I've always loved birds, but I've never done much bird watching beyond looking out the window at my parents' back yard feeder, or sitting on a blanket in a park trying to catch a glimpse of whatever creature happens to be singing in the branches above. The fact that we've been urban apartment dwellers for years has discouraged even my most basic attempts. But this year, with spring bursting out all over and a young, inquisitive daughter who wants to learn more about the great outdoors, I decided it was high time I learned the proper names and habits of at least a few of our more common feathered friends.
Even here in the city we see birds and nests galore during the spring months. The variety of species may not be great, but we're fascinated to learn what we can. Armed with a new
pair of binoculars for my little girl, we've been hitting the pavement with our eyes wide open and with a copy of
Stokes Beginner's Guide to Birds: Eastern Region in our bag.
I really like this guide. It's a compact paperback, about the width of a postcard but slightly longer. It's well-designed and incredibly well-organized so that even a complete novice like myself doesn't feel daunted when I open its pages.
The book contains information on about 100 species of birds that are commonly found in the eastern region of the United States. Although it includes an alphabetical index on the front inside flap, the book itself is organized by color. In other words, within the identification pages (which make up the bulk of the guide) you'll find birds grouped according to their coloring, e.g. "Birds with large amounts of yellow" are found in the opening pages. In the pages that follow, you'll move on to "Birds that have black or slate-gray and orange," and then "Birds that are mostly red," and so on.
There are eleven color sections in all. You'll find them all listed in an opening index labeled the "Color Tab Index." Next to each grouping by color, you'll see a little round tab (a sort of half-moon printed on the side of the page) of that particular color or colors. The subsequent pages, which provide the details on each species of bird, are also tabbed. So if you're outdoors and spot a bird that you want to identify, you can actually flip quickly through the pages to get to the right "color section" to try to identify the particular bird by color.
Of course, color isn't the only identifying factor with birds, though I think it's probably one of the easiest and most obvious, especially for beginners. Before you get to the actual identification pages, however, you'll find a helpful section entitled "Tips on Identifying Birds." The authors, Donald and Lillian Stokes, provide a primer on things to notice as you begin to watch birds: colors, location of colors, location of the bird itself (on the ground? near water? near a feeder?) and the bird's activities. They also provide a "How to Use This Guide," which details the use of the Color Tab Index (with the very helpful suggestion of checking your second-best guess if you don't find the bird in your first color choice, since sometimes people see colors differently). Here you'll also find details on how the actual identification pages are set-up for each species.
Every Bird an All-Star
Each identification page packs in a lot of information in a small space. If you've never used a bird guide before, a helpful way to think of these pages is to think of a baseball card. You'll find a clear color photo of the bird and then a lot of its most important "statistics." In some cases, more than one picture is provided to show you different kinds of plumage, especially if the males and females of the species look quite different from each other, or the juveniles look very different from the adults. In every case, the pictures are marked so you know what you're looking at. Sometimes tips are included as captions underneath the photos. For instance, under the picture of the male red-winged blackbird you'll find "Look for males perched atop shrubs or cattails in marshes, singing and spreading their wings."
The main "stats" on each page are set off by small picture icons that let you know what kind of fact you're looking at. A small pair of binoculars is marked "I.D." and provides facts about a particular bird's color and appearance. Musical notes are marked "Voice" and that's where you'll find a brief description of the bird's call. A small picture of a tree denotes "Habitat" facts, and a picture of a nest is marked "Nesting" and will be found next to facts about types and location of nests and eggs. Under eggs, you'll not only find physical description of the eggs but an abbreviated guide to how many days are spent incubating the eggs, how long the nesting phase runs, how much time before the birds fledge (begin to fly), and how many times per year a particular species usually goes through a whole nesting cycle. (The "How to Use This Guide" section details how to read the abbreviations.)
Each identification page also has a small color-coded range map that shows you where within the U.S. the particular bird can be found in the summer and winter months. Each page also provides notes on how to attract that bird, what they eat and if they're drawn to feeders of any type or to birdbaths. There's a four-page section at book's beginning that goes into more detail on attracting birds.
I've enjoyed using this guide because of it excellent organization. Its ease of use makes it a pleasure to turn to, as do the crisp, color photographs. Its simplicity makes it a helpful teaching tool with young children who are just beginning to learn about birds. I think both my daughter and myself could have been easily daunted by a larger, more complex field guide, but this has been a good starter book for us. Thus far we've used it to identify Chipping Sparrows that are nesting in a churchyard near us. We've also used it to look up and learn more about birds we already could identify (such as the American Robin) or birds we've been reading about in stories (Orioles, Bluebirds) and wish we could spot around here.
The Stokes have compiled a number of guides for nature watchers at various levels of expertise. They have authored a more comprehensive field guide to birds in the eastern region, which they recommend you move on to once you feel you've learned about most of the birds in this beginner guide. They've done beginner and more comprehensive guides to birds in the western region of the U.S. as well, and we're currently enjoying their
Guide to Enjoying Wildflowers. A full listing of their various guides and books can be found at the front of this guide.
~befus, 2008
Stokes Beginner's Guide to Birds: Eastern Region
Little, Brown and Company, 1996
ISBN 0316818119
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