Book Description
The Sibley Guide to Birds has quickly become the new standard of excellence in bird identification guides, covering more than 810 North American birds in amazing detail. Now comes a new portable guide from David Sibley that every birder will want to carry into the field. Compact and comprehensive, this new guide features 650 bird species plus regional populations found east of the Rocky Mountains. Accounts include stunningly accurate illustrations—more than 4,200 in total—with descriptive caption text pointing out the most important field marks. Each entry contains new text concerning frequency, nesting, behavior, food and feeding, voice description, and key identification features. Accounts also include brand-new maps created from information contributed by 110 regional experts across the continent.
The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America is an indispensable resource for all birders seeking an authoritative and portable guide to the birds of the East.
Customer Reviews:
The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America.......2007-08-23
I have had the Sibley Guide to North American Birds for years and it carries so much information I sometimes carry it into the field but it is heavy and cumbersome. Now with the smaller, lighter field guide I can always have a Sibley's with me. In fact I keep it in the car along with my second pair of binoculars. I still like and admire the National Geographic series but the Sibley's is my first choice for identification, plus salient details of a particular bird's life is quickly found. And thanks to Amazon for getting it to me so quickly. Living out in the Texas country, Amazon has been a boon companion for almost all my shoppin needs.
Good book for a good price.......2007-08-09
The book is a very useful guide for who wants to do birdwatching, and who has a basic knowledge of birds. In the case you don't have a basic knowledge of birds but you are a good watcher, the guide is still helpful as it make a summary of some concepts.
Sibley's guides.......2007-05-12
I love all the Sibley guides and have found that they are used by most of the ornitholigists in the field. I have one and got our grandson two for his birthday and he is so happy with them
Sibleys Field Guides to Birds.......2007-05-07
An excellent guide to identifying birds in the field using concise descriptions accompanied by excellent renditions. The paintings depict the birds in both breeding and non-breeding plummage. Mr. Sibley also mentions song and each species has its own range map with a breif description of habitat. An excellent resource for anyone interested in the birds of the Eastern Half of America.
Hooray for the Sibley.......2007-04-10
My wife and I are avid birders, and living near a lake that attracts all sorts of species, this has become our constant companion for even an evening walk to the store. Excellent and indispensible.
Book Description
Roger Tory Peterson had already made his mark with his innovative field guide when he conducted DDT research during World War II. His friend and fellow naturalist Rachel Carson built on these efforts and eventually wrote Silent Spring, a landmark text that, along with Peterson's field guide, jump-started the modern environmental movement. By combining the tireless observation of a scientist with the imaginative skills of an artist and writer, Peterson created a field guide that Robert Bateman, in his foreword to the fifth edition, says was the doorway for millions of people into the wonderland of natural history. The Peterson Identification System has been used in the more than fifty books that make up the Peterson Field Guide series. Peterson's magnum opus, now in its fifth edition, created the trail for countless field guides to follow. They are still following year by year, but his is the standard by which all other field guides are judged. On the morning of July 28, 1996, Roger Peterson was painting his final bird plate. He died peacefully in his sleep later that day. It is fitting that his final worka culmination of more than sixty years of observing, painting, and writingshould be this one, a revision of the guide that started his legacy.
Customer Reviews:
better then the audabon.......2007-09-30
The North Carolina bird watcher's assoc. said it was about the best and I believe they are right.
Field Guide to Birds of Eastern & Central America.......2007-09-27
Best book I ever found on birds in Eastern and Central America. Excellent color photos.
Excellent Gift, great resource.......2007-08-23
I love the peterson's bird guides, they are much better than other birding guides. I bought this one for my friend so we could compare life lists.
A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America.......2007-08-09
This is one of the best birding books for beginners as well as expert birders. I have had my field guide for years and just recently gave my daughter a copy so she would stop calling me and asking me to identify birds over the phone to her.
Great bird guide.......2007-08-05
I like this bird guide. It is very helpful in pointing out specific markings/traits similar birds have. This way I can decipher who I'm looking at. I like the maps that indicate where the birds summer, winter or stay year-round. Most drawings have pictures of juveniles. One of the things I would have liked to seen is more juvenile pictures as many juvenile birds visit here in early to mid-summer. I wasn't able to readily recognize them due to similar body types to other types of birds and their plumage being so differnt from their parents. Another thing I would have liked to seen in the guide is what the birds eat at different times in their lives and at different times of year. This would help in locating and identifying. However, the guide does tell what type of areas the birds live in. Overall, I really like the guide. It is durable, the illustrations of the birds are very detailed and it is informative.
