More than 10 years in the making, David Sibley's Guide to Birds is a monumental achievement. The beautiful watercolor illustrations (6,600, covering 810 species in North America) and clear, descriptive text place Sibley and his work squarely in the tradition of John James Audubon and Roger Tory Peterson; more than a birdwatcher and evangelizer, he is one of the foremost bird painters and authorities in the U.S. Still, his field guide will no doubt spark debate. Unlike Kenn Kaufman's Focus Guide, Sibley's is unapologetically aimed at the converted. Beginning birders may want to keep a copy of Sibley at home as a reference, but the wealth of information will have the same effect on novices as trying to pick out a single sandpiper in a wheeling flock of thousands. The familiar yellow warbler, for instance, gets no less than nine individual illustrations documenting its geographic, seasonal, and sex variations--plus another eight smaller illustrations showing it in flight. Of course, more experienced birders will appreciate this sort of detail, along with Sibley's improvements on both Peterson and the National Geographic guide:

As in Peterson, Sibley employs a pointer system for key field markings--but additional text blurbs are included alongside the illustrations to facilitate identification. Descriptive passages on identification are more detailed than those in most other field guides. For example, Sibley includes extensive information on the famously hard-to-distinguish hawks in the genus Accipiter (sharp-shinned, Cooper's, and northern goshawk), noting differences in leg thickness and wing beat that will be of use to more advanced birders. A section on the identification of "peeps" (small sandpipers) includes tips about seasonal molting and bill length. Confusing fall warblers, Empidonax flycatchers, and Alcids receive similar treatment. As previously mentioned, ample space is given to illustrations that show plumage variations by age, sex, and geography within a single species. Thus, an entire page is devoted to the red-shouldered hawk and its differing appearances in the eastern U.S., Florida, and California; similarly, gulls are distinguished by age and warblers by sex. Range maps are detailed and accurate, with breeding, wintering, and migration routes clearly depicted; rare but regular geographic occurrences are denoted by green dots. The binding and paper stock are of exceptional quality. Despite its 544 pages, a reinforced paperback cover and sewn-in binding allow the book to be spread out flat without fear of breaking the binding.

Some birders will be put off by the book's size. Slightly larger than the National Geographic guide, it's less portable than most field guides and will likely spend more time in cars and desks than on a birder's person while in the field. For some it will be a strictly stay-at-home companion guide to consult after a field trip; others may want to have it handy in a fannypack or backpack. But regardless of how it is used, Sibley's Guide to Birds is a significant addition to any birding library. "Birds are beautiful," the author writes in the preface, "their colors, shapes, actions, and sounds are among the most aesthetically pleasing in nature." Pleasing, too, is this comprehensive guide to their identification. --Langdon Cook


