The 6 Best Bird Field Guides (2023 reviews)

If you are looking to buy an all-around great guide for your daily purpose, jonathan alderfer bird field guide is the right option. The National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America would be an excellent addition to any home with children, to help instill that love of birding, as well as for the seasoned birder. If you're new to birding, the visual index inside the front and back covers is indispensable, and the Quick-Find Index flap built into the front cover is super handy. The illustrations are clear and accurate identification of birds is easy.

The National Geographic guide has full-colour, accurate and detailed artist renderings of the birds, mostly with some element of their likely habitiat. There is a short quick-find index on the front cover fly-leaf and, with the cover flap open, a visual index of bird families. There are range maps on the same page as each species, and the maps are easy to read. The guide also has an easy to find and use tab on the side to help you get to the species you are looking for.

Why We Like This:

Definitely small enough to take with you on trips
Field-identifiable subspecies and subspecies groups are clearly labeled and treated in often impressive detail
Small and lightweight so you can carry along on your adventure

Best For enthusiastic amateur birdwatcher: National Audubon Society Bird Field Guide

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The national audubon society bird field guide is satisfactory and appropriate and fits well with your daily usage. Eastern North America has an arbitrary line that follows the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains. The bird is pictured from only one angle. It makes identifying new/unknown birds easy, and has a lot of good info on them.

Being published by the National Audubon Society, you'd expect this field guide to be top-notch, one developed and tested by thousands of birders. The first part of the book is made up of photos which are just fantastic. The photos are detailed and effective making identification a breeze. This is a must have for backyard bird watching.

Why We Like This:

Excellent guide for backyard birding and new birdwatchers
Best bird book,with with photos, not paintings
Audubon's field guide to eastern birds
Very handy reference book for the casual bird-watcher

Best For novice Birders: Roger Tory Peterson Bird Field Guide

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Next on the list, we've got yet another guide that manages to win our hearts. It's the roger tory peterson bird field guide and it's widely considered as guide that has the most suitable features. This mature guide is easy to use and to see the most important field marks on all the birds of north america. It combines the Eastern and Western North America guides into one volume, and adds the bonus of birds in the Hawaiian Islands. It is made with quality material. It is reminiscent of older style bird books that provide lots of additional information specific to a particular bird or group of birds.

This field guide has colorful pictures for each bird. There are a few places where it modernizes species classifications and names. It is the best bird book around.

Why We Like This:

Best bird book for all levels of birding
Great descriptions with excellent explanations to distinguish closely related birds
Terrific for beginners and experienced alike
Has great illustrations and highlights important markings on the birds

Best For New Bird watcher: Laura Erickson Bird Field Guide

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The laura erickson bird field guide gives the top-tier guide a run for their money by offering flagship specs at a much more affordable price. This guide has great pictures and sketches and it has a bit of general information about the adults, their young, their habitation and some habits. It is a great guide to take along when birding. It is coauthored by laura erikson, a true "birder" and an exceptional photographer. It comes with high quality images, descriptions, and range maps of each bird.

The Field Guide, it's larger and heavier and not as easy to carry, but has more birds in it, including the red headed woodpecker. The photos are vivid and make it easy to find birds by visual description. It is a great portable book for a new bird watcher. It’s small enough to fit in a coat pocket or small bag.

Why We Like This:

Informative and small enough for a purse or backpack
Perfect for the beginner bird watcher
Delivers what they promise

Best Field Guide: David Allen Sibley Bird Field Guide

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If you want nothing less than best desirable guide, then david allen sibley bird field guide is the one you should definitely consider. This guide book is perfect for anyone who wants to learn more about birds of the North East. It can be overwhelming to see 6 or 7 images of the same bird through it's first 3 years, male and female in different positions, but it actually makes identification much easier because you have more images to compare to the bird in the field. It includes an amazing amount of info on varying plumages, habits, etc.

This is a very good illustrated guide to birds. It is small enough to take in the field and fit in some back pockets. This is a fine guide,easy to use and size makes it convenient for carrying into the field. This would be very helpful in places where people live and bird.

Why We Like This:

Physical book construction is top notch
Covers all stages of the birds seasonal changes
Book size is manageable and useful
A must have for birders east of the rockies

Best For An EX boy Scout: Matt Kracht Bird Field Guide

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If you are currently in the market looking for a popular guide for your daily purpose, you cannot go wrong with the matt kracht bird field guide. This little book is a perfect stocking stuffer. It's a satisfyingly detailed parody of those Peterson's guides that have been around for decades, complete with illustrations and extra sections. As long as you're comfortable with the R-rated language sprinkled liberally throughout, you'll love the capsule descriptions of the "Western Meadowjerk", the "Dullard" (a Mallard duck) and the "American Goldfink.

The cover is flexible but sturdy, the pages are thick and hearty, and the binding is strong enough to endure many returned visits. It gets repetitious with the continued use of swear words in the names and descriptions of the birds in an attempt to elicit humor. The colour illustrations are hilarious, accurate and slightly unrefined on purpose. It also makes for a terrific coffee table book and conversation piece.

Why We Like This:

More entertainment than field guide, but could be useful for beginners
Fun little book with insulting yet humorous bird descriptions accompanied by comical illustrations
Great book for guests to discover
Funny and entertaining book about bird identification