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National Wildlife Federation
Field Guide to Birds of North America
Edward S. Brinkley
Sterling Publishing Company
Paperback
527 pages
2007

I’m always looking for good natural history reference books and discovered the National Wildlife Federation’s Field Guide to Birds of North America while browsing the nature section in Chapters. I thought that it would be worth while to take a closer look at the book and share my review.

One of my acid tests for any nature guide is its usability in the field and this NWF guide book performs fairly well. The table of contents is nicely handled – rather than a simple list of of bird groups it also includes two to three thumbnail photographs of representative species for each category. I can see this feature being very helpful for beginning birders who might not know which group a specific bird belongs to but who are able to match its basic form with a picture of a similar looking bird. Each section in the main part of the book is colour coded for quick referencing.

The book is structured with a comprehensive introduction that touches on the different parts of a bird, details of variation in plumage and molts, how to identify birds and the natural history of birds. The section describing the different parts of a bird is a little light, but probably sufficient for a beginning birder. Both line drawings and photographs are used to describe a flycatcher, a sparrow (body and head detail), and a gull in flight. Compare this with The Sibley Guide to Birds which includes multiple profiles of a sparrow, shorebird, duck and gull. Mind you, the latter is a much larger book!

The book groups similar looking birds that are often found in the same habitat together in order to help with identifying similar looking species. As a result, it often diverges from AOU order, a fact that may be frustrating to birders who are used to the structure and order of the National Geographic or Sibley guides. Comparing the entries in the NWF guide with those in another guide book will require a little extra work and the use of the table of contents or index.

That being said, the bird descriptions and photographs are very nicely done. Each section has a one to two page introduction and an overview of the natural history of the birds it features. The description of each bird includes good information about typical habitat, behaviour, and voice for that species. In addition, a detailed range map that identifies summer, winter, resident, and migration ranges as well as ranges for rare species. Each account is accompanied by one or more photographs of the bird being described. Helpful field marks are labeled on the images themselves. While the photographs of the individual birds are excellent, as with all photography based guides, the ability to capture (and fit onto a page) the details needed to separate out challenging problems like fly catchers, shorebirds, and gulls is limited. For these more advanced problems, guides with line drawings are probably better suited.

Thinking about abuse in the field, I do have a minor concern with the physical quality of the book itself. My first bird book was a National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America which took quite a beating and yet still held up quite well before finally being replaced. While the NWF book sports a waterproof cover, the glued binding seems a little flimsy somehow and I’m not sure how it will hold up under constant use in adverse conditions.

Overall, the National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Birds of North America is a great little book for the beginning birder or as a reference book for the home library. The detailed natural history profiles of each group of birds makes it a little more than a simple field guide. The photographs make it a very enjoyable book to own.

Check out these two reviews of photograph based field guides. Rob Fergus at The Birdchaser has a great post that describes the Evolution of the Bird Photo Field Guide and The Birder’s Library has a good quick overview of the features of five photograph based field guides.

Disclaimer:

The book reviewed was provided by National Wildlife Federation at my request. I am not being paid to write this review and am happy to pass my copy on to a birder who needs it.

Win the Book!

If you’re interested in winning a copy of Field Guide to Birds of North America, simply visit the National Wildlife Federation website and find the answer to this skill testing question, “What is the mission of the National Wildlife Federation?” Email me the answer using my Contact page. Contest closes midnight February 28, 2010. The winner will be notified on March 1, 2010.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula), one of the regulars at our suet feeder and a challenge to photograph because it's constantly moving!

I’m not sure exactly why the mix of birds has changed but perhaps its because I’m not spreading as much ground seed as I used to and the ground feeding sparrows might not have as much to choose from. Mind you there is quite a bit of spillage from the tube feeder being frequented by the Pine Siskins and the American Goldfinch. The temperature has become milder this week and it has been quite windy and wet so that may be influencing bird movement as well.

Highlight birds this week continue to be the large numbers of Pine Siskin and American Goldfinch. The Ruby-crowned Kinglet continues to make daily appearances as does the single White-crowned Sparrow and this week saw the return of one of the Downy Woodpeckers. Our yard was also invaded by close to 90 European Starlings. Fortunately they were focused on the lawn and not the feeders!

