As a backyard wild bird and nature store, we help our customers as they seek to learn more about the birds they are seeing in their yards and out in nature. The ability to identify birds is a skill that takes time and is aided by using a field guide.

Over the years we’ve probably sold thousands of copies of field guides—there are many of them on the market. Some of the better-known field guides include Sibley, National Geographic, and Peterson Field Guides.

While growing up, my primary bird book was “A Field Guide to Western Birds” by Roger Tory Peterson. In 1974, when I was a young teenager, I had the privilege of meeting Peterson at a book signing at the University of Arizona, in Tucson.

My personal collection of bird books numbers in the hundreds. Jay’s Bird Barn has hundreds of bird-related books that have been donated, and several years ago, we created a lending library where customers can check out a variety of books—from destination field guides to bird identification books.

If you are new to birding, how do you know what kind of bird book you should buy? With so many books, what makes one field guide better than another? Some guides use illustrations, others use photographs. Some books include range maps showing the seasonal distribution of bird species. Some have detailed text describing the behavior of each species. Each field guide has strengths, but frequently they have gaps.

What makes a bird book good? Is there one bird book that has it all? Here are some of my thoughts. First, the book should be narrow in its approach. For example, the “Sibley Birds West” field guide has 603 species and covers Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Canada, etc. A book with such a broad approach is overwhelming to a beginning birder in Prescott, Arizona, looking at birds in his backyard.

In August of this year, while attending the Southwest Wings Birding and Nature Festival in Sierra Vista, Jay’s Bird Barn had the unique opportunity to be the first store in the world to sell the newly released book “Birds of Arizona” by Richard Cachor Taylor. Rick was a speaker at the festival, and he did a book signing of his new book.

Rick is a lifelong resident of Arizona and has an extensive background in birding. In 1980 Rick founded a birding travel company, Borderland Tours, dedicated to responsible ecotourism. In 2011, I went on a birding trip to Brazil with Borderland Tours and saw over 400 species!

Rick’s new book, “Birds of Arizona,” is a comprehensive field guide covering more than 500 species with over 900 photographs. Each species treatment includes a description of the bird, a list of similar species, information on the species’ vocalization, the status (relative abundance), the preferred habitat and the elevation range where the species is found, notes on behavior, and “noteworthy” information that is unique to that species. Range maps are also used to indicate where each species occurs within the state of Arizona.

Despite the wealth of information contained in his newest publication, the book is compact and easy to carry in the field. The book is organized by families, so similar-looking birds are shown together. Additionally, the species account pages are color-coded, making it easy to reference a particular family of bird species.

If you have been wanting to add to your bird book collection, I recommend picking up a copy of Rick’s field guide, “Birds of Arizona”.

Until next week, Happy Birding, and Merry Christmas!

Eric Moore is the owner of Jay’s Bird Barn, Arizona Field Optics, and Hallmark in
Prescott, Arizona. Eric has been an avid birder for over 50 years. If you have
questions about wild birds that you would like discussed in future articles, email
him at eric@jaysbirdbarn.com.

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