Birds of Illinois Field Guide

Like all of the other reviews, I find this book the easiest to use when trying to identify new birds who come to our feeder. One other thing I love about it - it tells what the birds like to eat! So can stock my feeder appropriately.

This pocket size book has the simplest identification method I can imagine. The birds are grouped by color, so no other knowledge of bird identification is needed. If the bird is mostly yellow, browse the yellow section, identify the bird from a full page color photo, and learn about the bird's habits, food preferences, range and other interesting information included on the facing page. I am only a casual birdwatcher, curious about the birds I encounter in my backyard and in my local area. This book meets my needs better than the more scholarly volumes I have purchased in the past. Stan's Notes included for each bird description contain "I didn't know that" information to enhance identification process. I recommend this book.

Wow. I am so impressed with this book. I bought about 5 others and this one is, BY FAR, the easiest to use. It is organized by COLOR. All you have to do is pick the main color of a bird - the color that is most predominant on the bird - turn to the color-coded section and voila! The book lists both males and females, because the two sexes are often different colors; for instance, you will find "Cardinal" under the red section (male) AND in the brown section (female). If you are looking to identify birds in your area, this book is foolproof! You can easily identify over 100 birds and read interesting facts about it, such as nesting habits, egg identification & incubation, migration, what foods they eat, and more. Another great feature about this book is that for each bird, their is a "Comparison" listing that tells you what other birds look very similar - so you won't confuse a European Starling with a Common Grackle. An amazing guide - I highly recommend it!

Like the other reviewer here, I too, am new to birdwatching. I bought two other large guidebooks that cover the eastern part of the country but while these (especially the Smithsonian Handbooks "Birds of America") were great for providing information on all birds in my half of the country, I didn't find them very useful for determing what birds actually live here in northern Illinois specifically. Knowing what is supposed to be here has made it much much easier for me to identify the birds that come to my backyard feeders so I'm not hot on the trail of what I think is a White-Crested Firecracker Wheat Wren when, in fact, it's really a Black-Capped Chickadee.I also found the information on what each type of bird eats quite useful as well as the "Stan's Notes" information at the bottom of each entry. Another thing I found very helpful is the fact that where male and female birds differ in appearance, each is listed separately. For example, the female Purple Finch is is listed on pages 84-85 in the "brown" section while the male is found at pages 228-229 in the "red" section, thus making it much easier to determine whether what you are looking at is a sparrow of some sort or, in fact, a female Rose-Breasted Grossbeak.

This is a great book, especially if you are new to "birding", like I am. It contains 111 species that you'll find in Illinois and also has a "compare" section...if you aren't sure which finch you're seeing. Very friendly user; the first page is a bird color guide. If you are trying to find a bird that is mostly gray...you flip to the gray section on pages 162-207. I also liked the range map of Illinois which shows the location where you will likely find the bird, and when ... summer, winter, all year or during migration. A lot of information is provided on each bird and includes the size of the bird; the color of the male, female and juvenile; where to find the nest and the color of the eggs; what the bird eats, and if it is attracted to feeders. I especially liked "Stan's Notes", which provides naturalist information and curious little facts that will leave you saying, "Hmmm, I didn't know that!"