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US Mall 1 - Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America
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List Price: $24.95
Our Price: $14.06
Your Save: $ 10.89 ( 44% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Collins
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 598.097
EAN: 9780061120404
ISBN: 0061120405
Label: Collins
Manufacturer: Collins
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 528
Publication Date: 2008-06-01
Publisher: Collins
Release Date: 2008-05-27
Studio: Collins
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America
Comment: I purchased this book as a Christmas gift for my mother-in-law. The pictures are beautiful with maps showing where the bird live, and is filled with facts from the different species. It is a agreat comprehensive volume.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Easy reading, visually pleasing, logically ordered guide
Comment: I've been sitting on this one for a while because I keep telling myself that i must go out in the field and test this guide but alas, I realize that I won't be doing that anytime soon.
Birding is a pastime that likely appeals to pretty much anybody who takes pleasure from being out of doors or who is interested in flora and fauna. The problem is that birds are surprisingly difficult to actually see, much beyond a silhouette or a fleeting look at one before it flits out of view from its temporary perch; birds are, well, flighty and masters of camouflage thus a book or field guide is a logical acquisition for anybody interested in actually identifying the birds one sees.
I've owned a couple of sub-standard guides; the cheap ones because the nice ones tend to cost a lot. Both of them were frustratingly vague or impossibly obtuse (this bird has 7 tail feathers and can be distinguished from the other bird with 7 tail feathers by the two thin black bars that occur on tail feathers four and five, etc.), without satisfactorily describing the distinguishing marks in order for one to make a proper identification. I mean, I had difficulty identifying a juvenile snowy owl that must have been 19 inches tall, based on the description found in one of them.
Another beef I have had is the range descriptions which never seemed to make any sense to me as either over broad or just plain wrong.
This book seems to answer all of my complaints. It has excellent pictures, it does a great job of describing distinguishing remarks. It thoughtfully discusses the different plumage one can expect between males and females, young and old and seasonally, for instance. It also has a really helpful and quite clever series of shorthand descriptions that help one to distinguish otherwise similar species.
The authors have also chosen to take on the range issue and have developed a very logical range spectrum that includes even such things as occasional sightings. Thus one is given a tool that can help him to deduce whether, in light of the season or frequency of sighting, he actually has spotted, for instance, a King Penguin sunbathing on the Gulf Coast of Florida (not likely).
Finally, this book includes something that every birder and bird-addled bystander has been wishing for for years: A CD version of bird name that tune. What a capital idea! For, most of us are more familiar with what a bird sounds like than what it looks like I'd wager. Listening to this CD allowed me to put names to calls and even meanings to calls in a way that caused me to feel as though I could really get to know my birds. Having said that, the CD format definitely needs to be revamped. It isn't easy to use and I don't think that it would be much use out in the field. Don't let that scare you off of buying this book because I think it is smashing. In fact, it probably deserves a fiver but I just haven't been able to go out and actually field test this thing so I withhold that final star until that time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: "The Best" Field Guide!
Comment: I am just starting out birding, so this is my first field guide. But as I was picking out which guide to purchase, I quickly realized this was the one to go with. The features that make this guide superior are: actual photos (not drawings), multiple images (juvenile, adult, male/female, multiple color morphs, subspecies, in flight, or anything that helps in ID). And the main thing I liked is that all the text info is on the same pages as the photos (unlike the audobon society guide which forces you to do a lot of page flipping and finding). It may be slightly larger than other field guides, but definitely not a hindrance. And the abundance of pics and info makes up for the size.
The DVD w/ mp3 files are great, but I would not buy the book simply for the DVD of bird songs. -I actually did not realize it was there until after the purchase. But I am excited that I can bird with my iPod and add another dimension to my birding experience.
Overall, I think you cannot go wrong with this field guide!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Informative and thorough.
