I was birding with a friend a few years ago and spotted a Field Sparrow. When I opened my new field guide to the correct page, the bird looked nothing like a Field Sparrow! I put my glasses on and checked the fine print and it still said Field Sparrow under the picture. Needless to say, I was very disappointed. Many of the other pictures looked just fine, but I had a real problem with the sparrow section of the book.

Now it would have been pretty darn difficult to go through every page and check all the pictures before purchasing the book, so it was a live and learn kind of experience. Was it a bad field guide? No, not all. Was it my favorite? No way. But what it did make me realize is that there is no one perfect field guide, and the book I like to carry around with me may not be the one you enjoy using. That is why one surefire way to determine if a birder is living in a house is if you see books covering the windows as you pass by. Birders love books. I don’t know any of my birding friends who don’t rush to the nearest book store every time a new bird book hits the market.

Besides that, birders love books in general and any one of us could be on an episode of “Hoarders-Buried Alive.” Sometimes identifying a bird is so difficult that you may have to refer to multiple field guides before you come up with a positive ID. One book may show the field marks better, others may have the bird in the correct plumage for the correct season you are in at the time or it could have a real photo which helps you to better make the connection with the right bird. There are many times I will go home and open up 3 or 4 field guides and lay them out on the table before I e-mail my birding buddies and let them know what saw that day.

Now assuming that there is no field guide that can make you look fat, I will try to recommend a few that I use without causing too much hullabaloo. Right off the bat, there are a couple of field guides that I can rule out, not because they are not good, but because they are great, and if I carried them all day in the field, I would be calling my Surgeon Dr. Kline for another hernia operation. First, I will recommend Sibley’s Guide to the Birds. This book revolutionized field guides and set the standard for all future guides, including the new and amazing Crossley ID Guide to Eastern Birds. I would not be without either of these books. They are a must have for every birder, but much too big for me to carry out in the field all day.

The field guide that I carry and the one I recommend to all my beginners classes is the old standby, Peterson’s Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America. It is simple, compares similar species, and highlights field marks well. I can quickly show folks why the bird I am pointing to is the bird I am showing them in the field guide.

I also carry a few smaller guides with me depending on the time of year and where I am birding such as Sparrows & Finches by Chris G. Earley and the Field Guide to Warblers by the Stokes. I also love the Sibley’s waterproof fold-up guides to Ducks of Eastern North America and Raptors of North America. They are quick and easy, especially when my hands are cold, which for me is every month except July.

So which is the best field guide? It is the one you feel most comfortable with, the one you have confidence in that when you open it up, you have the best chance of correctly ID’ing your bird. Sometimes that changes overtime. Don’t be afraid to field test a new one. After all, birding is about having fun.