His digitally altered photographs are not as lovely as the paintings in the latest NGS, Sibley or Peterson guides (which I own and admire). His written comments are enjoyable, brief and apt. Kaufman's guide works best, I believe, for quick identification in the field. That is why this is the first bird book I give to my friends.

Negatives? Sure. I do not care for the colored pages (indexing okay, but not entire pages), and I think some of the owls look weird.


A great book for the casual birdwatcher   June 5, 2002
 12 out of 12 found this review helpful

I bought this book a year ago so I could identify the birds coming to my backyard feeder, and I still keep it by my sofa. The illustrations are very good, the descriptions clear, and the maps showing the range of each of the birds very useful. I've been able to identify every bird passing through my yard, and even enjoy browsing the pitcures/write-ups of those birds I likely will never see.


Best book for new birders   May 22, 2002
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I've just started to get involved with the world of birds and I have to say that this is by far the best book to learn from. Not only is it easy to use, but it is also full of interesting, helpful facts. Since I have the flexi-cover edition, I can take it anywhere! I can use it at the top of a summit or in the car. This is by far the best book for new birders out.


Very nice, for a photo guide   March 7, 2002
 18 out of 20 found this review helpful

Let me tell you my bias up-front - I generally prefer bird guides which contain illustrations rather than photographs; I have found that poor lighting, bad angles and subjects not representative of their species tend to make their way into photo guides, thereby defeating the purpose. That said, I am very impressed with the quality of images in the Kaufman guide, likely because they're not unretouched. Kaufman uses digital editing to touch up the photographs so that each one is more representative of each species, and so that the quality of lighting is excellent.

It is of a size small enough to be easily carried into the field, unlike my favorite book, the Sibley guide, and the different page background colors are convenient for flipping quickly to the right section. There are short sections in the front of the book on "how to bird," "where to bird," and "what to look for," along with a few other blurbs, but all of this covers only nine pages total. Further, the text accompanying each bird is very short, one small paragraph.

Still, it's readily apparent that a *lot* of work went into this guide, and I'm really impressed with it. While I personally believe that it's not something a novice birder would likely find really useful, like the National Geographic Society's book, intermediate and advanced birders will likely find it easy to use for quick reference about a field marking or species differentiation. Conveniently, he covers all of the birds of North America, thereby obviating the need to purchase one book for the East, one for the West, and so forth.

My best advice is to get your hands on a copy of this book before purchasing it if you're not certain you'll like it - birding guides can be a highly-personal thing, and you may find that this review is just totally buggered! I'm still glad I own this book, and occasionally take it out into the field instead of my preferred NGS, just for the sake of variety.


For "Backyard Bird Watching"   September 20, 2001
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

This is a handy book to have right beside the chair you watch your birds from..easy to identify the the bird that has just landed. Well written articles on each species, just enough, to know, and not too much information to take in all at once. I enjoy this book, using it often.