Just saying hi

[nxylas]

I've been on DU for a while, but have only just discovered this group. I was seriously into birdwatching when I was a teenager, but it kind of got pushed out by other interests over the years. 5 years ago, I moved from England to the US and moving to a new continent has reawakened my interest, because of all the new species that I get to see on a regular basis. I love the fact that you have such colorful garden birds here, like cardinals or blue jays, whereas the British Isles only have boring ones like sparrows and starlings. Of course, you have sparrows and starlings here too, but only because European settlers introduced them. I can't for the life of me figure out why - I mean, I totally get that expats sometimes get homesick, but homesick for sparrows? I initially moved to Hilton Head Island, SC, but now live in Columbia. Hilton Head was great for birding, with Pickney Island nature reserve right next door. It was pretty cool seing things like ibises and pelicans, that I had only seen in zoos before. Anyway, that's me. Hello everybody. :hi:

[Maestro]

1. Welcome!

Lots of good birding here in the States! Review and play our bird guessing game to get even more familiar with some different species.

[ailsagirl]

2. Hello back!! :=) And welcome

[XemaSab]

3. Hi!

Yeah, our birds kick ass. :D

[nxylas]

4. Thanks for the welcome

Can anyone recommend a good field guide, to help me identify species I don't recognize? I used to have a great guide to British birds that had a very detailed section listing several features and breaking them down into colors and sizes. For example, if you saw a medium-sized black bird with a grey nape, you could look in the section marked "grey", then the subsection marked "nape" and see a list of all birds with grey napes, subdivided by size. If there are too many examples, you could cross-reference with the "overall appearance" subsection of the "black" section. You would then go through the pictures of the listed birds until you came to the bird you saw (in this case, I'm thinking of a jackdaw, but that was just a random example pulled off the top of my head). Does any book like that exist for American birdies?

[XemaSab]

5. I can't think of anything like that for American birds.

There's a BUNCH of American field guides for varying skill levels.

Beginner guides include:

The Audubon guide, which is color coded with photos, and it's known for being BAD. These are broken down into eastern and western versions.

The American Bird Conservancy guide, which is arranged oddly, with habitats, behavior, and bill shape being the sorting criteria.

The Peterson guide, which has illustrations separate from the text, with MANY birds per plate, and it has arrows pointing to the diagnostic features. These are also broken down into eastern and western versions.

Kaufman, which might be a good guide for someone just trying to sort things out. It's got photos, but they're photoshopped to look more representative of all the members of the species. The range maps are good too.

The Golden guides, which I have never used.

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More advanced guides include:

Sibley, which a lot of people SWEAR by. The problem I've had with Sibley is that you have to know what you're looking for to be able to find it. I use it more for double-checking ID's than for trying to figure out something totally unfamiliar. He's also got eastern and western guides, which are smaller and have fewer species.

National Geographic, which is what I find myself using most often. There are state editions which I haven't checked out, that have stuff more specific to the region you live in.

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The curse of American field guides is that there are close to 800 species recorded here, but probably 500 of them are NEVER going to turn up where you live. But every field guide has to include Alaskan rarities, Mexican rarities, Caribbean rarities, and so forth. In American birding, range maps are CRITICAL. I'd definitely go buy or print out a state, county, regional, or park checklist, and lean on that when trying to figure out something confusing.

You might go to the library and check out their field guides, and see what you like.

To BUY, I'd probably get Kaufman and National Geographic or Sibley, but you may like a different combination. :shrug:

Edit:

Here's your state National Geographic guide, so maybe this and Sibley? :shrug:

http://www.abasales.com/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&cPath=110_111_150&products_id=2113

[nxylas]

6. I have Birds of the Carolinas

It's not bad, but I have seen species that aren't in there, so I know it's not complete; and it has rather an eccentric way of arranging its birds (by predominant color and size, rather than family), making it difficult to find what you're looking for. From that link you gave me, it looks like there's a second edition, which may well be better.

[semillama]

7. The closest are the Audubon photographic guides.

And they're pretty much useless for birding.

As a Sibley user myself, I'd recommend getting the Eastern Field Guide, and then putting post-it flags to mark the sections of the major groups of birds for quick reference (Hawks, Shorebirds, Gulls, Warblers, Vireos, Sparrows, etc). Makes it a lot easier to use if you aren't completely up on taxonomic order! One big reason I advocate for Sibley is the clarity of the illustrations - nothing matches it for getting a good ID in my opinion, not even photographs.

You could do what a lot of birders do, and just gradually accumulate ALL the field guides...

[XemaSab]

9. I don't have all the field guides yet

I still need Japan, China, Taiwan, Philippines, PNG, Indonesia, New Zealand, Indian Ocean islands, Russia, Central Asia, Madagascar, Brazil, Peru, the Guyanas, Trinidad, Tobago, and the Galapagos. :shrug:

Edit: I forgot Korea! :o

[tigereye]

8. I live in PA and you can get one for our state that has those types of categori-

zations. It is helpful - the other guides i have seem to be geared more toward type of bird.

[bigwillq]

10. Hi!

:hi:I peek in this forum once and awhile but hardly ever post.