The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America - Comprehensive Bird Identification Book for Birdwatching, Hiking & Nature Exploration

The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America is the companion volume to The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America.The Western volume covers the 703 bird species found west of the Rocky Mountains. As with any bird field guide, the user wants comprehensive, easily accessible, clear information that make identifications quick and indisputable. Sibley's field guides cover all the species within the range of the volume arranging the birds in vertical columns on the page with most two-page spreads showing four species. This means that there is room for large detailed, beautiful illustrations with field marks for the diagnostic features. These marks are extremely helpful for the new birder to show what to look for and how to distinguish one species from another. This arrangement is particularly helpful when confronted with the terrible and mysterious LBJs or little brown jobs. The reader can make quick comparisons between similar species.The text covers key identification characteristics and field marks that are marked on the illustrations, whether the species is common, uncommon, rare, etc. to an area, nesting, behavior, food and feeding, and voice description. Accompanying the text is an excellent range map showing the bird's full North American distribution.The inside of the front cover gives a quick reference guide to the parts of a bird and the meanings of the various colors on the range maps. The inside of the back cover provides a map of the USA and Canada, i.e., what counts as North America for birding purposes. The first leaf inside the back cover is a Quick Index making the groups of species within the volume easily accessible.The volume is compact enough to fit into a hip pocket with a bit of manoeuvring. Since it covers only part of North America, it is lighter than single volume field guide covering all of North America.The Sibley field guides have two special features. One is that if there is some interesting or noteworthy characteristic about a bird or group of birds, Sibley put in a text box. For example, there is a text box on the Drinking Methods of Pigeon and Doves explaining that they are the only North American birds capable of siphoning water. The other is if a species is more common in the east say rather than the west, then the Eastern volume will have more illustrations and adjusts the text to reflect more about the species. For example, in the Western volume, the Blue Jay has four illustrations and the text starts with "uncommon", while in the Eastern volume the Blue Jay has five illustrations and the text starts out with "common".A single field guide is never sufficient. A birder needs to compare the information and illustrations of two or more field guides. This and its companion volume are excellent choices for one of the guides and I highly recommend them.