From Publishers Weekly
The bird-watching world knows Sibley best as an immensely talented painter. His thick, attractive and data-packed color guide offers nearly 7,000 images, along with range maps and detailed descriptions of songs, calls and voices, for all the birds North Americans might see. It's a more informative volume than Kenn Kaufman's forthcoming Birds of North America (Forecasts, Sept. 11) but less portable and harder for beginners to use. An introduction describes the key parts of major classes of birdsDthe tomia and culmen of a gull's bill, the scapulars and coverts of passerines (songbirds). Sibley then moves on to hundreds of pages of birds in 42 categories, from Loons and Grebes to Silky Flycatchers and Bulbuls. A typical page has two columns, with one species in each: that species gets a color-coded range map, a description of its voice, and four to eight illustrative paintings. These multiple images of single species are the guide's most attractive feature; they let Sibley show some birds in several poses, as well as important seasonal and regional, juvenile and mature, breeding and nonbreeding, or male and female versions of the same bird. (Gulls, terns, and many other seabirds, in particular, change their patterns completely when breeding.) Sibley assists viewers by giving, on the same page, images of species that might be mistaken for one anotherDone column shows 13 kinds of thrushes. He also describes calls for every bird (not just the more common ones), and makes many more comparisons. If Kaufman's guide belongs in birders' coat pockets, Sibley's big, detailed book belongs on their desks; it's easy to imagine birders rushing to Sibley's guide to check details of plumage or to confirm an ID the smaller guide has helped them make. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Scientific American
For birders who cut their teeth on Roger Tory Peterson's Field Guide to the Birds, that book seemed definitive, like the King James Bible or Bogart and Bergman in Casablanca. But it's a new millennium, and David Allen Sibley and the National Audubon Society have produced an impressive new Guide to Birds. How does it differ from earlier guides? When Sibley himself was asked, he replied: "My book relies much more on illustrations.... I believe the average field guide user spends the vast majority of time looking at the pictures, and when I was developing this layout I based it on the premise that most of the text in current field guides is redundant.... I wanted a book that would condense a huge amount of information into a portable size, and at the same time make the information 'patterned,' logical, and accessible to any reader." He delivers. Full-color paintings--6,600 of them--show us 810 North American species in an array of shapes, stages, colors, markings and poses (at rest, in flight, perched, swimming and so on). Raptors are shown from below. All significant plumages are depicted: the Laughing Gull, for example, is shown in six different stages. Voice descriptions (songs, flight calls, juvenile begging cries, threats, displays) appear on every page. Full-color range maps show complete distributions, migration routes, and summer, winter and breeding locations. Measurements are there, too: wingspan, length and weight. To facilitate comparison, information and illustrations are arranged in the same way for each species, and birds are shown in similar poses. Happily, the text accompanies the drawings as captions, so you don't have to flip back and forth. Pointers guide your eye to the relevant feature. The book's introductory material is a primer on how to look at and identify birds, beginning with the parts of a passerine, or songbird. The introduction also includes Sibley's "rules," the first of which is: "Look at the bird. Don't fumble with a book, because by the time you find the right picture the bird will most likely be gone. Start by looking at the bird's bill and facial markings. Watch what the bird does, watch it fly away, and only then try to find it in your book." Even the endpapers overflow, in an organized way, with useful tools: metric conversions, rulers, a map of the area the guide covers. A sturdy, flexible cover, sewn-in binding, and heavy, nonreflective paper add to the pleasure of using this book. True, it's a little hefty for the field, but this is a quibble. Better to have all this information than to be able to tuck the book in your pocket. Besides, it fits easily in a backpack. Born to Bird The son of Yale ornithologist Fred Sibley, David Sibley taught himself to draw at age six by tracing Arthur Singer's illustrations in Birds of the World. After two semesters at Cornell, he dropped out to work at the Cape May Bird Observatory. Several years later he left Cape May and crisscrossed the U.S. in his pickup truck to study birds, storing his sketching equipment in the cab and sleeping in the back. By his late 20s he was an acknowledged expert, leading tours for WINGS. Now 39, he is married to Joan Walsh, an ornithologist he met at Manomet Bird Observatory, and the father of two young children. Sibley starts his drawings in pencil, working from photographs and field sketches. He then puts the illustrations on an opaque projector and adjusts for size so they are exactly proportional to the others on that page of the guide. After correcting for size and shape, he traces the projection and paints the final version in gouache, working in transparent layers until he reaches the desired color and texture.

EDITORS OF SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN


From Book News, Inc.
A renowned bird illustrator presents a field guide to North American birds which details the many plumages and habits, describes songs and calls, and shows the complete distribution of each species. Showing some 810 species and 350 regional populations with nuanced color illustrations, the contents are arranged in groups of related species to allow for easy comparison. Library of Congress CiP shows the title as National Audubon Society; The Sibley Guide to Birds.Book News, Inc.®, Portland, OR


Review
"This wonderful book is comprehensive—erudite—in fact, magnificent, a powerful book that will start a new generation of bird books and birding. It provides triple the educational content over any predecessor. The treatments are innovative and superb."
—Frank Gill, the Director of Science at National Audubon Society


Review
"This wonderful book is comprehensive?erudite?in fact, magnificent, a powerful book that will start a new generation of bird books and birding. It provides triple the educational content over any predecessor. The treatments are innovative and superb."
?Frank Gill, the Director of Science at National Audubon Society


Book Description
David Allen Sibley, America's most gifted contemporary painter of birds, is the author and illustrator of this comprehensive guide. His beautifully detailed illustrations—more than 6,600 in all—and descriptions of 810 species and 350 regional populations will enrich every birder's experience.

The Sibley Guide's innovative design makes it entirely user friendly. The illustrations are arranged to facilitate comparison, yet still capture the unique character of each species.