Amazon.com
Covering 508 bird species found east of the Rocky Mountains, the revised second edition takes into account changes in taxonomy and uses improved photography. At the heart of the guide is a set of 646 well-made color photographs whose subjects are organized by easily discerned characteristics (e.g., "chicken-like marsh birds," such as the clapper rail; "gull-like birds," such as the kittiwake; and "upright-perching water birds," such as the common murre). The photographs are then keyed to textual descriptions of the birds' appearance, range and habitat, nesting characteristics, and behavior. Easy to use and handsomely produced, this belongs in every eastern birdwatcher's collection. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
Introduced in 1977 and completely revised in 1994, these bestselling photographic field guides have become the birding bibles of more than four million enthusiasts. Virtually every bird found in North America is brought to life in a full-color photograph and with textual information on the bird's voice, nesting habits, habitat, range, and interesting behaviors. Accompanying range maps; overhead flight silhouettes; sections on bird-watching, accidental species, and endangered birds make these the most comprehensive field guides to birds available.
Note: the Eastern Edition generally covers states east of the Rocky Mountains, while the Western Edition covers the Rocky Mountain range and all the states to the west of it.
Customer Reviews:
The BEST Field Guide.......2007-10-17
This has to be the best field guide I've ever used. It's well organized and simple enough for a beginning birder. It's also crammed full of information for the more serious ornithologist. The photos are spectacular!
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Easter Region.......2007-09-17
The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Region is the most comprehensive guide that I have enjoyed in many years. It has clear, concise pictures of the birds of my region with a written synopsis of each bird's habitat. I recommend this book to any avid bird lover! It is an awesome book!
Excellent tool for birders!.......2007-09-16
This book provides excellent descriptions of the birds' physical appearances, lots of photographs, and maps of their winter and summer range. It is small enough that you could take it out birding, and has a durable cover. You will not be disappointed!
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Region - Revised Edition.......2007-09-09
My favorite bird watching book because all the photos are organized by color of bird and variety of birds. The plentiful information is carefully correlated but is not on the page with the photos. I prefer this when I am searching for the bird in my view. Handy is size and shape for quick browsing.
I also have the rocks and minerals guide and the guide for N.American trees.
north american birds.......2007-07-14
the best, most informative,with clear photos instead of drawings as in other bird reference books.
Book Description
BIRDING BY EAR uses an educational and entertaining method for learning bird songs. Instead of merely providing a catalog of bird song samples, BIRDING BY EAR actually teaches. This proven method has greatly enhanced the field experience for birders across North America. The authors have created learning groups of similar vocalizations and clearly point out distinguishing characteristics. Using techniques such as phonetics, mnemonics, and descriptive words, Walton and Lawson provide a context for learning the songs and calls of eighty-five species of birds found east of the Rockies. Combine the auditory instruction here with the visual features of the Peterson Identification System. Page numbers in BIRDING BY EAR's booklet refer to species descriptions in the PETERSON FIELD GUIDE TO BIRDS OF EASTERN AND CENTRAL NORTH AMERICA, fifth edition.
Customer Reviews:
Birding by Ear.......2007-09-27
Great item. Good for listening to in your car. My wife loves it and we have used it to learn our birds in Alabama.
Not the only one you want to have.......2007-06-27
This is a good set of disks that groups bird songs by some feature of similarity. I never knew, for instance, that robins and scarlet tanagers sound so similar. The disks are quite good for helping you learn the differences between similar-sounding species. Keep after it and you will learn to distinguish Carolina from black-capped chickadees.
That said, I would not want this for my only set of bird songs, because if you want to listen to a specific bird, it's too hard to find without the booklet in your hands. Since I listen to these disks on my PC on the patio or my PDA & my MP3 player when I'm out walking or in the car, that is not convenient for me. I bought it in combination with the "Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs: Eastern Region" and am much more pleased with the combination than I would have been with this set alone.
Mind you, having the disks does not guarantee species identification. At this moment I'm sitting at the PC with the window to my suburban back yard open, listening to a low "chuck-chuck-chuck-chuck-chuck" that I canNOT find on either set of disks!
