Hi, Tweets

I'm late getting this review of Kenn Kaufman's new book posted, but most
authors don't mind positive reviews even ages later. I was able to have
lots of people, both non-birders and experienced birders, look at and use
the book.

Birds of North America by Kenn Kaufman -

I received my copy of Kenn Kaufman's new book, Birds of North America, just
before leaving for my annual turkey vulture/raptor monitoring project on
the northern coast of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. Our site is in a
popular county park and I get many visitors with questions about birds or
wanting to see pictures, etc., of various species. I decided to test
Kaufman's new guide on my visitors plus using it myself. I was not
disappointed.

First: my usage. I was a bit bothered by the format at first; I learned
birds in phylogenetic order and this is far different. With a few days
usage, however, it wasn't bothersome at all. I found the explanations
succint and interesting for most species. Distribution maps in a field
guide are always advantageous. I liked the illustrating and was fascinated
with the digital formatting which, at times, looked to be more painting
than photo. The designations for small groupings of species was
interesting and at times humorous, a plus in a straight-forward field
guide: "'crowned' sparrows, miscellaneous micro-birds, flashy flycatchers,
zebra-backed woodpeckers, probing sandpipers," etc. All divided and named
to make it that much easier for the beginning or intermediate birder to
find the bird they have seen. Even experts can appreciate these groupings.
I spend the majority of my time with raptors, vultures, and waterfowl, so I
was especially pleased with the gull categories, a family I'm not as
skillful with; it was quite helpful in locating and studying just what I
was seeing at the time.

Second: visitor usage. I am often asked if I have a bird guide so that
people can see just what an oystercatcher, guillemot, or cormorant looks
like "up close." People were, first off, quite taken with the dramatic
cover photo of the scarlet tanager and made note of the book for possible
purchase. The majority of people that used the book did not realize that
the illustrations were photographs. Most non-birders found it very easy to
use and liked the groupings and order. Both the color-coded and pictorial
tables of content were found to be especially helpful by most.

I think that Kenn Kaufman has reason to be proud of an excellent field
guide. It is innovative and colorful, yet has the time-honored facets that
we are used to in a top-notch field guide. I hope it is just the beginning
of several "focus" guides.

Diann MacRae, Coordinator
Olympic Vulture Study
22622 - 53rd Avenue S.E.
Bothell, Washington 98021
USA