Birds of Northern California (Lone Pine Field Guides) Reviews
Birds of Northern California (Lone Pine Field Guides)
- Used Book in Good Condition
Learn all about Northern California’s top 320 most notable bird species. Full-color illustrations complement detailed accounts, color-coded pages that cover habitat, nesting, feeding, vocal sounds, best sites for viewing, and tips for distinguishing from similar species. Illustrations and photographs make identification easy. Includes appendix of rare and vagrant species, index, bibliography, and glossary. Front of book gives color-coded keys to bird groups.
List Price: $ 21.95
Price: $ 12.56
Very Best of Its Kind,
It’s also very well written. It is always eloquent, occasionally humorous, and does a wonderful job of capturing the personality and “feel” of each bird. A problem I have with the overrated Audubon guide, and even sometimes with the fine Sibley and Stokes guides, is that they are too consistently technical. They rarely give unusual background or personality information about the birds. By contrast, this Fix-Bezener guide has something pleasurable to read in every entry.
Some folks might want to supplement this guide with the Stokes Field Guide, Western Region, because it includes photographs. Or perhaps with a Sibley guide if you really want to get into the details. But for 90% of Northern California birders, this single guide will do just fine.
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|Helpful but limited,
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|Quite good,
3 areas could improve.
1- comparison section is good, but does not cover similar looking birds of other families (e.g: compares short billed dowitcher with long billed dowitcher but need this to be clapper rail vs willet vs dowitcher)
2- need pictures of both flight and sitting positions for some birds (e.g: different hawks, others like northern mockingbirds)
3- a bit smaller size will make this a better field guide
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