Birds of the Puget Sound Region

This has been a nice little book to have to figure out the duck and bird breeds I often see around Lake Washington. Once or twice, I wasn't able to find a breed, but a pocket book can't include variety that might visit the area. I would recommend it, but tell people that they may eventually want a second book to cover what this one doesn't. Over all, it's a great book and the size makes it easy to carry around.

1. I'm not sure why most of the guidebooks on the market today are 5x7" or 6x9" (or even bigger, gasp!) as none of my clothes have pockets even close to being able to handle them. This book fits comfortably even in myjeans or raincoat pocket, which makes it easy to take just about anywhere. And the cover and binding is thick and rugged, and has held up to some fairly thorough abuse. 2. I love the fact that there's one bird per 2-page layout with a detailed, full-page, full color photo on the left (some pages have 2 pictures to show a difference in sexes or plumage) and a color-coded (by taxomomic family) description on the right with all of the important identification points in bold text. Right after the overview, the authors not only provide list similar looking species but are thoughtful enough to briefly describe the differences and even include the page number references! Its extremely quick to thumb through the book in the field and zone right in to the bird I'm looking for. 3. I really dont understand the popularity of guidebooks that cover every bird that ever set foot (or wing) on the continent or some other huge geographical region. This book only covers the birds around my area, so I dont waste time with all the related species that have never been seen within a day's drive of here. I initially thought this would only be useful for the King-Pierce-Snohomish county region, but after looking at the map in the preface and the generous 200+ species coverage, I've found it to be applicable to most if not all of Western Washington. 4. The one thing would improve the utility of this guide would be the addition of month-to-month or seasonal abundance charts similar to those at birdweb.org (and numerous other sources). The rough textual description of a bird's expected seasonality and distribution is a poor substitute for some kind of simple "at a glance" chart. In summary, this is the one guidebook I never leave home without. Hopefully the authors continue to expand the series as a perfect companion volume would cover the birds of Eastern Washington.

I just recently got hooked on birding, because I've always been intimidated by larger birdbooks, such as those with birds from all of North America. As a beginner with a lot of outdoor experience, I knew all the distinctive, easy to identify birds, but all the perching birds just seemed brown, light brown, dark brown, or basically the exact same as every other perching bird. Because this book only has birds found in the Puget Sound region, you realize its much easier to tell birds apart, because there aren't as many as the larger guides make it seem (although this book is very comprehensive for the region, and has the 200 most common birds). My family has an Audobon bird book I use as a cross-reference, and when I leave the region, but for basic ID, I like the local book better. The pages are few enough I can literally flip through every one until i find the bird I'm looking for - with bigger books, the bird would be long gone before then. All in all, this is a great book for beginning birders in the counties that border Puget Sound.