by David Allen Sibley

The Sibley Guide to Birds has quickly become the new standard of excellence in bird identification guides, covering more than 810 North American birds in amazing detail. Now comes a new portable guide from David Sibley that every birder will want to carry into the field. Compact and comprehensive, this new guide features 650 bird species plus regional populations found east of the Rocky Mountains. Accounts include stunningly accurate illustrations--more than 4,200 in total--with descriptive caption text pointing out the most important field marks. Each entry contains new text concerning frequency, nesting, behavior, food and feeding, voice description, and key identification features. Accounts also include brand-new maps created from information contributed by 110 regional experts across the continent.

The Sibley Field Guides to Birds of Eastern and Western North America are indispensable resources for all birders seeking an authoritative and portable guide to the birds of the United States.

by David Allen Sibley

"I wrote and illustrated this book to help every inquisitive birder, from novice to expert. Whether you can identify six birds or six hundred, you'll be a better birder if you have a grounding in the real nuts and bolts of what birds look like, and your skills will be even sharper if you know exactly what to look for and how to record what you see." --David Allen Sibley

The Sibley Guide to Birds and The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior are both universally acclaimed as the new standard source of species information. And now David Sibley, America's premier birder and best-known bird artist, takes a new direction; in Sibley's Birding Basics he is concerned not so much with species as with the general characteristics that influence the appearance of all birds and thus give us the clues to their identity.

To create this guide, David Sibley thought through all the skills that enable him to identify a bird in the few instants it is visible to him. Now he shares that information, integrating an explanation of the identification process with many painted and drawn images of details (such as a feather) or concepts.

Read an excerpt from the book online.

Edited by Chris Elphick and John B. Dunning, Jr.
With 796 full-color paintings by David Allen Sibley and 16 maps

For the hundreds of thousands of birders for whom The Sibley Guide to Birds--unanimously praised when it was published a year ago, and a nationwide best-seller--is already basic equipment, this new book will be required reading. Authoritative and comprehensive, The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior provides the necessary information about the biology, life cycles, and behavior (courtship, nest-building, migration, feeding, and other activities) of the 80 bird families of North America.

For the new volume, Sibley has provided more than 796 full-color paintings to illustrate the essays and family chapters written by 44 ornithologists and expert birders. Together, the pictures, text, and Sibley's lucid design and all-encompassing attention to detail make The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior as spectacular and as useful as its brilliant predecessor.

Introductory essays outline the principles of avian evolution, life cycle, body structure, flight dynamics, and more. The 80 family-by-family chapters describe the amazing range of behavior dictated by birds’ biology and environment. Among the subjects covered and illustrated are:

--molts and plumages
--habitats
--food and foraging
--vocalizations and displays
--courtship and breeding
--rearing of young
--migration and movements
--scientific groupings
--introduced species
--accidental species
--anatomy
--flight patterns
--nests and eggs
--conservation
--global distribution

For birders and non-birders alike, in the classroom and at home, The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior will be the essential source for information on avian life.

David Allen Sibley, America's most gifted contemporary painter of birds, is the author and illustrator of this comprehensive guide. His beautifully detailed illustrations--more than 6,600 in all--and descriptions of 810 species and 350 regional populations will enrich every birder's experience.

The Sibley Guide's innovative design makes it entirely user friendly. The illustrations are arranged to facilitate comparison, yet still capture the unique character of each species.

The Sibley Guide to Birds provides a wealth of new information:

• Captioned illustrations show many previously unpublished field marks and revisions of known marks
• Nearly every species is shown in flight
• Measurements include length, wingspan, and weight for every species
• Subspecies and geographic varients are covered thoroughly
• Complete voice descriptions are included for every species
• Maps show the complete distribution of every species: summer and winter ranges, migration routes, and rare occurrences