REALLY surpassed my expectations! You'll LOVE it!!!.......2007-05-11
I recently got interested in birding a few months ago and asked for this CD set for my birthday. My mom gave it to me and I couldn't believe how easy it made recognizing a LOT of different bird songs and calls. The narrator gives you a "handle" on each bird song so you can remember it easily, and he gives great suggestions on how to devise your own handles. Similar-sounding birds don't seem confusing after he explains the differences to listen for. He educates you, but doesn't include any unnecessary "filler" information, only what is important and what will really matter out in the field.
Before I listened to it, I thought the narration would just be someone saying, "This is the Orchard Oriole" with a short snippet of what one sounds like, then on to the next bird. But it was a great surprise to get all this extra information. He also repeats the songs several times so you don't have to constantly rewind, and he pauses for just the right amount of time between repetitions; I found that I learned the calls pretty fast if I had the right number of seconds to consider each one. Believe it or not, after several seconds you actually do start to forget what you just heard, but it was uncanny how at the very moment I'd start to forget, it would repeat, and that was very satisfying.
I never write reviews for anything, but on this particular product, I felt like the makers really needed to be commended for sharing their knowledge in such a thorough and extremely effective fashion. They obviously spent a lot of time deciding what to include, how to arrange everything, and how to explain everything to a novice so that they would understand. Real quality seems so rare these days. I appreciated the fact that their main objective was really to teach effectively, not just to put a CD together that would make money. You'll be way more excited about birding after you listen to these CDs.
Also I wanted to mention that the audio quality is absolutely superb. One time I started my car while the CD was in, and I didn't realize it was starting to play...I got really excited because I thought I heard a White-Throated Sparrow loud and clear right by my car, so I frantically screamed to my son that one must be RIGHT NEXT TO US SOMEWHERE!!! ... but then I realized it was the CD and I was so embarrassed.
My favorite ones to listen to are the Pileated Woodpecker, the Bobolink, the Red-Shouldered Hawk and the Barred Owl. These 4 birds sound extremely bizarre and you will probably laugh your head off at the sounds they make. The Bobolink sounds like a spastic alien computer switchboard. The Veery is unbelievably weird and haunting, and the Eastern Meadowlark and Northern Cardinal are really beautiful. There are lots of different song categories which are separated and easy to find if you are looking for a certain one. Also, if you have kids, their jaws will drop listening to the intriguing sounds. Most of the birds are pretty common so you are bound to hear at least some of them if you just walk around outside.
Can you tell I'm impressed?!!!
as expected.......2007-04-29
this cd is as expected, no surprise,no complaints.a good selection of birds have been packed into this.
Excellent Teaching Style.......2007-01-19
The narrator discusses each bird's song and/or call, telling you specific things to listen for, including comparisons to similar calls. Then the song/call is played. The narrator finally reviews what you heard, pointing out similarities and differences again, as well as noting peculiarities. I found this to be a very simple to follow format, and one which helped me to remember the songs/calls of each bird better than similar CD's which just give the name of the bird & then let you hear the song/call. A booklet is included for review as well.
Customer Reviews:
Stokes Field Guide To Bird Songs.......2007-08-23
This is the only CD that provides a complete repetoire per bird. Other CD's provide only one type of sound per bird- a call, alarm or song. You need to have a sampling of all in order to accurately identify unseen birds. I live in an important migratory bird path and until now it was frustrating trying to identify those birds in dense foliage or in flight when I could hear them much better than see them. Since I am familiar with birds most likely to visit my area, it makes identification even quicker since I first scroll to the species I suspect. I have both the Eastern and Western Field Guides since they both apply to me in Texas.
good set, very useful.......2007-06-27
I bought this set at the same time as "Birding by Ear: Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guides)" and am quite happy with the combination. The Stokes CDs have (nearly) all the birds in separate tracks making it easier to play just the ones I want to work with. I'm new at bird songs, so I dumped the disks to my PC and made a subdirectory of "seen" birds. Then I copied to that directory all the birds that I've visually identified in the neighborhood so I can work on learning those to start. I've copied them to my PDA and MP3 player as well to play in the car and sitting at appointments and such. The individual tracks carry not just a bird's primary song but also its different calls if it has any.
The Petersen set takes a different approach. It's a good set of disks that groups bird songs by some feature of similarity. I never knew, for instance, that robins and scarlet tanagers sound so similar. The disks are quite good for helping you learn the differences between similar-sounding species. Keep after it and you will learn to distinguish Carolina from black-capped chickadees.
