Since The Sibley Guide to Birds was published in 2000 I’ve received several comments and questions about the fact that I illustrated the displaying male Ruffed Grouse with a broken tail band (not a solid dark band continuing across the two central tail feathers). Readers note that males are supposed to have complete dark tail bands, while […]
Variation in Ruffed Grouse tail patterns Read More »
Through this fall I’ve been talking about what I tried to accomplish in my new Guide to Trees. In essence, I tried to approach tree identification in the same way that modern birders approach bird identification, to create “a tree guide for birdwatchers”. Most guides to tree identification use keys at some level, which are
A modern (holistic) approach to Tree Identification Read More »
In fall it is the bright red and yellow colors of the broadleaf trees that get all the attention from “leaf-peepers”. Much more subtle and largely unnoticed are the changing colors of the conifers. Even though pines and cypresses are evergreen, they still drop some of their leaves each fall. This twig of Eastern White
Evergreens have fall color too Read More »
Determining the age of a goose can be helpful for identification, and can also reveal some interesting behavioral and ecological information by enabling you to sort out family groups and subflocks. Given good views it’s not hard to distinguish Canada Geese that are still in juvenal plumage from those that are in adult plumage. By
Ageing Canada Geese Read More »
Have you seen any Field Plovers lately? Blue Nutcrackers? Day Owls? These are all alternate common names of North American birds. Richard Banks has assembled a complete list of outdated English names of North American birds along with the current official names for those species, and it makes a great resource to find out what
Obsolete Bird Names Read More »
Here are page-by-page corrections and changes for The Sibley Guide to Trees. This listing will be updated periodically as issues come to my attention. Please feel free to leave comments or send me an email if you notice anything that is not listed here. inside front cover – The two-letter abbreviation for Nunavut should be
Corrections to The Sibley Guide to Trees Read More »
This list covers changes (through Nov 2009) to the official names of birds as published by the American Ornithologist’s Union (AOU) in periodic supplements to the AOU checklist. The checklist and all supplements can be found here. Note that the names printed in the Sibley Guides have not been revised. These are the changes that
Updated bird names for The Sibley Guide to Birds Read More »
The following list details corrections made in 2001 in the 4th printing of The Sibley Guide to Birds. If you own a 1st or 3rd printing you can make these corrections to your book. A “quick index” was added to the book in the 4th printing. If you’d like to download a quick index for
Corrections to 4th printing of the Sibley Guide to Birds Read More »
In the past, tree identification guides have emphasized the presence of opposite leaves as one of the most important field marks. In the Sibley Guide to Trees I used a more holistic approach, like modern bird identification, giving equal weight to all parts of the tree. A tree might catch your attention because of its
Trees with opposite leaves Read More »
One of my regular birding spots is a small farm field near my house in Concord, Massachusetts. I can walk around the entire place in about 20 minutes, but I usually take about two hours and get in some good sparrow-study. The clump of taller vegetation shown here is always a good spot to study
Probability in bird identification Read More »