National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern North America

The book was just as advertised. In fact, I would have rated it higher. I am ver, very satisfied.

Drawings are among the clearest for differentiating birds; text is fine; format is handy.

i have been a birdwatcher for a few years and for the most part stuck to using sibley. what drew me to the national geographic was that it was revised and edited every few years, this guide is no exception with new maps and drawings it makes it a great guide.it also has sections on sorting out tricky identification problems in similar looking birds so this guide works well for any level of birdwatcher. what is new from the other guides is in the front flaps it has all the bird families. this guide is also packed with rarities from other continents mexico and the west. this is the guide every birdwatcher should own.

The National Geographic fieldguide to the Birds of North America was the standard-bearer for fieldguides from the mid-eighties, when it replaced the Eastern and Western Peterson guides as the favorite among critical birders, until the release of David Sibley's guide in 2000. The Sibley guide brought many new innovations but was too large for field use and, absent any habitat setting, the drawings were not lively. Seeing little need for wholesale changes to keep pace with Sibley, recent editions of the National Geographic continental guide have offered just a few innovations. Likewise, the printing quality of the National Geographic continental guides was compromised in the 4th and 5th editions, with some drawings appearing duller than in earlier editions and a blue bleed on the wingbars for several species. In 2003 the Sibley guide was published in portable editions for Eastern and Western North America. Somehow Sibley was able to keep most of the flight drawings that continue to be absent from recent National Geographic and Peterson editions. Though it has been a hard choice, for the past few years, the Sibley portable editions have been the guides I pack for trips. Now, National Geographic has decided to publish its guide in Eastern and Western editions. At first I thought National Geographic would simply separate the same content from the North America guide with no other changes and likely the same quality problems found in the recent editions. Happily I have found the opposite to be true. There are several significant changes in the regional guides and numerous new drawings. The drawings are less crowded and better organized on the page, there are pointers with text highlighting key field marks, and narratives and extra drawings for difficult identification problems have been added. Best of all, the printing quality is better than the 4th and 5th editions of the continental guide. Here are the highlights: * Key drawings of each species are now annotated with pointers and text to highlight essential markers, much like the Peterson and Sibley guides. A quick comparison suggests the ones in this guide are better than the Sibley highlights. * New drawings for Cackling Goose, Great Cormorants, Hook-billed Kite, Jaeger heads, winter adult Black Guillemot, Ferruginous Pigmy-owls, American Three-toed Woodpeckers, Ravens in flight, pelodorna subspecies of Cave Swallow, amnicola subspecies of Yellow Warbler, Wilson's Warblers, Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Savannah Sparrows, "Oregon" Dark-eyed Juncos, cucullatus subspecies of Hooded Oriole, and Gray-crowned Rosy-finches. * Identification tip sections for difficult identifications including: loons in flight, white egrets, buteos in flight, western hummingbirds, flycatchers, catharus thrushes, blackpoll/bay-breasted/pin warblers, oporonis warblers, meadowlarks and others. Some of these tip sections have new drawings for particular tricky species and groups. For example, there are headshots