist of most titles even if you do not read that language, but there were many that I could not decipher.

All About Birds is profusely illustrated with portraits of those mentioned in the text, bird paintings, and excerpts from publications. Among the latter group are many title pages from books and journals. These are usually not illustrated, many are in a foreign language, and reproduced so small that no one can read the entire page anyway. They just didn’t add any value for me. Fortunately, they are the exception; most of the illustrations work well and, combined with the layout, make this a very attractive book.

The people, publications, and events mentioned in the main text (and others as well) are also presented as a timeline. This format makes it much easier to visualize the sequence of events as well as to put them in context with other things happening at the same time. This is a welcome, and potentially very useful, inclusion.

Recommendation

All About Birds is an attractive and concise overview of those who have shaped our knowledge of birds. As such, it is a good introduction and reference to those figures. However, I did not feel that I had learned as much about the history of ornithology as I did by reading more narrative-based works, such as the aforementioned The Wisdom of Birds and Of a Feather.

The guide isn’t coming out until next year, but some details have already been released, and now I really can’t wait to get my eyes on this thing. There are some excerpts and a great video interview with Crossley at Barnes and Noble.

It should be interesting, to say the least.

• Jack Holloway has been feverishly updating his Avian Books site. He has been going through his extensive listings, updating them with scans and excerpts from the book, and adding brief notes. He has a TON of books listed. If you’re looking for books on a particular geographic region or subject, check out his site and you’ll likely find what you’re looking for.
• Ian Paulsen summarizes new and upcoming natural history titles in his The Birdbooker Report. This is a good place to go to see what’s new.

My, how times have changed. Imagine, if you would, a decade ago when The Sibley Guide was published. If you were told then that you could have the entire guide, along with an extensive collection of bird sounds, available electronically in a device small enough to fit in your pocket, you would have been incredulous. And then you would have asked how you could get one! But today, it’s “just another app”. But is it really? Or is it just as amazing and groundbreaking as it would have been at the turn of the millennium?

The Sibley eGuide is an “app” for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad devices. For an overview of it, please see my initial review of the eGuide. But here’s the gist of that overview – the eGuide is a fairly straightforward port of the Sibley guides from a printed format to an application.

That means that the eGuide contains just about everything included in the printed Sibley guides, both the “big Sibley” and the two regional guides. This is a good thing, since the Sibley guides are arguably the best field guides for North America. The app contains just about all of the illustrations, the range maps, the text (the more extensive text from the regionals, along with some from the big guide as appropriate), and even the introduction. There are some things, like text boxes and ancillary illustrations, that didn’t make the transition. For instance, you will not find some of the illustrations of hybrids (including Lawrence’s and Brewster’s Warblers, and Olympic Gull) in this app. But overall, I was very pleased at what was included. (I will not be reviewing the content, such as illustrations and text, here since that is covered in my review of the printed Sibley guides.)

You have three different avenues to access the species from the app’s main menu: a taxonomic index, alphabetic index, and “Smart Search”. The first two are exactly as they seem, with the latter being alphabetized by the bird’s “last name”. The Smart Search allows you to filter based on a set of characteristics. Whichever method you choose, you will be presented with a list of species. You can scroll through them using the usual methods of finger swiping or the scroll bar on the right. There is also a search box at the top.

The filtering capabilities are relatively limited. You can use the following:

• Occurance – two options: Show only common birds (only when you have set a location to use as the basis), and to exclude saltwater birds
• Distinguishing Features – includes color and visual characteristics like wingbars. You can select multiple attributes
• Types – a list of shapes such as “Heron-like” and “Slender bill”, along with habits like “Aerialist” and “Tree-climbing”. You can only select one
• Size – “Thrush-size”, “Goose-size”, etc. You can only select one

Your choices for searching are pretty limited, especially compared to iBird Explorer. The Types list is especially weird, as it includes both shapes and habits, and you cannot combine them since you can select only one.

Once you select all of your characteristics, the eGuide presents a list of matching species. The selections are appropriate for the most part, but with something like this, there will always be puzzling inclusions and omissions. Personally, I don’t consider the House Finch to be Thrush-sized (and for that matter, what’s the difference between Thrush-sized and Robin-sized?). Additionally, Scarlet Tanager is not listed among the yellow birds, though the females and young birds are best described as that color. I’m sure there are plenty more examples, but to be fair, all apps that have a feature such as this (yes, even iBird) have issues of this sort.

The navigation, layout, and functionality are easy to understand, provided you have at least some experience with the platform. However, I did encounter a few annoyances:

• The Sound button brings up a scrolling selector that overlays the previous screen. This means that you cannot use the arrows to go directly to the next bird’s sounds.
• Some of the illustrations are quite small, and you cannot enlarge them.
• There are no pictures on the species list, which could make it more difficult for some to browse through the list to find what they are looking for.
• Some species have so many illustrations that it can take some time to scroll through them to find the one you want. I suppose this is a good problem to have.
• The range map screen is not scrollable, so it displays only a single map. If a species has multiple range maps, say a separate map for a subspecies, then they are included at the end of the bird illustrations or as a small inset within an illustration. Instead, it would have been preferable to make the map screen scrollable and place them there.

Extra Features

The Sibley eGuide also includes a rudimentary life list application. You can keep track of the species, location, and date, as well as add comments. However, the reporting functionality is extremely limited, so much so that this won’t really do much for you other than give you a count of how many birds you’ve entered on your list, or let you know what birds you’ve seen in a certain location or on a given date. Until this functionality is upgraded extensively, I don’t see it as being very useful.

Of much more use is a compare feature. On any species list is a “Comp.” button in the upper-right corner. Tap it and a radio button will appear next to each species. Select the first bird that you wish to compare, and then another. Your first choice will be displayed on the bottom of a split-screen view, with the other bird on the top. Each bird is independently scrollable, so that you can compare any of their illustrations. Even better is that you can also compare sounds and range maps. Further, you can use the arrows to change the species on top. The only thing that you can’t access in this mode is the text. The ability to make an easy and direct comparison of any two species is a significant advantage of printed field guides over electronic versions. This compare function goes a long way toward leveling that playing field.

Comparison to other apps

Before the Sibley eGuide, iBird Explorer was my pick for the best bird app. But now I think the choice of app depends on what you’re looking for. Here’s a brief list of advantages for each:

Sibley eGuide advantages

• Better illustrations
• More variations and poses are shown
• Easier for experienced birders to use for identification
• More extensive collection of bird sounds

iBird Explorer advantages

• Both paintings and photographs
• Better framework for beginning birders to use for identification
• Much more information, overall
• More, and better, navigation and filtering capabilities
• More species included

For a more comprehensive look at these and the other field guide apps, please see my Comparison of iPhone Bird Apps.

Recommendation

The Sibley eGuide is a faithful translation of the acclaimed field guide. I would recommend this app to anyone who normally carries their Sibley with them while birding, or more experienced birders who would like to have a field guide with them wherever they go. Personally, I love being able to always have my Sibley with me.

However, I don’t think it’s for everyone. If you’re trying to identify a bird that you have seen, but have no idea what it is named, this app is much more difficult to use than iBird. Thus, I would recommend iBird to less experienced birders and backyard enthusiasts.