Why then would I review this beautiful book about feathered beasties, and even compare it to other birding books? I became interested in bird guides after reading a book (which I reviewed for Amazon) called "Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classical Prose." The authors, Francis-Noel Thomas and Mark Turner, cite the description of the Northen shrike found in the Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds, Eastern Edition, as an example of classic prose. And it surely is that, as are the rest of the entries in this excellent book. I bought that book, and then I got Peterson's "A Field Guide to Birds," which is a classic in birding literature. As some people say about Playboy, I bought these books for the writing in them, not the pictures.

I found the Sibley book very pleasing to look at, with the pictures as clear and as beautiful as Peterson's, perhaps even better. I will leave that for the experts to decide.The writing is also pleasing, but not as convincing as the Field Guide. In matters of fine prose, I would rank the Field Guide (Bull & Farrand)as the best of my three books, followed by Sibley and then Peterson's.

Take, for example, the treatment of the euphonic Willow Ptarmigan. All three books attempt to describe these bird's voices, and here is how they do it:

Peterson's claims that their sounds are a "deep raucus calls, 'go-out, go-out' and that the male has staccato crow: 'know, know, tobacco, tobacco,' etc., or 'go-back, go-back.'"

Sibley says that the male in display gives comical, nasal, barking calls in series 'goBEK, goBEK, goBEK, poDaydopoDaydo..." and a smoothly accelerating laugh.

The Field Guide reports: "In flight, courting males have a loud staccato 'go-back, go-back,' and other guttural calls."

There it is: succint, quick, with a little detail that is missing from the others: the sound takes place while the male is in flight. Even though an outsider, I can tell that all three books are very fine. For prose I must give the Field Guide an A+, but certainly the other two deserve A's; and I did appreciate Sibley's "smoothly accelerating laugh."


Sibley Guide to the Birds, a review.   January 10, 2001
 29 out of 31 found this review helpful

No single field guide is comprehensive. No single field guide so out strips all others as to make them a bunch of has-beens. And this guide is no different. Now, before we go to much further it should be noted that this is a monumental work for one person. The art work in particular is excellent and goes up from there. Where I felt it fell short was in the written material. There were several times where there was no mention of a behavior that is considered, at least in my personal experience (and by most other field guides), to be standard field marks. Examples: The call of the eastern phoebe often is a harsh, grating, "phoebe!" And there is a reason why wagtails are called wagtails. And yet there is no mention of either of these are in the Mr. Sibley' guide. I.E. I felt that many level 1001 field marks/behaviors were left out. Left me wondering what else was missed/left out. I also had difficulty with the authors song transcriptions. For myself they did not convey the tone and quality of the songs that gave me that "of yes that's it!" feeling. This, I feel, is really an issue particular to me.

This guide approaches the work of R.T. Peterson and the National Geographic guide, and is far better than nearly anything else after that. In the second addition, I'm sure there will be a second addition, I hope the main improvements will be in the written material. Breaking it down to two books for eastern and western geographical areas would be a reasonable consideration as there is a natural division east and west. It would open up more room for written material. Pictures are all well and good, but I find it is often the written material that cuts to the chase and eliminates all doubt.

In the final assessment this clearly is a world class effort, and should be on any birders bookshelf. I have my copy. Do you?


great guide - great price   January 10, 2001
 8 out of 10 found this review helpful

This is a beautiful book and so well organized. Illustrations are stunning - very clear and extremely high quality. Yes it's too heavy to drag around but its the kind of thing that you will refer to at home all the time - it'll get the kids interested too