Mind you, having the disks does not guarantee species identification. At this moment I'm sitting at the PC with the window to my suburban back yard open, listening to a low "chuck-chuck-chuck-chuck-chuck" that I canNOT find on either set of disks!
Bird songs.......2007-06-07
This is a great product. Some of the bird calls I wouldn't have identified as coming from a bird! The bird is named before the call. Very clear sounds.
Drove the cat crazier..........2007-06-07
The bird calls are so realistic that Joplin, our demonic cat, goes wacko everytime we play this CD. I would recommend this set for anyone who wants to learn the language of our winged friends.
Birdjam Use.......2007-03-21
We needed this product to use with our iPod Birdjam program we have...it works perfectly
Book Description
A Field Guide to Bird Songs is the best-selling collection of bird songs ever recorded. It includes the songs and calls of 267 species - all the most common and vocal birds found east of the Rockies. Organized as a companion to Roger Tory Peterson's Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America, fifth edition, this is the "birder's bible" of bird song.
Customer Reviews:
Not for a beginner.......2007-10-03
On the positive side, there are a LOT of different bird songs recorded in this cd. It would be much more user-friendly, however, if each track contained only one bird. The sheer number of different bird songs, combined with the not-so-convenient access to individual bird songs, makes this cd more appropriate as a comprehensive reference for use with the written field guide, or perhaps a field guide for someone already an expert, rather than a usable field guide for a more casual birder. Not something I would recommend if you simply want a cd that will help you recognize common bird songs as you are walking through the woods.
Bird Songs on a CD.......2007-05-16
A good CD and helpful index booklet. A booklet with color pictures of the male and female birds would be a helpful option even if it was at an additional cost.
Field Guide for Song birds.......2007-05-15
An interesting compilation of songbird sounds along with the name of each bird. Does not go into the wide variation of song that many birds are capable of, eg. the Carolina Wren. Somewhat helpful as an addition to Peterson's field guide to birds.
Helpful audio CD.......2007-03-22
I researched for the audio cd to identify bird songs. Peterson Field Guides five star rated cd met all the requirements i wanted. This is not soothing new age background music, but an educational tool for beginning birders like myself. Even while multitasking along w/ listening, it is very educational. Try loading the songs on your computer or ipod & see how quickly you will recognize.
Field Guide to Bird Songs: Eastern and Central N.America.......2007-02-04
Great resource for learning to recognize various songs and calls of hundreds of birds.
Average customer rating:
- Violence is real, and literature reflects life in this case.
- A Terribly Beautiful Fiction
- Brutal and Brilliant.
- A Hoax, but does that matter?
- A Tour de Torture
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The Painted Bird (Kosinski, Jerzy)
Jerzy Kosinski
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Kosinski, Jerzy
| Classics
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
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| Books
Kosinski, Jerzy
| ( K )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
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Being There
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Steps (Kosinski, Jerzy)
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Blind Date (Kosinski, Jerzy)
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The Devil Tree
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Survival In Auschwitz
ASIN: 080213422X |
Amazon.com
Many writers have portrayed the cruelty people inflict upon each other in the name of war or ideology or garden-variety hate, but few books will surpass Kosinski's first novel,
The Painted Bird, for the sheer creepiness in its savagery. The story follows an abandoned young boy who wanders alone through the frozen bogs and broken towns of Eastern Europe during and after World War II, trying to survive. His experiences and actions occur at and beyond the limits of what might be called humanity, but Kosinski never averts his eyes, nor allows us to.
Book Description
Originally published in 1965, The Painted Bird established Jerzy Kosinski as a major literary figure. Kosinski's story follows a dark-haired, olive-skinned boy, abandoned by his parents during World War II, as he wanders alone from one village to another, sometimes hounded and tortured, only rarely sheltered and cared for. Through the juxtaposition of adolescence and the most brutal of adult experiences, Kosinski sums up a Bosch-like world of harrowing excess where senseless violence and untempered hatred are the norm. Through sparse prose and vivid imagery, Kosinski's novel is a story of mythic proportion, even more relevant to today's society than it was upon its original publication.
