A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guide)

This is the last Field Guide done by the great Roger Tory Peterson before his passing in 1996. Most of the plates have been reworked and many redrawn. He was working on the last plate (on Flycatchers) the day he died.

This remains probably the best Field guide for beginner to intermediate birders in the eastern US (and Canada). The illustrations and the helpfull arrows (the "Peterson System") pointing out essential ID points. His verbal descriptions often bring the birds to life, such as his now famous decriptions of Sanderlings and Swifts, and the verbal descriptions of bird songs and calls remain the best of any guide. This remains one of my favourtie Field Guides and is often the one that accompanies me out in the field. The National Geographic Guide may be a slightly more suitable choice for the advanced birder, though birders of all levels would be delighted with this guide.

A welcome change in this edition is the addition of small "thumbnail" maps on the opposite page to the illustration thus removing one of the main criticisms of previous editions. The larger maps remain in the back, still done by Mrs Peterson with help from Paul Lehman. One negative is the slight increase in size (the pages are a little bigger) making the book slightly less pocketable.

Overall an excellent Field guide, which while not reaching the exaltred heights recently set by Mullarney et al in their superb European guide, is the final effort by the man who essentially started it all.

When I lost my original copy of Roger Tory Peterson's "Field Guide to the Birds" in a cabin fire, I thought I might never find a replacement. When I saw this new edition available, however, I feared that it might not resemble the high-quality original, with Peterson's hand-drawn sketches and great reference maps. I am happy to report that this book is complete with it's original charm, sketches and maps included. It even has the coveted silhouette drawings on the inside covers! No need to change an already great reference book.

This is one of the best birding books for beginners as well as expert birders. I have had my field guide for years and just recently gave my daughter a copy so she would stop calling me and asking me to identify birds over the phone to her.

great companion to the Birding by Ear: Eastern/Central (Peterson Field Guides) cd

This book was in better condition than I had thought could happen. I would order from this source
anytime!

I have purchased this guide several times, for myself and as a gift for others. Since it is specifically for the Eastern and Central North America it narrows the birds down for this area instead of covering all of North America.
Excellent Guide and beautiful art work by Roger Tory Peterson.

Needed a new book to replace one that was out-dated & this one filled the bill (no pun intended)! Will be back when I need another up-date.

We love this bird book for identifying male and female birds.
The drawings are excellent. We just bought another Peterson bird
book because of the picture drawings showing the differents in a
Male and Female.