Michael,
You will get emails from people with a lot of different recommendations. There
isn’t a bad answer (except maybe the DK book). The new editions of each guide
provide improvements. Personally, I like the National Geographic Guide (Sixth
edition). To me it has better illustrations, more complete text and more
up-to-date range maps and is an easier size to carry in the field. For what
it’s worth, it is the #1 selling field guide at Amazon (Sibley is #2). They
even have a “Western” version that is even more compact. A lot of people will
recommend Sibley. The Stokes guide is good if you prefer photos to drawings.
The Crossley Eastern Guide is a good reference for pictures, but the text is
lacking and it is huge. The good news is there is so much choice available
now. When many of us started there were only two choices, Peterson’s and
Pough’s.
Tom Crabtree, Bend
From: obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Michael Medina
Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2015 10:06 AM
To: OBOL
Subject: [obol] Field Guide Recommendations
Hopefully this doesn't spark a too heated debate.
I was looking to replace my first edition Sibley with a newer one (I'm aware of
the color corrections they did on the later printings). However someone
recently made a disparaging comment about Sibley which got me wondering if it's
worth replacing the first edition.
I've got an old library of Petersons from the 80s, NatGeo from the late 90s,
Stokes from the late 90s, and maybe one other.
Is there newer versions of these that are better? Something new that I should
have?
Thanks
Michael Medina
Portland, OR