Customer Reviews:
Violence is real, and literature reflects life in this case........2007-10-10
I have taken the time to read several reviews of this book. Some people seem to "get" it and others seem to think it's nothing more than some excuse to write "perversion" (how many classics were called perversions during the era in which they were written, I wonder? The answer; more than I care to count. )
Face it people. Life is violent. War is NOT pretty, nor are the effects of it. I do not much care if Kosinksi made up every scene in the book from his imagination and/or studies of the effects of war, or if he did live some of it. This sort of horror happens EVERY DAY in the real world to those caught in a country ravaged by violence. Don't believe me? Watch the world news. Go do some research. Even if he did "make this up" he didn't "make it up". I give the guy props (in his grave or not) for having the BALLS to write the gritty, nasty details of the horror that is war which many people are too cowardly to admit is -reality-. So much for the noblity of the struggles of war, eh? This is how it goes down for the little folks. This is what it does to people. These are the depths that humanity WILL and have lowered themselves to for survival's sake and for the base, cruel nature that lurks within humanity. It's not pretty. It's not nice. It's not "fun" to read but it should at least change your view on the world around you and how it is, has been, and probably always will be violence hidden under a golden, glittering surface created by the media and less gutsy authors into making you think everything is for a noble cause.
A Terribly Beautiful Fiction.......2007-09-03
Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird is, as other reviewers have noted, an unrelenting meditation on violence as it is filtered through the strange, superstitious world of Eastern European Peasant society. Although the time frame deals specifically with the years between 1939-45, the setting seems ancient (as opposed to merely backward) and often mythic. Thus, what some see as an uninterrupted string of grotesque brutalities is, in actuality, a fictionalized world that posseses greater dimensions. The unnamed "hero" of the novel--a dark-haired adolescent boy who may be a Gyspy or a Jew--emerges as a young everyman trying to find his way in a world that does not accept or understand difference. In classic bildungsroman formula, his adventures not only place him in the way of physical danger; they enable him to formulate his slowly-evolving theories of God and existence.
Two of the main charges against the book (at least in the reviews here) are as follows: 1) The events did not really happen to the novelist and are a product of an imaginative--and perverse--mind; 2) The author sought help with style and organization from other people and then affixed his name alone to the title.
With regards to the first charge, Koskinski himself explains in the book's afterword (published 10 years after the first edition) that the events are invented. He explains quite clearly that he wished to create a novel. It was through the fictive experience that he felt he commuunicate the truths orf the holocaust more humanely. That aside, the events recorded are a synthesis of observation, study, and personal experience.
With regards to the second charge, plenty of authors (especially ones struggling, like Kosinski, to write in a foreign language) have sought the expertise of editors, etc...
Most of the animosity towards the book seems, in fact, misdirected rage towards the unrelenting violence in the book. The writing succeeds, however, because, as Anais Nin has astutely noted: "It surpasses most of the books in which experience of terror and physical cruelty are told because by the great beauty of its style, it lifts the entire epxerience to philosophic, mythological realms of knowledge."
Brutal and Brilliant........2007-08-18
I have just revisited this book, having read it first as a teenager and was astounded once again by its potency, both as a story, and as a terrifying inditement of human nature. In view of increasing world conflict in the post world war era, this book is more relevant than ever.
A Hoax, but does that matter?.......2007-04-30
From the "cut-rate Elie Wiesel", Kosinski's own description of himself. Does it matter that this is a hoax manufactured from whole cloth? Apparently not. Feeds existing prejudices and so is welcomed as a revelation. Here's to Mr. Holocaust, Jr., the Sr. title having been appropriated by that lachrymose pseudo-saint Mr. Weisel.
History is replete with examples of man's inhumanity to man. Claims of this book being "semi-autobiographical" have been shown to be entirely false. Kosinski is just another of the feeders-at-the-trough of the Holocaust Industry.
The truth is quite horrible enough. Why then the hoaxes like the book at hand and "Fragments"?
See The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering, New Edition for a critical and honest evaluation of the duplicity embodied by this and similar books seeking to exploit for personal financial and political advantage. Those who think this book is within the bounds of decency may wish to seek out that now out-of-print other hoax "Fragments".
A Tour de Torture.......2007-03-29
I read Kosinski's masterpiece on the recommendation of someone who was reviewing Beah's "A Long Way Gone"--remarkable similarities between the two though one is fiction and the other memoir, one takes place in Europe WWII and the other a civil war in Sierra Leone. In this particular edition (1976), Kosinski added a fine afterward which is a must read. Though fiction, this work is fact-based. Also, though Kosinski never names the country of his setting, one can guess it must be Poland. Apparently, the Polish government recognized it also since they banned the book in that country, citing it as a serious insult to the humanity of the Polish peasant society. After reading the afterward and the story, I can only conclude if the shoe fits...
