COBirders, This is off topic, but... I wanted to let you know about a new field guide, The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America that I have recently checked out. The usual disclaimer, I have no financial involvement with the authors, the publisher, or anyone else. I like this field guide for a number of reasons, especially because it uses >3,400 photographs of 854 species that allow the reader to get a feel for feather wear, gizz, etc, the authors using from 2 to 11 (Lesser Black-backed Gull, e.g.) photos to show different ages and subspecies; recognizable subspecies are shown so an observer/photographer might be able evaluate if the Red Rocks Curve-billed Thrasher is the expected spotted subspecies, oberholseri, or the gray-breasted palmeri with the indistinct spots from AZ. If you like rarities, and who doesn't, there are five photos of Great Frigatebird (ABA Code-5) and four for Lesser Frigatebird (ABA Code-5) and lots of photographs of birds of different ages in flight, great for Cave Swallow I.D. Even though the range maps are tiny, they have been recently updated by Paul Lehman. The ABA rarity codes, (1-6) are given for each species, and there is a CD of some, but not enough, bird vocalizations included. The recent splits are also included, although they missed the corrected Black Scoter name (misnamed as Common Scoter) for the North American species. It is a heavy field guide with 792 pages, but for me, more information is better than weight considerations, and that is what I like best about the book, tons of factoids. The Stokes’ also continue the recent trend of placing certain subspecies of birds into groups, a group being somewhere between a subspecies and a species, e.g. Savannah Sparrow is divided into five groups (but see the ABA website www.aba.org for the recent Jim Rising article in Birding proposing Savannah Sparrow should be split into four species), Song Sparrow is divided into six groups, and Hairy Woodpecker is divided into four groups. You already know about the Fox Sparrow groups. The authors use a ratio approach for I.D. that I don't like...but, if you are in a bookstore you may want to check it out. Bill Maynard Colorado Springs ____________________________________________________________ Refinance Now 3.4% FIXED $160,000 Mortgage: $547/mo. No Hidden Fees. No SSN Req. Get 4 Quotes! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4ce2f80fe8bfb247709st03duc
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
