The 10 Best Bird Identification Guides (2023 reviews)

We consider a bird identification guide to be a worthy investment in the long run. We are here to help you choose the right one for your needs from all the best available products in market today.

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Our Top Picks:

Best Overall: Buy: National Audubon Society Bird Identification Guide READ REVIEW

Best For experienced Bird watchers: Buy: Chris Earley Bird Identification Guide READ REVIEW

Best Field Guide: Buy: Jonathan Alderfer Bird Identification Guide READ REVIEW

Best For beginner Bird: Buy: Edward s Brinkley Bird Identification Guide READ REVIEW

Best For photographers: Buy: Roger Tory Peterson Bird Identification Guide READ REVIEW

Best For New Bird watcher: Buy: David Allen Sibley Pocket Guide READ REVIEW

Best Eastern US Bird Guide: Buy: David Allen Sibley Bird Identification Guide READ REVIEW

Best For Eastern half Of North America: Buy: Jon L Dunn Bird Identification Guide READ REVIEW

Best For lovers: Buy: Stan Tekiela Bird Identification Guide READ REVIEW

Best Quick Guide: Buy: Stan Tekiela feeder Bird READ REVIEW

Best Overall: National Audubon Society Bird Identification Guide

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The national audubon society bird identification guide is capable of outshining several other guide featured in this list in overall features. Field guides are the best resource book. This National Audubon Society field guide for birds has lots and lots of nice, but small, photos of birds. It fits in a large pocket while the thick but flexible plastic cover protects it. The plates are grouped by family which makes basic identification easy.

The bird is pictured from only one angle to one angle. It's really good for studying birds when sitting indoors, but the big Sibley guide is the best for identification. The color plates are beautiful and descriptions are great. It is certainly priced right.

• Good for beginner and novice alike
• Best bird book,with with photos, not paintings
• Audubon's field guide to eastern birds

Best For experienced Bird watchers: Chris Earley Bird Identification Guide

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The chris earley bird identification guide might be a relatively new release, but it's still nothing short of impressive this year. The scope of birds is pretty ambitious, they have pretty much every bird that is common to feeders somewhere in North America, giving them nice one page entries in most cases and always give good basic information and range maps. This book has glossy pages and is full of beautiful, full-color photos. There is a great spread to help you narrow a bird to a family such as dove or blackbird. It is quite visual and invites people to browse through its pages.

What this does, though, is spend a lot of time on feeder birds, with a brief depiction of a lot of other way less common birds, in case you see something weird. Each highlighted species is given a full page with multiple color photos to help you identify them and to distinguish from other birds with similar characteristics. There are amusing personal anecdotes and a friendly, personal style to the writing that makes it very readable. This book is an absolute MUST for bird lovers.

• Excellent book for a backyard bird identification
• Techniques, things to watch out for, and best practices are outlined neatly
• New and hot release

Best Field Guide: Jonathan Alderfer Bird Identification Guide

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Next on the list, we've got yet another guide that manages to win our hearts. It's the jonathan alderfer bird identification guide and it's widely considered as one of the best convenient guide you can buy. An index on the inside back cover makes finding birds quick if you know what species and group you are seeing. This is an excellent book for all levels of birding or birdwatching. It is perfect for beginners and professinals alike.

The National Geographic guide has full-colour, accurate and detailed artist renderings of the birds, mostly with some element of their likely habitiat. The cover-flaps' quick indexes to families and species are a great idea, doubling as reliable book-marks when you've got to take another look at the bird. These are clear and informative, and they are accompanied by text and pointers that indicate identification keys. It allows for slightly larger range maps. It would make a great gift for anyone interested in birds.

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

Best For beginner Bird: Edward s Brinkley Bird Identification Guide

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Edward S Brinkley makes beautiful and great guide with classic and smartly choosen materials. The Field Guide to Birds of North America is extremely helpful in identifying the local birds and their range. It is so thick and tight that it is impossible to open the pages widely enough to read the entire page with any ease. It usually gives songs and calls info for each type of bird, so you can use what you hear to help identify the birds.

This is really too big to be a field guide, more like a campsite or back-home reference than a carry-along ID book. It is perfect for anyone regardless of age or birding skill. Each group has a different color bar printed across the top of each page to show you're in a different type of bird group, but for a newbie, there doesn't seem to be any reason for how the book is ordered.