Still, there were a few things I thought to be unrealistic. Kosinski's ten-year-old protagonist is made to undergo some unspeakable tortures, tortures that would have reduced an ordinary kid to a psychological bowl of mush. Yet somehow this kid always pulls through, packing up his comet only at the last minute and heading into the Polish hinterland to rough it until he can hook up with his next tormentor. It got so bad that I began to look for parallels with Dante's Inferno. It seemed that each new torture was worse than the last, designed to atone for some imaginary sin that this innocent boy had committed. Dante borrowed from Greek mythology to formulate his keepers of hell--I wonder where Kosinski drafted his?
The damage to the boy only became apparent at war's end when he was placed in an orphanage. There he found himself in a community of similar victims his own age. The war was over, the peasants were safely locked outside the city, yet the cruelty went on, and on, and on. The gang-rape scene of the teacher was particularly poignant. Somehow the protagonist regained his humanity--at least I believe that was what Kosinski signaled his reader when the boy regained his faculty--though I never was sure how. Maybe his message was that immersed in evil a good child can be made to mimic evil--if for no other reason than survival--but when that need becomes obsolete, eventually his true nature will reemerge.
--Ejner Fulsang, author of "A Knavish Piece of Work" Aarhus Publishing 2006
Book Description
Each with more than 900 brilliant full-color photographs-the easiest-to-use and most comprehensive field guides to North American birds. Visually, factually, and organizationally superior to any other field guide, the bestselling Stokes Field Guide to Birds draws on more than twenty years of Donald and Lillian Stokes's experience as experts on American birds and wildlife. Each regional edition features: More than 900 high-resolution full-color identification photographs. All the identification information on a single page- color photographs, range map, and detailed description. No more fumbling to match photos with text! An illustrated Quick Guide to the most common backyard and feeder birds. Convenient colored tabs keyed to each bird group. For fast reference-a compact alphabetical index inside the front and back covers. Concise and comprehensive text, with information on habitat; plumage variation; feeding, nesting, and mating behavior; bird feeder proclivity; and-for the first time in any guide-population trends and conservation status.
Customer Reviews:
A pretty good bird book........2007-09-19
This book has good images and descriptions but lacks something that Roger Tory Peterson has. It also has something Peterson lacks so I enjoy using both. My wife and I live on seven acres of Maryland farm-land and enjoy many birds that are described well in one book or the other, so we use both. The best part of the Stokes book is the CD of bird calls that goes with it. We have identified a couple birds that we wouldn't have been able to do without it.
Best bird book for the backyard birder.......2007-07-02
This book packs more information on one page than any bird book that I own. It is easy to use and you know immediately if the bird is generally seen in your area by checking the map. I've given the book away on a number of occasions to new birders and experienced, alike.
Charli Vogt
a swell field guide.......2007-04-05
We have half a dozen bird books on the shelf but Stokes is the field guide that is being tossed in the bag or kayak for bird identification.
Excellent Pictures.......2007-03-31
This book is great. I would not consider myself a bird watcher but we have a bird feeder outside and it's interesting looking the birds up in the Stokes guide. The pictures are fantastic and it's good that it's only Eastern birds, so it makes it easier to identify the ones in my area.
Our kids really like it too and it makes it interesting to learn new facts. If you never realized what the visual differences are between male and female birds, it's worth it for that alone.
Get a bird feeder and get the Stokes guide, it's a great combination.
Bird Illustrations at their Best.......2007-01-10
Anyone who is interested in birds will need to have this book. Beautifully illustrated and useful. A must have.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent resource.......2007-06-25
My grandma originally owned a copy of this book and regularly noted sightings of interesting/rare species. I bought my own copy several years ago and it has proved quite useful. The most interesting example was a Java Sparrow sighted in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I couldn't find out what it was from searching around online, but looking in the back of this field guide, under foreign/introduced species, there it was.
Quality Through and Through.......2005-10-11
I received this book as a gift and have used it constantly. I keep it on my window sill during the feeding season to identify the visiters to my feeder. The book's size and physical construction are excellent. As someone who is a novice it seems to be very comprehensive on the subject matter.
