Field Guides
by Mike Stiles
Last month we discussed choices in birding optics. This month we will consider another important birding tool - the field guide.
Choosing a field guide was easy when there was only one real choice - the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America. Roger Tory Peterson revolutionized the bird book with his simple descriptions, range maps, and arrows pointing to the features to watch for in the field. Now, the competition is fierce and you need a guide to the guides with the many excellent choices out there. There are guides that use photographs and those that use paintings, each with their own limitations. There are also specific guides for hummingbirds, raptors, warblers, sparrows, gulls, shorebirds, and others.
The two I see used most often in the field are The Sibley Guide to Birds (an excellent guide now broken into eastern and western editions) and the National Geographic Field Guide to Birds of North America (now in its 5th edition). Both of these books use paintings and portray gender plumage differences, immature and adult plumages, and seasonal variations. Of course, the Peterson guide is still available in an updated version and is also available in eastern and western editions.
I should point out that it is helpful to own or upgrade to the latest edition of whatever guide you happen to choose. Over the years there have been many name and taxonomic changes, especially with the advent of recent DNA studies.
The Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America is another fine resource that uses photographs which are digitally enhanced to ensure that field marks needed for identification are well represented. The new Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America is receiving good reviews with its digitally enhanced photographs.
Those listed above are a fraction of the possibilities, and you don't have to be like me - on a quest to own every one - but it is helpful to own several different guides. Birds portrayed may show slight differences in color and other field marks. Employing several makes it useful in case your bird does not look just like the picture in one book. The guides to a specific group of birds can be very helpful in that they can cover each bird in more detail. Shop around, check out what other birders carry in the field, and you'll find the right field guide for yourself.
It is arguably just as important to own a checklist and distribution guide to the area you are birding. The Morro Coast Audubon Society prints a small pamphlet, The Birds of San Luis Obispo County, which is available locally, and is set up in a monthly bar graph system to show when the bird is expected in our area and in what abundance (common, uncommon, rare, etc). Questions about identification can often be solved by knowing when a bird is likely to be present, or if it even occurs in this county. That's not to say rarities don't show up in our area, but there is a reason a bird is described as "rare." Remember the old adage: If you hear hoof beats, first think horses, not zebras.
This month: Ah, October, when not only the birding but the birders themselves become more active. This is the month for the "mega-rarities," the eastern warblers, vireos, and other birds that have taken a wrong turn and have migrated down the "wrong" coast. Check out the coastal migrant traps - the groups of willows and pines along the coast, such as Morro Bay State Park Campground, Montana de Oro campground, Oceano lagoon and campground, and Oso Flaco Lake - among others for these birds. The Big Sit bird count takes place all day on October 11th at Bush Lupine Point observation deck in the Elfin Forest, best reached from the north end of 13th Street in Los Osos. This event is an excellent opportunity to check out many types of binoculars, spotting scopes, and field guides.
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