The 10 Best Peterson Bird Guides (2023 reviews)

We consider a peterson bird 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.

Our review process: Show/Hide

Our Top Picks:

Best Overall: Buy: Roger Tory Peterson Great Field Guide READ REVIEW

Best Field Guide: Buy: David Allen Sibley Peterson Bird Guide READ REVIEW

Best For Bird watch: Buy: Roger Tory Peterson Bird Guide READ REVIEW

Best Guide: Buy: bill Thompson III Peterson Bird Guide READ REVIEW

Best For experts: Buy: Roger Tory Peterson Institute Peterson Bird Guide READ REVIEW

Best wildflower Field Guide: Buy: Margaret Mckenny Peterson Bird Guide READ REVIEW

Best little Guide: Buy: Casey Mcfarland Peterson Bird Guide READ REVIEW

Best Pocket Guide: Buy: Opler Peterson Bird Guide READ REVIEW

Best For New Birders With A technical background: Buy: Nathan Pieplow Peterson Bird Guide READ REVIEW

Best budget: Buy: mark Elbroch Peterson Bird Guide READ REVIEW

Best Overall: Roger Tory Peterson Great Field Guide

Buy on Amazon

Roger Tory Peterson line of guide come in a pretty wide variety of styles, so you can definitely find one that suits your individual preferences and needs. This Peterson Guide to birds of the North American east and central areas is excellent for identifying birds and where they are found. It features a descriptive blurb to aid in identification, using language beginners can understand. It's nice that it has information about which birds are similar to the bird you're looking at to help identify them more accurately. All species also have range maps, so you can rule out species easily when identifying in the field.

This edition is formatted in a very easy-to-use format. It is well organized and provides good information about what features to look at in a bird in order to identify tricky species. The difference is primarily in the back section of range maps, which has almost doubled in size. This can be a hassle, since you have to flip back and forth between a bird's descriptions/drawing and that bird's range map.

• Make fun and educational viewing on a computer desktop or mp3 player
• Can play tricks and make the birds look different than they really are
• Illustrations are good and easy to follow

Best Field Guide: David Allen Sibley Peterson Bird Guide

Buy on Amazon

The david allen sibley peterson bird guide gives the top-tier guide a run for their money by offering flagship specs at a much more affordable price. This guide book is perfect for anyone who wants to learn more about birds of the North East. It provides enough detail to make a positive identification. It is a great guide to positively identify birds of eastern north america. It has all updated range maps, beautifully drawn plates of birds showing all significant plumages, male, female, juvenile and adults, morphology, birds in flight and more.

The Eastern Guide, with its small pocket-sized format, is ideal for Canadian field use. This is such a great field guide, highly recommended for anyone that wants to get into birding. The descriptions and identifiers for distinguishing similar species are pretty good.

• Great book, very informative with vivid pictures
• Perfect birding book for backyard birder
• New and hot release

Best For Bird watch: Roger Tory Peterson Bird Guide

Buy on Amazon

The roger tory peterson peterson bird guide is suitable and reliable and fits well with your daily usage. There is no better way to learn to distinguish similar species than with this system. This guide is a combination of the previously separate eastern and western peterson guides. There are range maps next to each entry but there is a large portion at the end of the book dedicated to range maps for subspecies. The addition of range maps on the plates saves the flipping back and forth to check a bird is within range or not. It has features for easy field identification.

This combined edition is complete and includes birds from the East and West and is updated for newly introduced species. The increased size means that the plates are less crowded, and the art can be reproduced in a larger size. It is a book to be enjoyed by all, even folks who are not birders, they will soon become excited to enter the world of birding.

• Heavy stock glossy paper, good quality printing
• Would be heavy to carry in the field
• Large, easy to see illustrations, distinguishing bird characteristics are pointed out for you

Best Guide: bill Thompson III Peterson Bird Guide

Buy on Amazon

The bill thompson iii peterson bird guide should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. It's a great book for ALL birders, not just Young ones. It's certainly the most fun to look at. It is carefully written so as to neither patronize young readers, nor to be too far over their heads. It's also very intelligently organized to almost any habitat except the deep woods and the open grasslands.

This is a great starter book for kids, or for a newbie Birder. It is readable, portable, durable, and complete enough to satisfy most bird lovers who are interested in the birds in their backyards and local woods. It's a great book for adults too, not juvenile at all. It will be easy for novices to graduate from this title to more extensive guides.

• Easy to use and lots of interesting and useful info
• Marvelous book for beginners in ornithology
• Wonderful for young birders of any age

Best For experts: Roger Tory Peterson Institute Peterson Bird Guide

Buy on Amazon

We know from years of feedback from readers, customers and amazon sellers, what most people want in a convenient and appropriate guide. The roger tory peterson institute peterson bird guide is exactly that - it's a simple guide that hits all the right notes. It's a great, great book that every person who loves birds should have in their library. It provides an excellent foundation for the aspiring birder. It has wonderful color plates of birds, good field mark descriptions, brief range listings, but no maps showing species ranges. It has a physical description of coloration and markings, a description of the habitats where they are likely to be found, their geographic distribution, notes on their song and any similar species when applicable.

