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janepa_gw

Review of my new handbook on birds of North America

janepa
14 years ago

We have always like to watch birds and have fed them for years, but I never really took the time to study them. Since my husband and I both got the Panasonic ZS3 point and shoot camera we have really become avid bird watchers and enjoy taking their photos. Our old bird book of North America was adequate but the pages were falling out and has drawings only with 5 -6 birds on a page. At the bookstore we looked at Peterson, Sibley, Audubon, and the one we chose, which is the Smithsonian Handbook-Birds of North America-Eastern Region. I would rate it 5 stars for it single page profile on each of the 706 species, color photos, and understanding of information given. A possible con would be small print, but my progressive lenses work just fine. This handbook is not one you would carry in your pocket 6" x 8" and 2" thick. Someone wrote to consider it as a mini-encyclopedia. While the computer is great to retrieve information, etc. I am still the 'give me a good book to curl up with in the corner of the sofa' kind of person. This book sells at Borders in-store for $30., but I belong to their Rewards program and had a 40% coupon, and paid $18.00. I believe the other books sold for $20.00 each (before coupon). The reasons we did not care as much for some of them were because on a quick look the bluejay color was not like we see it, fewer actual photos, map locations, not as comprehensive info. etc., although if size of the actual book is important to you, all the others were much smaller.

This is not intended to be an advertisement, but a bird watcher's review of a bird handbook.

I would really like to hear your opinions of the books you use. I love books and am an avid reader.

Thank you. Jane

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