• The right size and depth of material
• Larger size pics in different poses really a plus in identifying birds
• Very useful for the quick look up of the feathery friend

Best For photographers: Roger Tory Peterson Bird Identification Guide

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The roger tory peterson bird identification guide should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. There are many field guide options, and every birder has a favorite. This one helps you identify the bird by asking a few questions and then presents a series of likely birds for you to consider. The guide features peterson’s wonderful paintings which show the idealized bird, with distinctive field marks, like a bright eye stripe, highlighted by an arrow. The illustrations are clear, and show different aspects, ie, immature birds, winter/summer foliage, male and female species.

The binding and covers are more substantial. It includes a written description and range maps too. The hand drawn pictures of the birds are beautiful and have identifying marks and other characteristics clearly defined. It's a manageable size to tuck anywhere where you can grab it quickly. It's a great book to identify and learn about different types.

• Easy to view categories of birds
• Plastic cover will preserve it on hikes
• Perfect for beginners and experienced birders alike

Best For New Bird watcher: David Allen Sibley Pocket Guide

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The david allen sibley pocket guide is suitable and reliable and fits well with your daily purpose. The Sibley Guide to Birds is a beautifully well done book for beginners or experts. It covers everything one needs to have. Yeah, it’s big, but has a durable flexible cover. The pictures and photos are wonderful for ADVANCED BIRDERS THAT LOOK AT BIRDS IN THE FIELD. This is the most useful and comprehensive bird book out. It is great bird book for beginners or experts. It is constructed with a heavy glossy cover. If you have any interest in identifying the birds at your feeders in the morning this is a great book to start with. This volume is a "MUST HAVE" for anyone serious about birding.

• Easy to use good for beginners
• Are extremely accurate and lifelike, in typical sibley style
• Perfecct gift for anyone with a bird enthusiast in their family

Best Eastern US Bird Guide: David Allen Sibley Bird Identification Guide

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Next on the list, we've got yet another guide that manages to win our hearts. It's the david allen sibley bird identification guide and it's widely considered as guide that has the most suitable features. This guide book is perfect for anyone who wants to learn more about birds of the North East. The Eastern Guide, with its small pocket-sized format, is ideal for Canadian field use. It includes an amazing amount of info on varying plumages, habits, etc. It provides enough detail to make a positive identification.

This Sibley book has color drawings of birds, and is also helpful because it directly compares differences in genders and species. It has a lot of different angles on birds and flight views which are cool. It is easy to use for beginners and with sufficient depth for more advanced birders. The illustrations are beautiful and will be a great help with identifying new species.

• A must have for birders east of the rockies
• Perfect birding book for backyard birder
• Very informative for birding and leaning about the birds in the area

Best For Eastern half Of North America: Jon L Dunn Bird Identification Guide

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Next on the list, we've got yet another guide that manages to win our hearts. It's the jon l dunn bird identification guide and it's widely considered as one of the best convenient guide you can buy. It's an excellent field guide which contains artist drawings of the bird, with good adolescent and off breeding season drawings. It features, and new drawings make this the best guide yet. It’s easy for older eyes to read. The drawings are less crowded and better organized on the page, there are pointers with text highlighting key field marks, and narratives and extra drawings for difficult identification problems have been added.

There are several different pics of each bird, the range map is on the same page as the bird and there are easy thumb tabs on the binding for quickly getting to a section. This speeds up the identification process and improves on the classical(arrows only) Peterson concept, which is also in use by Kaufman. The range maps for each bird are also super useful.

• Drawings are among the clearest for differentiating birds
• Excellent field guide, has all artist drawn images
• Good investment for long term

Best For lovers: Stan Tekiela Bird Identification Guide

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Next on the list, we've got yet another guide that manages to win our hearts. It's the stan tekiela bird identification guide and it's widely considered as one of the best convenient guide you can buy. It is great way to find birds. It provides helpful, trusted information—from observation tips to bird anatomy. The display of information, ease of access and quality or descriptions is absolutely wonderful. It is simple and fun with species organized by color. The glue binding the spine separated from the pages for over half the book, meaning the pages are only held in by the thin thread.

The order and color coding makes this super easy to find birds. It is easy to read and it is laminated to protect it.

• Very descriptive and helpful as it's organized by the primary color of the bird
• Perfect for a novice bird watcher
• New and hot release

Best Quick Guide: Stan Tekiela feeder Bird

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If you are currently in the market searching for a popular guide for your regular usage, stan tekiela feeder bird is the best choice. It is an award-winning author, naturalist, and wildlife photographer. It provides helpful, trusted information—from observation tips to bird anatomy. It is easy to find the birds because the author has selected them by color. It is great for a new bird watcher. The pages and cover are nice and glossy, and really shows off the color of the birds. It is easy to use for novice birders.

• Identifying birds is simple and fun with species organized by color
• Great book for a bird watcher
• New and hot release