Field guides - recommendations?

[ELaurie]

We live in the midwest.

[Eliana]

We have a number of different guides we like. Here are a few of our most loved. (and most used!)

We have a lot of Peterson Field Guides for Young Naturalists. (We also have a few of their 'regular' guides as well.) They are simple, straightforward and relatively easy for a little person to use. Here's an Amazon link for the "songbirds' guide:

http://www.amazon.com/Songbirds-Peterson-Field-Guides-Naturalists/dp/0613280792/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205639567&sr=1-3

We have about a dozen Audubon Field Guides. My kids love to look through these, and my older kids get use out of them 'in the field'. Here's the Guice to the Night Sky:

http://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-Field-Guide/dp/0679408525/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205639801&sr=1-6


We also have Audubon Society Pocket Guides, but most of those I used to make flashcards when my eldest was tiny. I didn't think they would work well for field use, but they have fabulous photos and decent info:

http://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-Familiar-Flowers/dp/0394748433/ref=pd_sim_b_title_1


The Sibley Field Guide for birds is my absolute favorite (I have Birding basics and the Guide to Bird Life and Behavior as well - and they are also wonderful resources!)


Are you looking for any particular subject? We have some other subject-specific favorites...

[MichelleWI]

There are different types of field guides.

Considering the ages of your children, I recommend Fun With Nature (http://www.amazon.com/Fun-Nature-Take-Along-Guide-Boring/dp/1559717025/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205640479&sr=8-1) as well as the second book called More Fun With Nature (http://www.amazon.com/More-Fun-Nature/dp/1559717955/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205640479&sr=8-2). My children greatly enjoy both books. In fact, we need a new copy of Fun With Nature because the binding has fallen apart.

We like the National Audubon Society Field Guides (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/103-9388183-5796663?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=National+Audubon+Society+Field+Guide&x=0&y=0), too. Several of those are region-specific.

Sibley's Birding Basics (http://www.amazon.com/Sibleys-Birding-Basics-David-Sibley/dp/0375709665/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205640818&sr=8-1) is another well-worn favorite here. It shows depictions of the wings of birds in flight so you can learn to distinguish one bird from another when shape is your only clue to identification because of the sun.

I know we have a few more favorites, but they have apparently migrated off the shelves and up to the children's bedrooms. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to look for them. :)

[ELaurie]

Elaina and Michelle,

These look like wonderful suggestions!

I have a friend who is an avid bird watcher and she has offered to accompany us as we observe the spring migrations in our area!

I have More Fun With Nature, and plan to add Fun With Nature as well as a book about bird watching and books about trees and wildflowers in our area.

Looking forward to Spring!

Thanks again,

[MichelleWI]

I'm sorry for my redundant post. I was typing while Elaina posted. I see our recommendations are very similar.

I think we might invest in a few Peterson's Field Guides this year, Elaina. We've heard much good about them, but the only copy we've had came to us used and didn't hold up to the rigorous use such books see in our house.

[ELaurie]

I appreciate your "redundant" post : )

When two or more people recommend the same books, I feel increased confidence in selecting them for our use!

[Eliana]

For many of these books Amazon has the 'look inside' feature, so you can see the page layout, images, and type of information in each guide.

You might want to see if there is a bird book specifically for your city. (We have a fabulous one just for Seattle that tells us which birds we can see at which parks.) Your local Audubon society might have at least a birder's list for the area/city...

If your kids are interested, you might want to try some of the bird call CDs - my mother owns a bunch of these and they are wonderful!

[ELaurie]

I had no idea there were bird call CD's!

We're members of the Chicago Botanic Gardens and our membership includes access to the local Arboretum and nature centers as well. I will ask someone there for advice about books specific to our area before I buy them. Thank you for the suggestion!

[MichelleWI]

I forgot one of our favorite books: Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song (http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Songs-North-American-Birds/dp/1932855416/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205725565&sr=8-1).

I also should have remembered to mention eNature.com (http://enature.com/home/) as an online source.

The Advanced Search feature is excellent, including the option to search for birds and animals specific to your region. We have listened to the recorded bird calls to help us identify unseen but noisy newcomers to our neighborhood.

We've also used the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (http://www.birds.cornell.edu/) website.

Our preference is certainly to have books and guides in hand, but sometimes our home library doesn't answer our questions and we resort to the internet.

[Eliana]

We've also used the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (http://www.birds.cornell.edu/) website.


I have, and *love*, their ornithology text - I went through it for my own pleasure a few years ago. (Pause, while I find the actual title...)

Handbook of Bird Biology:

http://www.amazon.com/Cornell-Ornithology-Handbook-Bird-Biology/dp/093802762X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205726349&sr=1-1

I tried using their site (and a couple of others), but, despite the wonderful info out there, it didn't work for me as a reference tool... but the kids got a kick out of some of it, so it certainly wasn't wasted time!


Mmmm..I just added the Bird Songs book to my Amazon wishlist.... one of my 6 yr olds is doing a lot of bird watching now, and I think she would love this - thank you for mentioning it!!!

PS *How* do you get the titles to act as links? Is it just the way you would do it in HTML, or is there a trick to doing it here?

[ELaurie]

I never cease to be amazed by what's available on the web!

Thanks for posting more great suggestions!

[ELaurie]

Now this is a question I can answer :001_smile:

Type your title, highlight it, and click the icon that looks like a globe. A dialogue box will pop up; enter the web address, click OK and :auto:

[Eliana]

Now this is a question I can answer :001_smile:

Type your title, highlight it, and click the icon that looks like a globe. A dialogue box will pop up; enter the web address, click OK and :auto:


*Lightbulb goes on above my head*

Aaah! I really should have explored all those little icons....

Thank you, Laurie!