These have binoculars and the peterson guide in hand. It's organized in a very logical way. This is a fantastic companion on family trips, especially those that are out of your normal realm.

• Very detailed book with a lot of descriptions of various types of birds
• Great, easy to follow book for bird watchers
• Birding book for amateur bird watching

Best wildflower Field Guide: Margaret Mckenny Peterson Bird Guide

Buy on Amazon

The margaret mckenny peterson bird guide is satisfactory and appropriate and fits well with your daily usage. The advantage of the botanical drawings instead of the photograph is that the drawing often represents the key characteristics better than a photograph. It is easy to find the flower you are trying to identify. The black and white illustrations are not bothersome since you already know the flower color, and line drawings show key characteristics clearly. The drawings and field marks are good.

This book is great for quick identification. The book utilizes helpful icons, which are featured at the top of all the descriptive pages for quick thumb-through reference. The flowers are grouped first by color, then by structure, making it a good reference for beginner or professional. It’s a very nice book and very informative.

• Very detailed with a huge variety of flowers
• Delivers what they promise

Best little Guide: Casey Mcfarland Peterson Bird Guide

Buy on Amazon

Casey Mcfarland has been making great guide for years, thanks to a combination of clever design and appropriate materials. If you’ve ever found an egg or a bird nest or interested in birds, get this book. It is possible to find nests of practically every species. This book is not only amazingly beautiful and well-organized, but it's also an impressive piece of scholarship and research by the authors. It includes wonderful descriptions and all kinds of information about birds and bird behavior. It’s a nice book to have to identify nests if you find one without the bird nearby.

This book is a must-have for any naturalist, educator, birder, outdoor enthusiast or bird-curious folk. It’s a beautiful book to look at and extraordinary in its detailed information about a critical aspect of the lives of birds. The photographs are gorgeous and the text well-written.

• Well researched, well written, well organized, and well, awesome
• A treasure trove of stunning photos and descriptive detail
• Very complete accounts of each species' nest
• Very well organized and easy to use

Best Pocket Guide: Opler Peterson Bird Guide

Buy on Amazon

Opler line of guide come in a pretty wide variety of styles, so you can definitely find one that suits your individual preferences and needs. The Peterson's guides are a must have for anyone to spend time outdoors and want to be aware of the flora and fauna around. This newly designed field guide features descriptions of 524 species of butterflies. It gives very good descriptions with beautiful color pictures and even has pics of different kinds of caterpillars. The guide goes over photography, butterfly habits, and collecting and raising butterflies. It'll be interesting to see the butterflies that the recipient can identify using this book.

The butterflies are described according to range, size, and habitat, and there is typically some discussion of the insects' identifying peculiarities. This is suitable for afternoons in the garden to identify almost anything that flies by. For books in this series, this is a good place for the beginner (and experienced) naturalists to turn for information.

• Include information on butterfly gardening, habitats, and conservation
• Excellent source for identification, location, and season they are around
• Gives a basic knowledge of butterflies

Best For New Birders With A technical background: Nathan Pieplow Peterson Bird Guide

Buy on Amazon

Compared with other guide in this category, the nathan pieplow peterson bird guide has a convenient design. This Bird Book is especially good for new birders with a technical background. This book has detailed descriptions of the different calls each species makes, as well as their spectrograph images. It is a great collection of spectra. For a new birder with experience in sound, this guide is much more useful than the traditional descriptions of bird songs and calls. It is good for new birders with a technical background.

• Really helps with birding by ear
• Good investment for long term

Best budget: mark Elbroch Peterson Bird Guide

Buy on Amazon

Compared with other guide in this category, the mark elbroch peterson bird guide has a cost-effective design. Elbroch is knowledgeable and an actual tracker with hard experience and a passion for natural science. This book doesn’t teach you how to identify tracks and signs, but it supplies the critical knowledge necessary for finding and interpreting them. It includes information on daily and seasonal activity, food and foraging, home range and habitat, communication, courtship and mating, development and dispersal of young, interactions with their own species, and interactions with other species. It will provide the “why” that is so important to understanding the bits and pieces you observe directly and indirectly through tracks and signs in the field.

This book has accurate information in a well laid out format that makes it easy to use as a reference book or a general reading book. It is called nocturnal, and if active during the day, diurnal.

• The ultimate guide to tracking animals
• A must for the wildlife enthusiast
• Fills a different set of gaps in tracking books
• Great photos & illustrations accompany the text of every entry