HarperCollins Complete North American Wildlife: A Photo Field Guide

This comprehensive field guide is essentially a short encyclopedia of North American wildlife. I have given it 5 stars on that basis. It is not an ecological treatise nor is it a substitute for detailed descriptions and discussions of individual species and subspecies but, as a handy field guide, useful for much of North America it is up to the job. The plates are in both color and black-and-white and are very good as is the text which describes the animal, habitat, short description of habits, diet, range and similar animals. Present are mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fresh and salt water fish, and some invertebrates. A good buy for the money. Ron Braithwaite, author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico

This field guide is a non-fiction guide.Which is a resource that you can learn from.This guide teaches you all the different types of animals and plants.For example mammals,birds,reptiles,amphbians,insects,and marine mollusks. The book explains their habitats,where the animals and plants live.This book also gives fascinating facts about plants,animals,and even fungi.For example did tou know that the only animal that can turn its stomach inside out is the starfish! The book has over 15,000 color photographs with explantions.I recommened it to people who love to learn about nature.I really love this book because I learned many new things.This book would be useful for people who love nature and learning about all the different kinds of animals and plants we share the world with.The vocabulary is challenging for kids.I recommend you have a dictionary handy when you're reading it at home. Larry Cruz age:11

This book is lavishly illustrated with full color photographs of several species on the right of each page spread. The facing page gives a brief description of each species including its size, habits, habitat and geographic area of the US in which it is found. I was surprised to find that, in addition to birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles, the book also covers fish, plants, and insects. It is great for the amateur naturalist who just wants to find out what kind of lizard or owl he/she saw on a hike. There is not a lot of information on each animal because that would make the book too heavy to lift (it is a field guide after all)! And of course some varieties had to be left out, for instance, with hundreds of kinds of spiders in the US they could not show all of them and kept it down to one page. I was a wee bit disappointed not to find a large caterpillar that I had hoped to identify. Someone who was particularly interested in one type of wildlife might want a second guide to expand on, for instance, butterflies or wildflowers. Overall, it is an attractive and helpful book to have on hand to identify wildlife.