Untitled Document

07 November 2003

A Boon for Birders

David Allen Sibley. The Sibley Guide to Birds. National Audubon Society (Alfred A. Knopf, 2000). 545 pages.

Reviewed by Sheldon Greaves

For years, whenever I needed a bird guide, I turned to my well-thumbed copy of a guide published by National Geographic. Although I am not a regular birdwatcher, the guide had always impressed me and seldom left me without an answer to my avian inquiries.

So it was with some skepticism that I first took a look at this relatively new volume by David Sibley. It was not clear to me that a new bird guide was necessary. Leafing through Sibley's book convinced me that although my current book is more than adequate, this latest addition to the bird guide genre will prove to be definitive. This volume continues the tradition of the field guides by Roger Tory Peterson and John J. Audubon, in that the Sibley is both the author and illustrator. My initial skepticism vanished as I began to look through this guide. This book will remain the standard bird reference for many years to come.

Two things stand out about this book. First, the illustrations are rendered with exemplary skill and accuracy. They are clearly a work of passion tempered with a hard-edged committment to getting every detail correct. Range and migration maps, although small, are well-designed and easy to read. Smaller diagrams also illustrate flight characteristics that can aid observation. Sibley also includes verbal descriptions of bird songs to aid in identification. I'm not sure how effectively one could recognize a song in the wild from a description like "kiwaa" or "seew-seew-seew". Indeed, Sibley himself points out that written descriptions of bird songs and calls are difficult to use for identification purposes, and that learning to recognize songs is a daunting task. But once mastered, the sounds of birds are a powerful tool for the ornithologist. I'd like to hear from any of our ornithologist members about the business of learning bird songs for identification purposes.

The only drawback to this book, in my opinion, is that it is physically heavier than most other bird guides. This is partly because the publisher (and presumably the author) elected to use tough, high-quality paper. Of course, bibliophile that I am, I cannot fault them for this. The format is also somewhat larger than most guides. It is definitely not a "pocket guide" as the Peterson guides were. At best it will ride in the thigh cargo pocket of my BDUs with an inch or two sticking out the top. If you're using it in the field, this is a book for the day pack or shoulder bag. For that reason, I will probably hang on to my older (and lighter) National Geographic guide if I'm going someplace where I might happen to notice an interesting bird. But if the trip involves birding as the main activity, or if you are restricting yourself to just one bird guide, by all means go with Sibley.

The discerning reader who picks up Sibley's guide will also notice that there isn't a lot said about bird behavior. That is because Sibley has so much to say about that subject that he has written a separate book to supplement his Guide to Birds. I hope to review that volume in a future issue.