Comment: This is an excellent field guide: well researched and written. The photos are beautiful and the descriptions are clear. A perfect layman's guide.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Outstanding, but not alone
Comment: The Smithsonian Field Guide to Birds of North America is an outstanding contribution to a crowded field. Unlike the Peterson and National Geographic Guides (among others), this guide uses high quality photographs taken of the birds in a characteristic environment. Detailed, well colored maps indicate the yearly range of the bird specifying breeding, migration, winter, year round, and rare ranges. Photographic quality is uniformly excellent. But the biggest advantage of this book is that it comes with a comprehensive CD of bird calls beautifully recorded. This is a feature that the other guides lack and is a very strong recommendation for this volume, for, as any birder knows, we hear many more birds than we see.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America
Comment: I purchased this book as a Christmas gift for my mother-in-law. The pictures are beautiful with maps showing where the bird live, and is filled with facts from the different species. It is a agreat comprehensive volume.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Easy reading, visually pleasing, logically ordered guide
Comment: I've been sitting on this one for a while because I keep telling myself that i must go out in the field and test this guide but alas, I realize that I won't be doing that anytime soon.
Birding is a pastime that likely appeals to pretty much anybody who takes pleasure from being out of doors or who is interested in flora and fauna. The problem is that birds are surprisingly difficult to actually see, much beyond a silhouette or a fleeting look at one before it flits out of view from its temporary perch; birds are, well, flighty and masters of camouflage thus a book or field guide is a logical acquisition for anybody interested in actually identifying the birds one sees.
I've owned a couple of sub-standard guides; the cheap ones because the nice ones tend to cost a lot. Both of them were frustratingly vague or impossibly obtuse (this bird has 7 tail feathers and can be distinguished from the other bird with 7 tail feathers by the two thin black bars that occur on tail feathers four and five, etc.), without satisfactorily describing the distinguishing marks in order for one to make a proper identification. I mean, I had difficulty identifying a juvenile snowy owl that must have been 19 inches tall, based on the description found in one of them.
Another beef I have had is the range descriptions which never seemed to make any sense to me as either over broad or just plain wrong.
This book seems to answer all of my complaints. It has excellent pictures, it does a great job of describing distinguishing remarks. It thoughtfully discusses the different plumage one can expect between males and females, young and old and seasonally, for instance. It also has a really helpful and quite clever series of shorthand descriptions that help one to distinguish otherwise similar species.
The authors have also chosen to take on the range issue and have developed a very logical range spectrum that includes even such things as occasional sightings. Thus one is given a tool that can help him to deduce whether, in light of the season or frequency of sighting, he actually has spotted, for instance, a King Penguin sunbathing on the Gulf Coast of Florida (not likely).
Finally, this book includes something that every birder and bird-addled bystander has been wishing for for years: A CD version of bird name that tune. What a capital idea! For, most of us are more familiar with what a bird sounds like than what it looks like I'd wager. Listening to this CD allowed me to put names to calls and even meanings to calls in a way that caused me to feel as though I could really get to know my birds. Having said that, the CD format definitely needs to be revamped. It isn't easy to use and I don't think that it would be much use out in the field. Don't let that scare you off of buying this book because I think it is smashing. In fact, it probably deserves a fiver but I just haven't been able to go out and actually field test this thing so I withhold that final star until that time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: "The Best" Field Guide!
Comment: I am just starting out birding, so this is my first field guide. But as I was picking out which guide to purchase, I quickly realized this was the one to go with. The features that make this guide superior are: actual photos (not drawings), multiple images (juvenile, adult, male/female, multiple color morphs, subspecies, in flight, or anything that helps in ID). And the main thing I liked is that all the text info is on the same pages as the photos (unlike the audobon society guide which forces you to do a lot of page flipping and finding). It may be slightly larger than other field guides, but definitely not a hindrance. And the abundance of pics and info makes up for the size.
The DVD w/ mp3 files are great, but I would not buy the book simply for the DVD of bird songs. -I actually did not realize it was there until after the purchase. But I am excited that I can bird with my iPod and add another dimension to my birding experience.
Overall, I think you cannot go wrong with this field guide!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Informative and thorough.
Comment: This is an excellent field guide: well researched and written. The photos are beautiful and the descriptions are clear. A perfect layman's guide.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Outstanding, but not alone
Comment: The Smithsonian Field Guide to Birds of North America is an outstanding contribution to a crowded field. Unlike the Peterson and National Geographic Guides (among others), this guide uses high quality photographs taken of the birds in a characteristic environment. Detailed, well colored maps indicate the yearly range of the bird specifying breeding, migration, winter, year round, and rare ranges. Photographic quality is uniformly excellent. But the biggest advantage of this book is that it comes with a comprehensive CD of bird calls beautifully recorded. This is a feature that the other guides lack and is a very strong recommendation for this volume, for, as any birder knows, we hear many more birds than we see.
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