I am travelling on a whirl wind tour of North American in August, across the south of the continent from LA to Miami before heading to Alaska. I am hoping people have some advice on what bird guide best covers America in it entirety. I have seen online that most series now have a accompanying electronic guide. I have read that the national geographic series and the Sibley series are quite good. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!!! Also information on bird sites are also welcome. Thanks Brendan Cook
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This reminds me to mention the Santa Cruz Bird Club. If you work your way up the coast of California, Santa Cruz is part way up the beautiful Monterey Bay. The Santa Cruz club runs fantastic outings to all sorts of destinations in the area both in-land and coastal:
http://www.santacruzbirdclub.org/Calendar_of_Events.html
There’s a lot more of interest than birds in the area but the birds are really first rate all through central coastal California, and the birders there are supremely well organized. If your’e there in the winter, see about getting inland for the Sandhill Cranes. If you are heading that way, consider joining the local Monterey bird mailing list:
http://lists.pbsci.ucsc.edu/mailman/listinfo/mbb
Folks can help you with sight suggestions (Elkhorn Slough!), specific birds (California Condor!) and unusual sightings for the area (Brown Boobies, Skimmers, etc.) There are just so many good birds and animals in the Monterey-Silicon Valley, including lots of alcids, loons, scoters, grebes, ducks, geese, raptors, warblers, hummingbirds…the list goes on an on. You have a chance of seeing migrating Grey Whales, Sea Otters (readily seen), Northern Elephant Seal (they’re at Ano Nuevo and you have to buy tickets for the reserve), various sorts of other seals, Coyote, Bobcat (not commonly seen but commonish), squirrels and so on. There are Puma/Cougar in the hills but they’re not easily seen. If you find half a deer lying around though, you know a Cougar was there….
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Hi,
I want to endorse one of David’s comments below: “check out local bird club outings where you plan to go. They can be just fantastic and very friendly.”
I was visiting San Francisco for a conference a couple of years ago. I got in touch with the Sacramento Audubon who I discovered were running a field trip to the Sierra Valley that weekend. Really friendly group and knowledgeable leaders who were really happy for me to join for the day. For birds, scenery and company it ranks up there in the collection of “best birding days”.
[if anyone interested, my report and photos at http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~ian/Birding/Reports/California_2010.pdf and https://picasaweb.google.com/115738510013418169108/California respectively]
Cheers, Ian
Since you’re doing to be over there for some time and visiting a lot of areas, the advice you’ve gotten is very good:
* Sibley for the outstanding drawings. * Nat Geo as it’s easier to use in the field. * iBird Pro for an app as it’s got a great collection of pictures, sounds and plates. * I also like the Sibley app as I can then carry it around more places. * There are numerous family guides to harder families, like warblers, waders and raptors. Worth it, for sure, if you’ve got an interest in any of those groups.
For site guides and locations, also check out local bird club outings where you plan to go. They can be just fantastic and very friendly.
Apart from Buteo, the LA Audubon society runs a decent bookstore.
http://www.losangelesaudubon.org/store/ ===============================
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I second Nikolas’ recommendation. Having a Yankee husband, we regularly visit his family (though they don’t always understand why we sometimes visit during warbler migration time and not Fourth of July holiday time). Having both those books is a good idea (Sibley especially for those puzzling sparrows and gulls). If you have an iphone, Audubon has a good field guide “app” with maps, photos and calls etc as does iBird Pro. Texas is an odd-shaped large state with many habitats and lots of neat birds. And lots of cheerfully crazy people. In LA the people are just plain crazy. Helen
< ')/////==< ________________________________ Sent: Sunday, 24 March 2013, 22:37 Brendan, If you are not familiar with the American avifauna I'd recommend to bring the 'big' Sibley and the 5th or 6th edition of the National Geographic field guide. The former is more comprehensive regarding the drawings, the latter regarding the texts. For bird sites I would use the ABA bird finding guides. Cheers, Nikolas http://www.sibleyguides.com/about/the-sibley-guide-to-birds/
http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/product/books/animals-and-nature/animals-and-wildlife/national-geographic-field-guide-to-the-birds-of-north-america
https://www.aba.org/siteguides/
I would second the recommendation for the big Sibley and Nat. Geo (most recent edition). For an app version I prefer IBird Pro, as I think it has the best interface and is easiest to use.
Finding guides are a bit tougher, as the ABA finding guides are not available everywhere. However, I would check out the ABA book store, run by Buteo books to see what is available. There is a good guide for Alaska that has been revised recently and Florida. There is not that much in date for California. Joe Morlan has a website for California (google his name) that has a great county by county coverage for California. Many birding clubs, Audubon societies, etc, will have online resources for their areas. Other things you might find useful are E-bird, which you can use to find out what birds are found where when, and an App called Birdseye, which you can use to identify good birding spots in your area and what is currently being seen nearby.
Hope this helps.
Eric Jeffrey Falls Church, VA USA
In a message dated 3/24/2013 1:59:51 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, nhaass@yahoo.com writes:
Brendan,
If you are not familiar with the American avifauna I’d recommend to bring the ‘big’ Sibley and the 5th or 6th edition of the National Geographic field guide. The former is more comprehensive regarding the drawings, the latter regarding the texts. For bird sites I would use the ABA bird finding guides.
Cheers,
Nikolas
http://www.sibleyguides.com/about/the-sibley-guide-to-birds/
http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/product/books/animals-and-nature/anim als-and-wildlife/national-geographic-field-guide-to-the-birds-of-north-ameri ca
https://www.aba.org/siteguides/
Brendan,
If you are not familiar with the American avifauna I’d recommend to bring the ‘big’ Sibley and the 5th or 6th edition of the National Geographic field guide. The former is more comprehensive regarding the drawings, the latter regarding the texts. For bird sites I would use the ABA bird finding guides.
Cheers,
Nikolas
http://www.sibleyguides.com/about/the-sibley-guide-to-birds/
http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/product/books/animals-and-nature/animals-and-wildlife/national-geographic-field-guide-to-the-birds-of-north-america
https://www.aba.org/siteguides/
6 years ago my late husband and I lived in the Deep South for 8 months. We also travelled extensively in the US throughout that time.
I found the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America the most helpful. Although I also used The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America.
There are a great number of apps available now which were not around then. Peterson Birds of North America, Audubon Birds, Audubon Owls etc.
Birdwatching magazine has some interesting articles, and can be searched retrospectively. (There is a vg article there about Malleefowl). I found Birdingpal/org good as well.
Larry Manfredi from South Florida Birding is based in Miami, so give yourself some time there!
Cheers, Judy Leitch