Hi, Folks,

I must have been an especially good girl this year, because Santa brought me
a Sibley Guide. I Unasked for, I know, but I have a few opinions about it:

This is not a book for the absolute beginner. For that, Peterson's guides are
the very best. Why? A beginner just wants to know what he or she is looking
at....is it a Black-headed Grosbeak or an Rose-Breasted Grosbeak? What's the
bird over there? Peterson's guides are very adept at training the beginner to
look at body shape and important plumage points.
The Sibley guide is for the intermediate birder who now wants to know
whether he's looking at an adult, non-breeding female Black-Headed Grosbeak
or a 1st basic plumaged Rose-Breasted Grosbeak. They're so close that I'm
inclined to believe that the two species were just one not that long ago.

It's very good at comparing closely related species, or variations within a
species. For instance, he devotes two entire pages to such variable birds as
Red-Tailed Hawks, Savannah Sparrows, etc etc. I like how he throws all the
birds of a tribe (for instance, woodpeckers) on the same two pages, at the
beginning of that tribe's pages, to allow the more experienced birder to see
the variations.

(by the way, I am by no means depreciating or sneering down my nose at
beginners. We all were beginners, once, and I know that this book would have
probably overwhelmed me with the many subtle differences in birds like
sparrows or peeps. (which still stymie me. But then, I'm a warbler woman.)).
If you're a beginner, trust Roger Tory Peterson to lead you to the true path
of birding.. and Mr. Sibley will then show you the finer details.

I appreciate the clarification Sibley made on molts. Alas, I've always been
thrown by the different molts of different species at different times of the
year. Now I understand. Sibley makes it clear to me, both in the pattern and
timing. I had no idea there were THREE ways of delineating molt.

As always, bird calls annotated to paper can only be subjective. There's many
in the book that I disagree with. For a couple instances: Mr. Sibley says
that the "Pacific" Olive-Sided Flycatcher says "what peeves you" rather than
"quick three beers". I've heard the same bird (I assume...)at the top of an
enormous Ft. Lewis fir say both in the same session, or just 'quick three
beers,' but never 'what peeves you' only. But then, I suppose, this is good
information, anyway. Now I know that what peeves me is the Olive-Sided
Flycatcher singing something different than how many brewskis he wants.

Again, subjectively, I disagree with his Savannah Sparrow call. He
characterizes their call as "ti ti ti tseeeeee tisooo." Not in my
neighborhood, they all sing "see see see seeeeeeeeeeee seesaaaaay." That
last vowel makes a heck of a difference. However, I must say he covers the
many types of Savannah's quite nicely.


Many cheers and whistles of appreciation for Sibley's treatment of hybrids.
Yaaaaaaaaaaaayyy!!! When someone reports a hybrid on Tweeters, I always
think, wow, they're really good, I can never tell if what I'm looking at is a
honest to goodness hybrid or a color morph. And honestly, when I see a
hybrid, I sometimes don't even know it's a hybrid, so it goes down on my
daily list as "unidentified."
About the only hybrid I can tell is a hybrid is a mallard cross. And I think
a Mallard will mate with anything he can catch, to include that female
Labrador swimming out to retrieve him.)

SIbley covers the exotics and the unusuals, does a nice workup on the many
non-indigenous parrots in the country, and may even be successful in finally
teaching me my peeps.

However, I wish, rather mournfully, that he had included our extinct species,
i.e. Eskimo Curlew, Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, Carolina Parakeet, etc. He does
mention them, but only paragraphically. I suppose the idea is to not confuse
a bird that none of us will ever see again :-( with a bird that we still
CAN see........but ........it would have been nice to at least include them.
They're not here because of us. We at least owe them the honor of remembering
them, even if it were in a section all to themselves.

Finally.......Mr. Sibley is an artist in his own right. He really did a great
job. I wish I could draw a hundredth as well as he does. His artwork really
makes a difference in identifying birds.

All in all....."The Sibley Guide to Birds" is a MUST have for your bird
bookshelves. It's a wee too big to fit in your pocket (another plus for
Peterson Guides) but for identifying birds, it's absolutely top notch. Barnes
and Noble had it on their sale table a week before Christmas (I suppose
that's where Santa heard me telling my husband I HAD to have it), hopefully
you can still find it there.

Michelle
MBlanchrd at aol.com
Oly, WA