The Sibley Guide to Birds provides a wealth of new information:
—Captioned illustrations show many previously unpublished field marks and revisions of known marks
—Nearly every species is shown in flight
—Measurements include length, wingspan, and weight for every species
—Subspecies and geographic varients are covered thoroughly
—Complete voice descriptions are included for every species
—Maps show the complete distribution of every species: summer and winter ranges, migration routes, and rare occurrences

Both novice and experienced birders will appreciate these and other innovative features:
—An introductory page for each family or group of related families makes comparisons simple
—Clear and concise labels with pointers identify field marks directly
—Birds are illustrated in similar poses to make comparisons between species quick and easy
—Illustrations emphasize the way birds look in the field

With The Sibley Guide to Birds, the National Audubon Society makes the art and expertise of David Sibley available to the world in a comprehensive, handsome, easy-to-use volume that will be the indispensable identification guide every birder must own.


From the Publisher
"David Sibley's new Field Guide to Birds is stunning. If God is in the details, then this new bird book is inspired. Sibley's illustrations are a labor of love born out of a lifetime of acute observation and passion. His attention to subtleties could only have been noted by watching each species of bird in the field over time. It is this kind of aesthetic and deep patience that makes each page a visual delight. Call the Sibley Guide an ecological testament to the majesty of birds in all their variations. I can hardly wait to take this book in hand and go birding with new eyes."-- Terry Tempest Williams
"A fine new tool and source book for exploring the wonderful bird life of North America."-- Peter Matthiessen


From the Inside Flap
David Allen Sibley, America's most gifted contemporary painter of birds, is the author and illustrator of this comprehensive guide. His beautifully detailed illustrations—more than 6,600 in all—and descriptions of 810 species and 350 regional populations will enrich every birder's experience.

The Sibley Guide's innovative design makes it entirely user friendly. The illustrations are arranged to facilitate comparison, yet still capture the unique character of each species.

The Sibley Guide to Birds provides a wealth of new information:
—Captioned illustrations show many previously unpublished field marks and revisions of known marks
—Nearly every species is shown in flight
—Measurements include length, wingspan, and weight for every species
—Subspecies and geographic varients are covered thoroughly
—Complete voice descriptions are included for every species
—Maps show the complete distribution of every species: summer and winter ranges, migration routes, and rare occurrences

Both novice and experienced birders will appreciate these and other innovative features:
—An introductory page for each family or group of related families makes comparisons simple
—Clear and concise labels with pointers identify field marks directly
—Birds are illustrated in similar poses to make comparisons between species quick and easy
—Illustrations emphasize the way birds look in the field

With The Sibley Guide to Birds, the National Audubon Society makes the art and expertise of David Sibley available to the world in a comprehensive, handsome, easy-to-use volume that will be the indispensable identification guide every birder must own.


From the Back Cover
"The ideal bird identification guide. . .raises the standard. . .High-quality paper and a sturdy binding, along with a new type of flexible cover, gives us a book that will stand up to the heavy use that it is bound to get. . . .Stunningly illustrated. . .
Undoubtedly the finest guide to North American birds. . . .The consistency in artistic style and breadth of plumage coverage, along with David Sibley's vast knowledge on the subject, combine to give North American birders a guide far superior to all previously available. I stand in awe; I have nothing but praise."
—Guy McCaskie, Birding—Dec. 2000

"The artwork is gorgeous and the writing clear and crisp. . . .No other bird guide is easier to get used to or more comprehensive."
—Michael Sims, BookPage.com—Dec. 2000

"A tour de force. . .Everyone should have a copy—one for each car, one for every home.. . .I love this book."
—Henry T. Armistead, Audubon Naturalist News—Dec.-Jan. 2001


About the Author
David Allen Sibley, son of the well-known ornithologist Fred Sibley, began seriously watching and drawing birds in 1969, at age seven. He has written and illustrated articles on bird identification for Birding and American Birds (now Field Notes) as well as regional publications and books. Since 1980 David has traveled the continent watching birds on his own and as a tour leader for WINGS, Inc. He has lived in California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. He now lives in Concord, Massachusetts.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Bookseller's Report
--> Renowned bird illustrator David Sibley has graced this edition with gorgeous full-color drawings based on a lifetime of observation and study.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

David Allen Sibley, America's most gifted contemporary painter of birds, is the author and illustrator of this comprehensive guide. His beautifully detailed illustrations—more than 6,600 in all—and descriptions of 810 species and 350 regional populations will enrich every birder's experience.

The Sibley Guide's innovative design makes it entirely user friendly. The illustrations are arranged to facilitate comparison, yet still capture the unique character of each species.

