Birds of California Field Guide

This is book is great for beginning birders. I can recognize obvious differences in bird species (dove versus duck, for example), but I can't always tell the difference between similar species (i.e. sparrow versus finch). So the fact that this book is organized by color rather than type is really useful. Using this book, my family has been able to identify all but one bird that has come to our backyard feeder.

I am merely a casual bird observer with my young boys, but compared to other bird identification books I've owned and looked at, this is by far the most user-friendly for those of any age with no 'birding' backround. The ability to look for the birds by color is just the easiest way to look them up. The ability to view a photo of every bird, both male and female, makes this book outstanding! It also shows where on a California map they can be found during various seasons of the year, nesting, egg identification info., food sources and misc. info. on each birds' habits make it an excellent resource and my kids LOVE using it too. It is also small enough (4"x6") to fit in a jacket pocket when hiking. I think every parent of young children should own at least one.

I love Stan Tekiela's books because as a beginner-birder, I find that the color coding is very helpful in identifying birds. His "Stan's notes" section under each bird is also quite informative - something I've not found in most bird books. It's small - fits in most pockets - for easy reference in the field and the pictures are great.

This is the BEST "bird book" for use in California. I have used the Audobon books (very good) as well as other guides but by far for amateurs like myself this is the one. First off, quickly getting to the portion of the book is easy because things are color-coded. Second, the contents have pictures as opposed to drawings or worse small pictures with poor resolution. Third, the handy size of the book makes it practical to carry in one's cargo pant pocket. Fourth, the birds shown are common to California so one has to do a lot less wading through pages to find what you are looking for. Fifth, not all California birds are shown - this is good and bad. The good being less useless material the bad being you do miss some specimens. All in all for the price this is a great value.

I stumbled on this book when I went to look at another bird field guide. I'm glad I compared guides before making a purchase. Needless to say I purchased this one over the one I intended to buy. There are many reasons why I like this book: It's consise and it's easy to identify birds; this guide contains photographs not drawings; the book is compact.Being true to its title, it contains only birds you'll find in California. You don't have to peruse through hundreds of birds to find the one you're looking for. A bird can be found either by its predominate color or an indexed listing of names. Each decription contains information about the bird's size, decription of male, female and juvenile, nest, eggs, incubation, fledging, migration, food, comparision to similar birds and additional author notes. So far I have been able to identify every bird I have looked up.One of the best features is that the book contains color photographs and not drawings of the birds. I really do think this is why my 5 year old daughter can state with confidence which bird we're watching. For those birds that are sexually dimorphic, the author includes photos of both the male and female. Each is cross reference by color too. There are also inset photos of the juveniles. With the photos you can percisely identify each characteristic of the bird and takes much of the guess work out of identification.The book is 4 3/8" X 6" X 7/8". About half the height of many other field guides and alot thinner making it much more portable.Probably the most important reason to purchase this book is that you'll use it.