Peterson Field Guide To Mammals Of North America: Fourth Edition

The Guide to the Best Bird Guide Book With so many hobbies to choose from today, it is hard to choose one that may interest you. But, why not give one of the most popular hobbies in the world a try, birdwatching? To start, I suggest a guide book, particularly one of the oldest and widely used guide books, the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America. This is the ideal guide if you are a beginner in birdwatching to help you learn about and identify birds. As a birdwatcher myself, I have found this to be a very effective guide book. This product has a lot to offer beginning birdwatchers. Peterson guide books are frequently updated to improve their effectiveness, and this edition is formatted in a very easy-to-use format. In the front of the guide, you can find an easy-to-use one page index to look up bird species in the field, before they fly away. The beginning of the book also has a section on terminology so readers can understand the terms used throughout the book, terms that all birdwatchers should be familiar with. The birds are grouped into their respective families. For example, all owls are in the same section and sparrows can be found in the same section as other sparrows. Detailed drawing are included for every species so coloring patterns can be easily seen. All species also have range maps, so you can rule out species easily when identifying in the field. Each species also features a descriptive blurb to aid in identification, using language beginners can understand. In the back, silhouettes of birds commonly found on phone lines and fences have been drawn to identify birds even if you can’t see their color patterns. In addition, you get access to video podcasts, which are a great way to get youngsters interested in birdwatching. So is this product worth the money? The answer is simply, yes. First of all, it is very reasonably priced. Secondly, it is probably the best guide book for beginning bird watchers as it is easy to understand the content and to find the birds you are trying to identify. I would recommend this product to anyone who is interested in becoming or recently became a birdwatcher.

Like a pair of shoes with a little extra room in the toes, I purchased this book for my 5 year old son, knowing that he would grow into it. He is very interested in animals and the outdoors, so this book is a natural fit for him, just as it was when my Dad purchased it for me as a boy. Granted, the descriptions of the various species are above his understanding, but the beautiful illustrations and color photos keep his interest, and make him want to read more. The range maps are easy enough for him to comprehend. This book is a nice supplement to his PBS Animal shows (like Dinosaur Train and Wild Kratts), and one that he enjoys thumbing through to look at the pictures and attempt to read.

This guide is very handsome, logical in its chapters and complete but not exchaustive in its information. The illustrations are very good. Besides that this is a better guide, it in my view is also a very good match with the Audubon guide on mammals. The latter contains only, but superb, photographic material. The Peterson's, however, contains handmade illustrations and artwork for each mammalian species. In most cases such illustrations are better for distinguishing more related species (such as bats or for instance ground squirrels). Moreover, this guide contains illustrations on mammalian skulls. If you can afford it buy both guides, if not my advice is to buy the Peterson's as it is more practical in use for observations in the field. It was a tremendous aid for me (I was an European tourist) when travelling and hiking in the Rocky's of Canada.

The first part of the book is drawn pictures grouped together by animal types (squirrels, langomorphs, etc.) They have a short description and a page number for both the skull and the longer description. The drawn pictures are very helpful in deciding which animal you may have. It is then easy to go to the longer description which includes a range map, habits, habitat, identifying features of the mammals, as well as how they differ from similar species. This book is well organized and easy to use.

Needed for a college class and it did the job. Nicely illustrated and very informative.

Well organized, good color plates, solid species descriptions, easily navigated index and very useful range maps. This is what I was looking for.

This is perhaps 3rd edition on this I've purchased and really enjoying all the improvements.

As a professional field biologist, this has been my go-to book for mammal ID for years (for tracks, use Elbroch). I like a good weighty tome for office use, but it's a bit of a pain to take into the field. WE NEED A KINDLE VERSION PLEASE!

Ideal for amateur and professional alike.

The plates are really well done, especially the skulls and footprints ones. I bought this book for its information on bats, the descriptions are short but valuable, exactly what I was expected from a field guide. It compares aspects of the anatomy that could be misleading in the identification processus. The habitat of the species is described very briefly but precise enough to know where to look for them. Everything you would be waiting from a great field guide! A must have to anyone who wants to be able to identify mammals in North America.

No es el libro que solicite

Excellent guide, très pratique (pour ceux qui savent lire l'anglais), très belles représentations des mammifères et surtout une grande place est faite sur les petits mammifères ce qui est rare.

Es una gran guía, muy útil en la carrera de Biología y aun más para Mastozoología. Tiene lobque necesitas si te quieres adentrar en el mundo de los mamíferos. Útil para la educación.