NEW YORK, 1-Mar-01 -- David Allen Sibley, renowned ornithologist and illustrator and author of the bestselling National Audubon Society Sibley Guide to Birds, has contracted with Alfred A. Knopf for a new volume on birding basics, it was announced today by Susan Ralston, a Senior Editor for Knopf. The Sibley Guide to Birding Basics will be published by Knopf in October 2002. It will be the third David Allen Sibley volume from Knopf, coming after The Sibley Guide to Birds and The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior. Mr. Sibley is represented by Russell Galen of the Scovill Chichak Galen Agency.

The Sibley Guide to Birds, published by Knopf last October, has become the fastest selling bird book in history, earning author David Allen Sibley the moniker "the Beatle of birding" among press. The book is currently in its tenth printing with over 450,000 copies in print.

"David Allen Sibley has been called the heir apparent to John James Audubon and Roger Tory Peterson," said Ms. Ralston, Sibley's editor at Knopf, "and his long-awaited guidebook immediately became the gold standard for bird identification when it was published last fall." Next October, Knopf will publish a second Sibley volume, The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior, a book "as long awaited as the first," observes Ms. Ralston, "and completely different. This book, which focuses on the physiology and behavior of the 80 bird families of North America, is the most comprehensive book in its category. Sibley's 786+ full-color paintings illustrate the texts contributed by 44 ornithologists and expert birders. Already, demand for the book is extremely high." The first printing for The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior will be 150,000 copies.

The third volume, The Sibley Guide to Birding Basics, will follow in Fall 2002. "This will be an entry-level guide to birding," explains Ms. Ralston, "geared in every way to the beginning birder. It will feature suggestions about equipment, regional birding hot spots, terminology and technique. There will also be 100 original paintings in the book -- 'The Sibley Hot 100' -- as it were." Two other volumes, The Sibley Illustrated Field Guides, East and West, will be published in 2003.

Beginning this April and May -- during the height of spring migrations -- David Allen Sibley will lead birdwalks in over 25 cities including Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Cleveland, Denver, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, New York, Portland, Raleigh/Durham, Santa Fe, and Washington, DC. "David Allen Sibley is the preeminent name in American birding," said Ms. Ralston, "and everywhere he goes flocks of fellow birders come out to meet him."

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