cameranut Loc: North Carolina

Our local library has one of the best, if not the very best bird id book I have ever seen. It is the National Geographic guide to birds of North America.
This book has actual photographs instead of paintings/ drawings, making it superior for beginners as well as seasoned birders.
Next time I check it out, I may just decide to lose it and pay for the book if they have two copies.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I've got several of the Audubon guides (and use their website, too).

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Interesting because the real pros I know prefer the drawings. And BTW I agree as I have used both and found the drawings far superior for detail and nuances.

Pine Warbler

Sibley is our main to-to reference. They recently have updated the book, so what was always wonderful becomes even better, but we use a number of others...National Geographic Field Guide to North American Birds and our old stand-by (from college 40 years ago, but this has been reprinted) A guide to Field Identification: Bird of North America - A golden Field Guide. We also use Audubon & Stokes...these both have photographs. They also come in Eastern & Western volumes which means we have to buy both since we live in Nebraska. We also have some specialty books...once you get into trying to ID, you get hooked. I live in Nebraska, so Fontenelle Forest also has a great Nature Search site to help ID bird, flowers, insects, trees, etc that are found in the forest, so many of those are also found in eastern Nebraska.
Some how we just need more than one resource...even with photos. Before you know it, you will become a bird watcher. By the way, one of the features I love about Lightroom is the keyword system, so I have basically set up a classification system to keep track of my birds. Just this week we were trying to remember if we had ever seen a Baltimore Oriole in April at our favorite haunt...turns out we had...back on April 30 2007. Loved how the search feature worked.

wmurnahan Loc: Bloomington IN

I'm still using my Golden Field Guide from when I started bird watching as a kid, the copy right is 1966, but I can find a bird faster in that book than I can any other.

Pine Warbler

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Peterson's guides are the basic starting point. National Geo is a beautiful book, but a bit big to cart around. Silby's books are good (I think "Hawks in Flight", which he wrote ages ago with Pete Dunne, is an essential book for any serious lover of big birds.)

I am not a fan of electronic bird guide books in general even though I rarely read any books that are not ebooks. I just find a physical book easier to use in the field.

And, yes, I think I still have a few Golden guides around somewhere. I was a boy scout in the 60's.

wmurnahan Loc: Bloomington IN

After all the talk about bird books, I decided to update my Golden Field Guide and got a newer printing, all I can say is don't waste your money. The printing from St. Martin's Press is bad. They had it done in China and the colors on the plates are way off and the tern page is so white you can't hardly see the terns. I will keep using my 1966 printing, just have to be careful with the binding.

Pine Warbler

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Honestly! My Peterson's and Golden guides were printed on the best paper available. They will probably outlast Styrofoam in a landfill! I think Perterson's is still made of quality material, but that could have changed as well. Sorry to hear about the Golden

But, as long as we are on guides, my favorite guide is my copy of "A Field Guide to the Birds of the West Indies" by James Bond. I think Peterson's now is the publisher. My copy is a bit older and I can't recall the publisher.