Sibley's Birding Basics
by David Allen Sibley
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Book Reviews of Sibley's Birding Basics
Book Review: Great for Beginner Birders
Summary: 5 Stars
To start with, this isn't a field guide. If thats what you're looking for, I would recommend the Sibley guide to Eastern or Western birds depending on your location. With that said, this book gives a great introduction to birding and contains very useful information for those starting out. This isn't a book I carry out in the field, but was great to read before doing any serious birding.
There is a large amount of information and terminology that can seem overwhelming when someone is just starting out with birding. This book helps you with basics on what you need to focus on as a beginner and what characteristics you need to pay attention to when making an identification.
As a sidenote, while the information given is great for someone starting out, I've found the most helpful information about birding to come from experienced birders. Join your local Audubon society or birding club, and try to go on a field trip or two with someone experienced with your local area. This book isn't a substitute for that first hand interaction, but makes you much more prepared for those experiences.
Book Review: Great Introduction to nany aspects of birding
Summary: 5 Stars
I came into this book with some interest in learning to identify birds around the yard to a greater extent. This is the first book that I've seen to go beyond the basics of shape and color. It's actually a virtual biology lesson on birds with fine details about feathers, and molting among other topics. Very detailed materials that help the reader understand how to see the parts of the bird beyond quick impressions in order to make identifications. But I also gained a new insight into an animal that I took for granted just seeing every day. Sibley is an incredible artist and liberally demonstrates his concepts with sketches and drawings of a wide variety of birds. The combination of beautiful art, and clear, educational writing makes one of the best introductions I've ever seen to birds, and how to know and appreciate them. Highly recommended for the casual as well as serious bird enthusiast.Book Review: The book I wished I started with - Highly recommended
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the book that I wished I had when I started bird watching. This book explains the strategies you should use to identify birds. When you go out birding you will often (nearly always?) not see the bird clearly, or long enough to make a perfect call. This book addresses that problem. I have never seen it addressed so well. All of the three recent Sibley books are just first rate. I recommend starting with this one on identification, then getting his general guide one, then the one that talks about their behavior. I really liked the behavior one also. Its great to research out a bird that you are watching to find out more about how they act.
The illustrations in all of his books are first rate. I have a lot of bird books and found that Sibley's are the best of those I bought.
John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX
Book Review: Veterans will love it too
Summary: 5 Stars
Perfect for the aspiring or beginning birder, veterans will wonder how they got started without it. Sibley begins with the simplest, logical advice - equipment, where to go to find birds (did you know Central Park, NY, rates with Cape May and the Monterey Peninsula for sighting migrating birds - it's the largest patch of green for miles), keeping records and avoiding mistakes. The bulk of this slim book is devoted to identifying, from behavior and voice to body configuration, feather arrangements, color patterns, structure of tail and wings, molt and more. Clear color illustrations provide plentiful examples throughout. Sibley teaches how to see and what to look for, depending on time of year, weather and habitat, and provides lots of useful information about common and unusual birds by way of illustrative examples.Book Review: Easy to use... which is good for me.
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a novice birder, to say the least. I like Sibley's guides because they are straight forward and easy to navigate. The drawings are all done by Sibley himself, not a team of various artists... believe me, it matters. Birds are shown from various angles, by sex, and at various stages of life. I think any Sibley guide would make a lovely (different) house warming gift along with, perhaps, a bird feeder.
Happy birding!