Here’s the species list for the week:

• Song Sparrow
• House Sparrow
• Dark-eyed Junco (including 1 Slate-coloured Junco)
• Chestnut-backed Chickadee
• Spotted Towhee
• House Finch
• Purple Finch
• Bewick’s Wren
• Ruby-crowned Kinglet
• White-crowned Sparrow
• Pine Siskin
• European Starling
• American Goldfinch
• Downy Woodpecker

As part of Project FeederWatch, I’m keeping an eye on our feeders two days out of the week to help scientists track winter bird activity, abundance and diversity. It’s a great way to spend an hour or two drinking coffee and peering out into the rain. I’ve also decided to start a yard list of all the birds that visit our backyard.

American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis), new regulars at the feeder.

Unfortunately we haven’t seen the Mourning Dove at all this week – hopefully it has moved on. No sign of a bird kill in the garden either so I think that perhaps the cats did not take it out. Our chicken wire extension on the fence met with our neighbour’s disapproval and he took it down – I suppose that I should have asked him before putting it up. I talked to him about it and his take on the situation was that it wouldn’t make any difference because the cats would just go around the fence anyway. I do have “approval” to put up the chicken wire on poles “as long as they’re not attached to his fence.” Did I mention that the fence isn’t finished yet or that his wife works for the SPCA? That’s my cat rant for the week – done.

Pine Siskins (Carduelis pinus) and American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) jockey for position on the tube feeder.

Highlight birds this week were definitely the large numbers of Pine Siskins and American Goldfinch. Really cool to see those in an “urban” small town setting. The Ruby-crowned Kinglet continues to make daily appearances as does the single White-crowned Sparrow.

Here’s the species list for the week:

• Song Sparrow
• House Sparrow
• Dark-eyed Junco (including 1 Slate-coloured Junco)
• Chestnut-backed Chickadee
• Spotted Towhee
• House Finch
• Purple Finch
• Bewick’s Wren
• Ruby-crowned Kinglet
• White-crowned Sparrow
• Pine Siskin
• European Starling
• American Goldfinch

As part of Project FeederWatch, I’m keeping an eye on our feeders two days out of the week to help scientists track winter bird activity, abundance and diversity. It’s a great way to spend an hour or two drinking coffee and peering out into the rain. I’ve also decided to start a yard list of all the birds that visit our backyard.

Surf Scoters (Melanitta perspicillata) enjoying the surf at Miracle Beach Provincial Park.

On Friday, I went out in the morning after a night of wind and rain. The surf was pounding the shore and appropriately enough there was a large flock of Surf Scoters out riding the waves. Both Common and Barrow’s Goldeneye were also enjoying the surf as was a few Bufflehead. Overhead, a flock of Glaucous-winged gulls drifted in the wind and a single Western Gull worked the edge of the beach.

A flock of Surf Scoters (Melanitta perspicillata) at Miracle Beach.

Today, the water was much calmer and large rafts of ducks were visible off shore. Surf Scoters were still around but they were surpassed in number by a large group of White-winged Scoters. Noticeable too were the addition of some of the estuary ducks like Mallards and American Wigeon who seemed to enjoy the flatter water.

Mallards and American Wigeon at Miracle Beach enjoying the calmer seas on Sunday.

Forest birds were more abundant on Sunday as well with the mature forest birds like Winter Wren, Golden-crown Kinglet, Red-breasted Nuthatch and Chestnut-backed Chickadee being well represented. Flocks of Pine Siskin were around on both days in the old stands of Red Alder in the campsite.

Red Alder (Alnus rubra) at Miracle Beach Provincial Park - great habitat for Pine Siskins.

A total of 25 species of birds were seen on these two walks at Miracle Beach.