The birder's bible.......2005-07-19
Even when I lived in the city, I liked to feed and watch the birds (mainly sparrows and pigeons). Now that we live up in the woods, we're in bird paradise. Using this Peterson Field Guide for "Eastern Birds" plus a good pair of binoculars for visual identifications, and the "Birding by Ear Eastern/Central" CDs (Richard K. Walton and Robert W. Lawson) I've identified 42 species of birds in just over a month, as a casual observer for the Michigan Breeding Bird Atlas II project.
I have other bird books, but it is Peterson's Field Guide that I use most frequently. Roger Tory Peterson's 'system' "is based on patternistic drawings with arrows that pinpoint the key field marks." You don't have to have the bird in hand in order to make an identification. In addition to 136 full-color plates of Eastern birds (male, female, and immature, or summer and winter plumage if they differ markedly), there are also 390 three-color maps (first introduced in the 1980 edition).
The maps are absolutely essential for an amateur like me. If I've narrowed down a blurry little gray bird to X and Y, and Y never makes it north of the Mason-Dixon Line, I can be pretty certain that the bird is X. Here's an actual example on the utility of the maps: I was trying to distinguish a trilling song that could either belong to the Swamp Sparrow, the Pine Warbler, or the Northern Junco. We do see Juncos at our feeders in the winter, but this is July and according to Peterson's map, the Juncos spend the summer north of here, mostly in Canada. So I've narrowed the trill down to the Swamp Sparrow or the Pine Warbler (actually I'm positive we've got both as I've made tentative visual identifications. It makes sense since we live in the Pine Barrens which is dotted with numerous swamps).
This book begins with a generalized introduction to identifying birds by shape, distinctive features and behavior. Physically, it is tightly bound and just the right size to slip into a backpack. The pages are glossy and 'relatively' waterproof if you wipe them quickly dry. There is even a 'life list' up front where you can check off the birds you have seen.
Don't go birding without it.
Excellent beginner book for myself and my sister........1999-04-26
The Peterson field Guide to Eastern American Birds turned out to be the best birding book I've ever read. The book was well thought out and had the format that we needed in our suburban environment. The illustrations were concise and made identifying the birds extremely easy. We have a large population of Red-Winged Blackbirds and Mourning Doves, and its great to actually know what in the world we were looking at. It was great!
Excellent guide to identification of birds........1998-05-13
This is the best of the field guides for the amature birder in my opinion. I purchased a guide that had actual photos of birds in their habitats, thinking it would be the best, but it definately was not as good or as easy to use as the Peterson field guide. If you are looking for a good all around field guide to keep near your binoculars, this one is my pick.
Book Description
A continuation of the successful BIRDING BY EAR system for learning bird songs. Just as the original BIRDING BY EAR audio introduces listeners to a unique method of learning and remembering bird songs, MORE BIRDING BY EAR employs these proven techniques for ninety-six additional species of birds found east of the Rockies. Walton and Lawson have created learning groups of similar vocalizations and clearly point out distinguishing characteristics, using phonetics, mnemonics, and other memory aids. MORE BIRDING BY EAR will increase your skill and enjoyment in the field by helping you learn the vocalizations of twenty-five species of warblers, all of the North American rails, and an assortment of terns, other waterbirds, and passerines. Many shorebird call notes are also included. Combine the auditory instruction here with the visual features of the Peterson Identification System. Page numbers in MORE BIRDING BY EAR's booklet refer to species descriptions in the PETERSON FIELD GUIDE TO BIRDS OF EASTERN AND CENTRAL NORTH AMERICA, fifth edition.
Customer Reviews:
big help.......2007-05-14
this CD is perfect, it is a compliment to Birding by Ear and having both of these is invaluable to learning the calls of the birds I see and hear in my area. I had heard the CD at my local Audabon shop and almost bought them there, Amazon was $10. cheaper and I bought both CD's. They are a joy to listen to and are very helpful to me.
For the Hard Core Bird Lover.......2007-01-11
I purchased the Birding by Ear cd collection as well as this one. I prefer the first, simply because it features more of my favorite bird friends; however, this, like the first one, is set up in a very easy to listen to and learn manner. Very soothing voice along with the song bird calls and songs - how can you go wrong?
Quick, three beers!.......2005-07-13
I've been listening to the predecessor of "More Birding by Ear," i.e. "Birding by Ear (Eastern and Central North America)" for over a year now, and the music-processing regions in my brain are finally sorting the symphony of bird song in the woods and swamps around our house into individual melodies. I strongly recommend that you start with Walton and Lawson's "Birding by Ear" as it has recorded the songs and calls of eighty-five common species. "More Birding by Ear" provides recordings of ninety-six additional Eastern and Central North American species, many of them, such as the shore birds, not often heard outside of their specialized habitats.