The Sibley Guide to Birds provides a wealth of new information:
—Captioned illustrations show many previously unpublished field marks and revisions of known marks
—Nearly every species is shown in flight
—Measurements include length, wingspan, and weight for every species
—Subspecies and geographic varients are covered thoroughly
—Complete voice descriptions are included for every species
—Maps show the complete distribution of every species: summer and winter ranges, migration routes, and rare occurrences

Both novice and experienced birders will appreciate these and other innovative features:
—An introductory page for each family or group of related families makes comparisons simple
—Clear and concise labels with pointers identify field marks directly
—Birds are illustrated in similar poses to make comparisons between species quick and easy
—Illustrations emphasize the way birds look in the field

With The Sibley Guide to Birds, the National Audubon Society makes the art and expertise of David Sibley available to the world in a comprehensive, handsome,easy-to-use volume that will be the indispensable identification guide every birder must own.

FROM THE CRITICS

E. Vernon Laux - The New York Times

A must-have guide for anyone interested in birds.

Publishers Weekly

The bird-watching world knows Sibley best as an immensely talented painter. His thick, attractive and data-packed color guide offers nearly 7,000 images, along with range maps and detailed descriptions of songs, calls and voices, for all the birds North Americans might see. It's a more informative volume than Kenn Kaufman's forthcoming Birds of North America (Forecasts, Sept. 11) but less portable and harder for beginners to use. An introduction describes the key parts of major classes of birds--the tomia and culmen of a gull's bill, the scapulars and coverts of passerines (songbirds). Sibley then moves on to hundreds of pages of birds in 42 categories, from Loons and Grebes to Silky Flycatchers and Bulbuls. A typical page has two columns, with one species in each: that species gets a color-coded range map, a description of its voice, and four to eight illustrative paintings. These multiple images of single species are the guide's most attractive feature; they let Sibley show some birds in several poses, as well as important seasonal and regional, juvenile and mature, breeding and nonbreeding, or male and female versions of the same bird. (Gulls, terns, and many other seabirds, in particular, change their patterns completely when breeding.) Sibley assists viewers by giving, on the same page, images of species that might be mistaken for one another--one column shows 13 kinds of thrushes. He also describes calls for every bird (not just the more common ones), and makes many more comparisons. If Kaufman's guide belongs in birders' coat pockets, Sibley's big, detailed book belongs on their desks; it's easy to imagine birders rushing to Sibley's guide to check details of plumage or to confirm an ID the smaller guide has helped them make. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

The "Peterson Field Guides" series have long served as the benchmark for field guides. Now come two new birding titles that certainly meet the Peterson standard of excellence, with such features as basic information, range maps, voice descriptions, comparisons with similar species, scientific and common name indexes, the specification of field marks, and the inclusion of exotics. Rather than using the typical drawings and paintings, birding expert and Audubon field editor Kaufman selected over 2000 digitally edited photographs, enhanced to improve contrast, color, and the like. The excellent result will appeal to beginning birders perhaps intimidated by illustrations. In order to make useful comparisons, Kaufman varies the organization a bit from the American Ornithological Union (AOU) standard. Helpful headers, color coded to groups (e.g., wading birds), break down further into categories such as huge waders and waders with odd bills. Kaufman's text is simple and uncluttered, a plus for novices. Noted avian artist Sibley provides more than 6000 detailed illustrations (including pictures of the flying bird from above and below, a first in a birding guide) that are as excellent as Kaufman's photos. His text is far more substantial in detail, including flight patterns, more plumage variations (young juvenile, juvenile, adult) for nearly all the birds, and more detail in range maps. Although it is larger and heavier that Kaufman's title, this guide will serve experienced birders extremely well, However, it might provide more information than a beginner needs. The bottom line: both guides are highly recommended for all collections, Kaufman to serve the novices and the unsure, Sibley to delight the more experienced as well. [Kaufman's book was previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/00; for more guidance on field guides, see Christina Peterson's "Tracking Nature Field Guides," LJ 6/1/00, p. 83-87.--Ed.]--Nancy Moeckel, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

A renowned bird illustrator presents a field guide to North American birds which details the many plumages and habits, describes songs and calls, and shows the complete distribution of each species. Showing some 810 species and 350 regional populations with nuanced color illustrations, the contents are arranged in groups of related species to allow for easy comparison. Library of Congress CiP shows the title as Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Scientific American Editors

Not only fine feathers, but intelligent organization and design create a new classic...an impressive new guide.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

This book represents the high-water mark for bird guides.—(Pete Dunne, Director of the NJ Audubon Society's Cape May Bird Observatory)  — Pete Dunne

Far and away the best single book on North American birds. —(Denny Abbott, founding member, American Birding Association)  — Denny Abbott