The North American bird guide

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D. Sibley 2000. The North American bird guide. Pica Press, The Banks, Mountfield, Nr. Robertsbridge, East Sussex TN32 5JY, UK. 544 pp. ISBN 1-873403-98-4.

André J. van Loon in Dutch Birding 2001, 23(1):39. The best way to give credit to this new field guide on North America birds is to start with the final 'verdict': superb! The book covers 810 species (and an additional 350 regional forms) occuring in North America north of Mexico, including all adjacent islands but excluding Hawaii and Bermuda (and Greenland). Bird topography, essential in modern bird identification, is covered by seven full pages, with example illustrations of the topography of ducks (one drawing), waders (two), gulls (four) and passerines (11!). Fortunately, the plumages in the species accounts are indicated by the (for European birders familiar) 'live-year' system (first-winter, first-summer, adult breeding, adult non-breeding, etc) rather than by the moult-based Humphrey-Parkes system (basic and alternate plumages); but the relation between these is described in the introductory sections. The orders and/or families are given an extensive introduction with an illustrated overview of the genera in the particular group. Almost all species are illustrated both in their 'standard field guide position' (perched, standing and walking) as well as in flight. Furthermore, juvenile, breeding and non-breeding plumages are illustrated. Colour maps give the normal ranges and passage areas, with additional dots indicatiing areas of rare or irregular occurence. To be able to cover all 810 species in this way in one single guide-format (albeit large) book, there are no extensive descriptions of the plumages and the distictions from similar species, but only very short indications of a few characters in the heading of each species account; by doing this, the book adopts a rather different approach from most other modern top field guides, like for instance the one by Svensson et al (1999) for European birds, and David Sibley really has succeeded in this. The illustrations are of very goof quality and nicely cature the jizz and structure of the bird, and the clear and concise illustration captions with pointers readily indicate and explain the key identification features. As a result of this system, there is room for relatively extensive descriptions of each bird's voice, which is another positive difference from most other guides (although, to be honest, the Svensson et al's guide also provides extensive voice descriptions). When there is still some space left, this is often used to give additional information, like additional identification remarks, cautionary notes, sketches, drawings, information on geographical variation, etc. Readers are also advised to visit David Sibley's internet website  www.sibleyart.com/sibleyguide.htm  where additional and updated information, corrections, etc. can be found.

Deze pagina is voor het laatst bijgewerkt op 24 oktober 2006.