I am a huge fan of The Sibley Guide to Birds. I bought an extra-large fanny pack just so I could carry it on field trips. It simply illustrates more plumages of North American birds than any other field guide. I frequently find on field trips that I can illustrate this to participants when they can’t find a bird we’re looking at in another field guide. We can find it, however, in the Sibley guide.
You can imagine then that, like many other birders, I have been waiting with excitement for the second edition of the guide. That edition was released on March 11, and I received my preordered copy over the weekend. On Tuesday night I looked through it closely and was disappointed to find that it suffered from what in bird plumage would be called melanism. Many of the illustrations are simply too dark. This, I believe, is a printing problem and not a problem with David Allen Sibley’s fine illustrations. If the printing problems are corrected for the next printing, this will be an outstanding field guide, with a significant number of species added as well as other improvements.
Until the next printing, however, I would suggest holding off on purchasing this guide unless you want to invest in it as a curiosity like a coin minted with an error. As a field guide, however, the printing distortions render the first print less than useful. If you are unsure, you can check a copy at The Tatter Cover, Boulder Book Store, or your favorite local book seller.
Brook MacDonald’s excellent review of the second edition can be found here http://naturetravelnetwork.com/book-review-sibley-guide-birds-second-edition/ and my review will be posted shortly on the DFO web site www.dfobirders.org.
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