The 8 Best Field Guides To Western Bird (2023 reviews)

The jonathan alderfer field guide to western bird should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. The National Geographic guide has full-colour, accurate and detailed artist renderings of the birds, mostly with some element of their likely habitiat. The thumb tabs and the visual index makes it easy to find what page you are looking for. It is easy to navigate and distinguish between species and even juveniles to adults. The Thumb tabs mark the larger families to help readers orient themselves in the book block.

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. There are range maps on the same page as each species, and the maps are easy to read. This is an excellent book for all levels of birding or birdwatching. It would make a great gift for anyone interested in birds.

Why We Like This:

Definitely small enough to take with you on trips
Excellent field guide, highly recommend for both backyard birding or birding trips
Small and lightweight so you can carry along on your adventure

Best Field Guide: UDVARDY Field Guide To Western Bird

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The udvardy field guide to western bird's superior materials makes sure that it ages well with use. The Audubon guides are definitely a step up from the Peterson and Stokes guides. It is designed to encourage rapid visual classification, it is organized by shape, color and pattern, field marks, relative size, and behavior. Most of the color plates show adult males, but some distinctive females and juveniles are also shown, along with seasonal changes in plumage.

This field guide only tells the birds in western regions of north america. It is great to take on road trips and easy to use. There is a pre-photo index of silhouettes, and thumbprint-sized silhouettes are also featured on the center edge of the photo pages for quick-flipping reference. The colors are outstanding and the pictures are complete in detail. It is organized but for field identification, it is ideal.

Why We Like This:

Excellent descriptions of birds, and habitat
Easy to find for beginner bird watchers especially
Very easy to use in the field
Easy to use but primarily for quick reference which is fine

Best Eastern US Bird Guide: David Allen Sibley Field Guide To Western Bird

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Compared with other guide in this category, the david allen sibley field guide to western bird has a convenient design. 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. This field guide is great for pointing out small details in the species, and the illustrations are beautifully done and clear.

This is a fine guide,easy to use and size makes it convenient for carrying into the field. It is easy to use for beginners and with sufficient depth for more advanced birders. The illustrations are top notch, presented well-so you can tell the difference between species and confusing birds. The book is a great guide to birding for photographers.

Why We Like This:

Book size is manageable and useful
Covers all stages of the birds seasonal changes
Expanded descriptions and updates are very well done and useful
A little crimped, but still able to flip through and perfectly legible

Best For North America: Jon L Dunn Field Guide To Western Bird

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The jon l dunn field guide to western bird should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. It is the best birding book that one could have. It is easy to find a bird if you know what you are looking for. The BOOK has a lot of great info and the way it is laid out in the book, easy to find. It's a great book with excellent information, portable for field identification, and with illustrations that show notable markings in a simple, useful way, but what is up with the maps.

The cover and pages of the book have a nice feel and quality to them. These maps are a hot mess at best, and that's a big part of what makes a field guide useful. If you know what your bird call is so you know where to start, this is a good book for identification. It is great to start out learning and identifying.

Why We Like This:

Combines all the best features (and then some) from all the best field guides
Organized by color and shape makes for easy look-ups
Perfect gift for the western united states birder
Good book for beginner to advanced bird watchers

Best photo Field Guide: Donald Stokes Field Guide To Western Bird

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The donald stokes field guide to western bird is suitable and reliable and fits well with your daily purpose. This new series from Donald and Lilian Stokes sets a new standard for Western Field Guides. It offers birders the most up-to-date information on field identification of north american birds currently available. The Eastern and Western editions of "The Stokes Field Guide to Birds" contain the birds you are likely to see in your region.

The Range maps are very helpful and colored as to summer, winter and migratory ranges. While the photographs capture the birds in amazing detail the excellent choices the Stokes have made to show regional, time of year, and age differences between sub-species make these guides a joy to use.

These photos are chosen with care to be as representative as possible and there are a lot of photos for each bird, too, like the guides with drawings, examples are provided for gender/season/age when helpful for the species. It comes with other guides you are lucky to get a single drawing or maybe a written description. The regional identifications are a huge plus over other books.

Why We Like This:

Great bird guide for the western region
One of the best field guides for western birds
Most accurate and detailed birding guides available
Excellent photos, chock-full of info., and very user-friendly

Best For Western Bird: Roger Tory Peterson Institute Field Guide To Western Bird

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If you are searching for a satisfactory guide for your daily usage, roger tory peterson institute field guide to western bird is the ultimate decision. Roger Troy Peterson's books provide accurate identification methods for birds and is used daily. It is "the bird book" to have for western birds for the novice and experienced birder alike. Peterson's drawings encapsulate the essence of the bird, making them easier to identify compared with photos, which show a specific bird at a specific time.

It is a tremdous book with color photos, details and habitats of the birds in the Southwest. They include summer and winter variations, juvenile plumages and birds in flight. It is slightly irritating to have the maps in a separate section at the end but this must aid the concise nature of the book. The maps in the back also help you determine if it is possible to be seeing these birds in your back yard. It is not a full field guide and does not give details of habitat but it has all the essentials for identification.

Why We Like This:

Color photos and a wide variety of birds included
Great pictures and easy to identify birds
Nice size book, complete, with good range maps

Best For trees Of Western North America: Petrides Field Guide To Western Bird

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For a low asking price, petrides field guide to western bird has managed to overwhelm their customers by packing as many features as they could. It is a great field guide for trees located in the western united states. It can be used by native americans to waterproof woven bottles and to cement turquoise jewelry. It has heavy, glossy paper which makes it very heavy to carry in the field. It is compact, but the photos are clear and full color. There are also clear directions on how to find the tree you are looking for, and the area it is normally found in. It is also good for iding native trees in western north america.

Why We Like This:

Great photos, illustrations, id methodologies, and maps
Delivers what they promise

Best For New Birders With A technical background: Nathan Pieplow Field Guide To Western Bird

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The nathan pieplow field guide to western bird should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. This Bird Book is especially good for new birders with a technical background. It is a great collection of spectra. This book has detailed descriptions of the different calls each species makes, as well as their spectrograph images. This guide is much more useful than the traditional descriptions of bird songs and calls. For a new birder with experience in sound, this guide is much more useful than the traditional descriptions of bird songs and calls.

Why We Like This:

Really helps with birding by ear
One of the new comers and featured product

The 8 Best Field Guides To Western Bird (2023 reviews)

Our Top Picks:

Best Overall: Jonathan Alderfer Field Guide To Western Bird

Best Field Guide: UDVARDY Field Guide To Western Bird

Best Eastern US Bird Guide: David Allen Sibley Field Guide To Western Bird

Best For North America: Jon L Dunn Field Guide To Western Bird

Best photo Field Guide: Donald Stokes Field Guide To Western Bird

Best For Western Bird: Roger Tory Peterson Institute Field Guide To Western Bird

Best For trees Of Western North America: Petrides Field Guide To Western Bird

Best For New Birders With A technical background: Nathan Pieplow Field Guide To Western Bird

8 Best Stoke Field Guides To Bird

5 Best Peterson Bird Guides