Birds of New Mexico Field Guide

My aunt kept posting pictures of her backyard birds on line, and when I would ask what they were she wouldn't know, so I thought it would be fun to surprise her by sending this bird book to her. She wrote to me after receiving it and said that it was exactly the book that she had wanted and was very happy with it. She especially liked that you could look the birds up by color.

This book will fit in your pocket or by your birdfeeder, ready when needed. It has pictures rather than sketches and is arranged by bird's major color. If male/female colors differ, there is a page for each - very easy to use. Information is complete and concise: size, color, food, nesting, where found in New Mexico and when. If you must choose just one bird book, this is the one.

Best collection of birds in our area that I've read. I highly recommend it to anyone living in New Mexico.

I'm a "photographer who happens to think birds are neat", not a "real" birder; I picked this up on a vacation to Albuquerque, and it was great for figuring out what all of these unfamiliar-but-probably-common brightly colored birds are. I don't want to become an ecosystem-expert on the southwest -- but "hey, that's a cool looking red-and-orange bird *click* *click* ok, now what was it? *flip to `birds that have prominent yellow'* *flip through a handful of pictures* Oh look, Western Tanager, I'd never even heard of those before..." If that's you too, this is the book you want. (Of course, you can also show your snapshots on-camera to the nature center volunteers, they're nice that way... but other tourists won't know either :-) It's not Sibley's. It compares favorably with the Smithsonian Handbooks for good at-a-glance presentation of useful information, though, and it's small enough to actually bring with you.

This book is in beautiful condition and is one I had been searaching for! Very concise and easy to use.