Which bird book should I buy?

	The Sibley Guide to Birds Focus: bird identification Region covered: North America north of Mexico Species covered: 810
	The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior Focus: understanding the behavior and ecology of birds Region covered: North America north of Mexico Species covered: over 800, information is summarized by bird family, with species mentioned as examples
	The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America Focus: bird identification Region covered: Western North America north of Mexico (see map below) Species covered: over 700, but some only briefly
	The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America Focus: identification Region covered: Eastern North America north of Mexico, see map below Species covered: over 650, but some only briefly
	Sibley’s Birding Basics Focus: building bird identification skills Region covered: North America north of Mexico, but skills are applicable anywhere Species covered: All, the topics covered apply to bird identification in general
	The Sibley eGuide to the Birds of North America Focus: bird identification Region covered: North America north of Mexico Species covered: 810

Link to purchase any of these books in the Sibley Guides Shop.

The Sibley Guide to Birds is the all-in-one identification guide. If you are a serious or aspiring birder or you travel between east and west then this is the book for you. It is hefty at over 2.5 pounds, but many birders carry it in a backpack or keep it in the car for reference. If you do much back-packing, or like to carry a guide with you in the field, the smaller Eastern or Western guide would be a better choice.

The Sibley Field Guides to Birds of Eastern and Western North America are much smaller and lighter at 1.5 pounds each, with a relatively small trade-off in reduced illustrations and detail. These books show fewer subspecies, and do not show less frequently seen plumages of many species. The voice descriptions are also less detailed than in the Guide to Birds. On the positive side, these books have a brief summary of the status and habitat of each species that is not included in the big book, and the updated maps are more accurate than the maps in the Guide to Birds.

For more discussion of the Eastern and Western region covered by each of these guides check this post.

All of these first three books are strictly identification guides. They will help you to name the birds you see, but for learning more about the birds after you’ve identified them you will need The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior. This is a book to be read while relaxing at home. The introduction is essentially a birder’s guide to the science of ornithology. The rest of the book covers each family of North American birds in a chapter (from one to twenty-two pages long). Reading a chapter gives you an overview of many topics – taxonomy, foraging, breeding, migration, conservation, etc. – with specific examples from the birds in that family. It can be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in birds, but a beginning birder will probably want a field guide along with this book.

Sibley’s Birding Basics covers the basic techniques and challenges involved in the field identification of birds, and functions as the introduction to a field guide. It is primarily about bird identification techniques, but by itself will not identify birds. It simply helps you make the most of the field guide, and by improving your bird identification “aptitude” it helps you make the most of your time in the field.

The Sibley eGuide to the Birds of North America includes all of the content from the Sibley Guide to Birds, as well as the Eastern and Western guides, along with over 2400 audio recordings and search capabilities. Currently available for iPhone and Android, coming soon for Blackberry.