Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America
by Kenn Kaufman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Kenn KaufmanBrand: Houghton Mifflin
Translator: Patricia Manzano Fischer
Contributor: Hector Gomez de Silva
Edition: Turtleback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-04-14
ISBN: 0618574239
Number of pages: 392
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Book Reviews of Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America
Book Review: A reasonable alternative to Peterson's, but reasonable people can disagree
Summary: 5 Stars
About myself: I've been birding for all of three months, not really taking walks for the purpose of birding or making IDs until this past Christmas Bird Count. So I imagine I fall right in the target demographic for this work. My impression of the several times I've built a stack of several guides to look at something I've seen is that the Sibley Guide and its Eastern and Western children compete with the National Geographic Field Guide for the top/experienced birder and comparisons between one of those and the Kaufman's guide are rather silly, different purpose. Kaufman himself mentions that he leaves out things such as variants which experienced birders want because he was aiming at the less experienced birder. That leaves guides such as Peterson's, Stokes, the Golden Guide and the American Bird Conservancy 'All The Birds of North America' as comparisons.
I agree that Kaufman has improved greatly on the other photographic based guides. The other photo guides I've seen suffer from the fact that their photos are too good (paradoxically). Since the overwhelming majority of birds I see are under clouds or trying their best to be inconspicuous, the vibrancy of, say, Stokes actually makes it harder to ID the bird. Kaufman's use of the arrows to highlight field marks and putting similar birds on the same page a la Peterson guides helps a lot as well. The Golden Guide does not quite measure up since it is harder to tell what to look for in the absense of field marks in the descriptions. And the order of 'All the Birds' I find hard to work with.
The real comparison for the Kaufman Field Guide is the Peterson Field Guide. I have purchased both, and each of them spend time in my pocket. I tend to favor Peterson because the pictures are larger (5th edition), for some birds it includes a number of variants (which Kaufman deliberately omits) and the pictures are sharper (I can abstract the natural blending of colors myself)so the difference between sharp boundaries and more blended boundaries of color are actually meaningful (e.g. Carolina and Black-capped chickadees). And I actually find the closer to taxonomic order easier to navigate (since families that are close tend to be close to each other). The Kaufman quick tabs get me to the right part of the book, but within the tab I often end up flipping through all the pages. The taxonomy (as a non-biologist) order actually becomes someone ingrained quick enough, which I imagine makes sense, since it is based on physical reality.
Of course, between Peterson and Kaufman, I would echo the advice that you actually have to look at both to pick one (if pick one you must). The styles are different enough that I find both useful, and I always look at the other one when I get back home. Much of the question is if the use can get past the abstraction of the painting to real life viewing, or if they give up the shown details for the more realistic texture that the touched up photographs can give even when the improved depiction of texture probably does not help for identification in field conditions.
Summary of Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America
In 2000 Houghton Mifflin first published the Kaufman Focus Guide to the Birds of North America. Critically acclaimed for its innovative design, the Kaufman guide began introducing a new generation to birding. In 2005, this new Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America is now the most up-to-date field guide, including dozens of changes by the American Ornithologists? Union in official names of birds; the addition of new species to reflect the latest scientific discoveries; and dozens of updated range maps. Additional information helps beginning birdwatchers get started, all in the same compact format that has made this guide the easiest to use for fast identification in the field.
World-renowned birder Kenn Kaufman addresses a long-running paradox of bird field guides with his Focus Guide. While beginning birdwatchers prefer photographic guides like those by Donald Stokes, the physical traits that make identification easier are more readily discerned in the idealized paintings of illustrative guides like those by Roger Tory Peterson and National Geographic. Kaufman's groundbreaking work combines the best of both approaches by digitally enhancing photographic images to show the characteristics that are sometimes not apparent in photographs.
Some other distinguishing features include:
- The guide is organized by bird family groupings rather than strict taxonomic classification; this is a feature that will appeal especially to beginners.
- Text descriptions and range maps for each species appear on the page facing the plate of respective bird images.
- Important field marks are highlighted.
- Color-coded tabs identify each grouping of birds (waders, warblers, sparrows, etc.) for quick thumb indexing.
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