For most people, bird calls may produce nothing more than a song that is hard to get out of the head. These two three-CD sets will help them make sense of those songs. I was so encouraged by the calls I had learned from these CDs that I signed up as a volunteer for the Michigan Breeding Bird Atlas. So far I've identified forty-one birds in my 'priority block,' many of them by song alone.
I don't know whether I'll actually ever see a Red-eyed Vireo, an Oven Bird, or a Veery but I hear them almost every day now, calling from the forest canopy or deep in the swamp, or echoing eerily down the river at dusk.
Yet oddly enough, once I've identified a bird call on the CD, such as "More Birding by Ear's" Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, I begin to see Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers everywhere. Location by song must be giving my eyes a kick start. Now I'm beginning to suspect they're one of the commonest woodpeckers in our neighborhood!
The narrative that accompanies the bird song on these CDs will both entertain and inform you. Who will ever be able to forget the song of the Olive-Sided Flycatcher once it is translated into the catch-phrase, "Quick, three beers!"
If you're serious about your birding, and want to identify birds by song, as well as by binoculars and field guides, these CDs are priceless.
VERY HELPFUL.......2004-10-15
MORE BIRDING BY EAR is the follow-up to BIRDING BY EAR. BIRDING BY EAR presented 85 species of birds. MORE BIRDING BY EAR presents 96 additional species. MORE BIRDING BY EAR follows the same format as BIRDING BY EAR. Species are grouped according to similar types of vocalizations. Primary songs and calls are presented. In some cases, other songs and calls are also presented. Vocalizations are analyzed, and comparisons are made to other, similar sounding birds. Phonetics and tips are suggested to help the listener to remember the vocalizations. It is suggested that you complete BIRDING BY EAR before going on to MORE BIRDING BY EAR.
Species included in More Birding by Ear are:
DISK 1: Sora, Virginia Rail, Clapper Rail, King Rail, Yellow Rail, Black Rail, Pied-billed Grebe, Least Bittern, Common Moorhen, American Coot, Wood Duck, Great Blue Heron, Marsh Wren, Least Flycatcher, Acadian Flycatcher, Willow Flycatcher, Alder Flycatcher, Indigo Bunting, Blue Grosbeak, Pine Siskin, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Winter Wren, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Common Nighthawk, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Evening Grosbeak, Osprey, Northern Saw-whet Owl, Black-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Brown Creeper, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Fish Crow, Common Raven, Swainson's Thrush, Bicknell's Thrush, Boat-tailed Grackle, Rusty Blackbird, American Pipit, Horned Lark.
DISK 2: Prairie Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, Golden-winged Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Palm Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Mourning Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Louisiana Waterthrush, Swainson's Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Canada Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, Savannah Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, Bachman's Sparrow, Henslow's Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow, Seaside Sparrow, Common Loon, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Blue-headed Vireo.
DISK 3: Lesser Yellowlegs, Greater Yellowlegs, Short-billed Dowitcher, Long-billed Dowitcher, Black-Bellied Plover, American Golden-Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Spotted Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Upland Sandpiper, Willet, Least Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Sanderling, Pectoral Sandpiper, Common Snipe, Royal Tern, Caspian Tern, Common Tern, Forster's Tern, Least Tern.
At the end of DISK 3 is a "test." All 96 species are grouped by habitat. The songs and calls are presented, but in a different order from the learning groups. The listener is not told which bird he is listening to. This can be frustrating at first, but is also a good way to learn. I found that the first few times through, I missed practically all of them. But bit-by-bit, I began to identify some of the calls. As I mastered more of the calls, it became easier and easier for me to identify the remaining ones.
Books:
- The Sibley Guide to Birds
- The Sibley Guide to Birds
- The Sparrow
- The Study of Variable Stars Using Small Telescopes
- The Tale of Pale Male: A True Story
- The Tale of Pale Male: A True Story
- The Tale of Pale Male: A True Story
- The Traveler (Fourth Realm Trilogy, Book 1)
- This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind
- To Kill a Mockingbird
Books Index
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The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America
A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America
Sibley's Birding Basics
The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior
National Geographic Field Guide To The Birds Of North America, 4th Edition
