As someone who started with a Peterson Guide, then a Golden Guide, later
graduated to the National Geo when it came out, I now head to Sibley, then
National Geo. An older edition stays in the car. Apps on ones phone or tablet
are great out in the field but a regular book still comes first.
As for illustration vs photos it depends on the guide. Personally, one of the
things I like about Sibley is that the plates are all done by one artist
resulting in consistent quality. Most illustrated guides have multiple artists
whose style and interpretation or skill can vary from amazing to not so
amazing. Every edition of the National Geo is better and better, in part,
because Jonathan Alderfer paints wonderfully accurate new plates to replace
older less accurate ones, plus he adds species new to the ABA Area. Amount of
text, as mentioned earlier, is more extensive in some than in Sibley. The
reason Sibley’s text is more minimal is twofold. First, is that you get more
illustrations instead of text. The reason for that is because when Dave was
planning his guide it was going to be in two parts. One with plates, the second
with text on identification. My understanding is that it was the publisher who
balked at this idea and the second book morphed into The Sibley Guide to Bird
Life & Behavior. It was amazing to watch him work on the field guide as we
lived about a mile from one another at the time. And I will be the first to
admit my bias towards his work.
The one problem I have with photo guides is that the light the birds are
photographed in can vary greatly and as we all know, photographs can be
misleading. Plus illustrated guides are better able to show lots of ages,
sexes, and plumages, akin to Sibley. The Crossley’s guides overcome this by
adding lots of photos to each page with background akin to Natural History
museum diorama showing appropriate habitat. But the heft of the books is
substantial. Having said that, by all means, add it to your library.
One can’t have too many bird books! There is so much information available
these days that using all available resources is good. But beware of online
misidentifications. Dave Irons posted about this a while back and he is
oh-so-correct on that topic.
Shawneen Finnegan
Portland, Oregon