On the water:

• Surf Scoter
• White-winged Scoter
• Common Goldeneye
• Barrow’s Goldeneye
• Bufflehead
• Mallard
• American Wigeon
• Great Blue Heron
• Glaucous-winged Gull
• Western Gull (1)
• Black-bellied Plover
• Common Loon
• Bald Eagle
• Red-breasted Merganser

In the forest:

• Golden-crowned Kinglet
• Chestnut-backed Chickadee
• Winter Wren
• Common Raven
• Pine Siskin
• Red-breasted Nuthatch
• Northwestern Crow
• Brown Creeper
• Pileated Woodpecker
• Song Sparrow
• Spotted Towhee

Miracle Beach Provincial Park is located on Vancouver Island about half way between Courtenay and Campbell River.

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Mouth of the Oyster River at mid-tide - we returned to the ocean to try to pick up a few more birds that we had missed earlier in the morning. Plus the inland birding was pretty slow.

We began the day at the Oyster River and scanned the ocean for water birds. It was a bit of a surreal morning as the tide was very high and many of the logs had floated off the beach and were well out into the bay and further out into the Strait. Each log had a line of shorebirds on it: Dunlin, Black Turnstone, and Black-bellied Plover balancing on the gently floating logs. We picked up a number of ducks like Common Goldeneye and Bufflehead but missed common ones like American Wigeon. However, this was offset by finding two Brant on the ocean and an American Coot in the marina.

Much of the morning was spent working through the inland section of our territory which was a long narrow strip bordered by the Oyster River on the north side and the edge of the count circle on the south side. Notable birds in the hinterlands included a trio of Brown Creepers at the Oyster River Enhancement Society’s hatchery, a flock of Red-winged Black Birds at Robinson Lake and a Cooper’s Hawk at the end of Macaulay Road. Over the course of the day Pine Siskins were plentiful and we spend some time looking for Common Redpolls with no success.

We had good numbers of Pine Siskins on the count and spent some time looking up into the Red Alder trying to pull a Common Redpoll out of flocks of up to 100 birds. How many Pine Siskins can you see in this photograph?

We returned to the Oyster River in the early afternoon and the tide had dropped enough that the gravel bars were exposed. It was interesting to see how the birds had changed and we sorted through a small flock of about 100 gulls (there were only a few at high tide) and found about 80 Mew Gulls and just over a dozen Thayer’s Gulls. The remainder were Glaucous-winged Gulls. We also added another shorebird to our list as well – in with a group of over 200 Dunlin was a single Sanderling that stood out like a beacon against all the dark brown shorebirds.

We tried a couple of farms at the end of the day in an attempt to pick up some common birds that we were missing but this late the birds were really quiet. In some ways, this count was unusually for the things we didn’t see: House Sparrows, Rock Pigeons, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Downy Woodpecker and so on. Many common birds were difficult to find – American Robins were scarce and we only got one Fox Sparrow.

Regardless, by the end of the day we felt that we had done well with a tally of 54 species including:

• Brant
• Canada Goose
• Mallard
• Greater Scaup
• Harlequin Duck
• Surf Scoter
• Bufflehead
• Common Goldeneye
• Red-breasted Merganser
• Common Merganser
• Common Loon
• Horned Grebe
• Red-necked Grebe
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Pelagic Cormorant
• Great Blue Heron
• Bald Eagle
• Cooper’s Hawk
• Merlin
• American Coot
• Black-bellied Plover
• Black Turnstone
• Dunlin
• Sanderling
• Mew Gull
• Thayer’s Gull
• Glaucous-winged Gull
• Pigeon Guillemot
• Belted Kingfisher
• Hairy Woodpecker
• Northern Flicker
• Pileated Woodpecker
• Steller’s Jay
• Northwestern Crow
• Common Raven
• Chestnut-backed Chickadee
• Red-breasted Nuthatch
• Brown Creeper
• Bewick’s Wren
• Winter Wren
• Golden-crowned Kinglet
• American Robin
• Varied Thrush
• European Starling
• Spotted Towhee
• Fox Sparrow
• Song Sparrow
• Golden-crowned Sparrow
• Dark-eyed Juncos
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Brewer’s Blackbird
• House Finch
• Red Crossbill
• Pine Siskin

Added by neighbouring team to bring the count total to 56 species were:

• Ring-billed Gull
• Bonaparte’s Gull

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