Stokes Field Guide Series: Beginner's Guide to Eastern Region Birds

cray: This is just the best, easiest to use bird book I’ve ever had. It’s small and basic but so nice. The birds are grouped by color, so I can finally tell a house finch from a purple finch! Many birds are similar in color, so having them side by side or very close makes it so much easier to identify. If you are only going to get one book, get this one.

United States on Feb 23, 2023

M Roden: The size and quality of this beginners' guide to birds is good in that there is information, just not too much that might overwhelm an 11-yo. I don't know his interests and thought that this book would hopefully, if he's not already interested in backyard life, trigger such interest, especially as the family is soon moving to larger home with a substantial backyard.

Canada on Dec 22, 2021

KdvKdv: Bought this book for my father....he is newly retired and last month he put up a bird feeder in his backyard. He loves this informative book for its simplicity and the colorful photos! Perfect size to take outside while trying to identify the different birds. Great gift idea :)

Canada on Jun 05, 2021

Leah Pettit: My husband and I love wildlife, but both grew up in much different climates than we currently live. So even the little brown sparrows are SO EXCITING FOR US. This book has allowed us to quickly nerd out over birds in the forests, in the suburbs, and anywhere else, and is small enough to fit in his pocket! It has made our walks through the woods like treasure hunts. LOVE IT.

Neither of us are birders, but we might become them!

Canada on Jun 01, 2021

Kay: The best thing for a beginner is that the birds are grouped by color. Therefore a beginner has a better start on finding out the identity of a bird. Most bird books have them illustrated by their type, like thrush, finch, etc. and you can spend hours trying to find a picture of the bird you just sighted since as a beginner you do not know what type of bird it is. It also tells the area where the bird lives by season which further helps with identification . Instructions on the correct design of bird house for each type of bird is very useful. I recommend this book. After buying one for a beginner I bought one for myself and find it very handy.

United States on Feb 09, 2021

EB: My daughter started to show an interest in birds and I wanted to get her a book that is easy to use, has one bird per page like flashcards, rather than just text and images like an encyclopedia. I wanted it to include all the birds in our area, all the ones she's seen and all the ones she might see and ask about. This book has everything we have seen, including a red-tailed hawk and American kestrel. It has great info like male and female differences in appearance, a map of where you can find them during different seasons, how to attract them, a transcription of their call, and more. The birds are sorted by color for easy identification, and there's an index in the front and back covers that lists all the birds alphabetically if you're looking for info about a bird you know. Awesome all-around book for beginners.

United States on Jan 11, 2021

amandap: This is an amazing book. I gave it to my neighbors son who turned 9 and is autistic. He loves watching birds and this book is so much better than I expected. Color coded and shows the males and females so you can look them up and determine what your seeing. As soon as I have it to him his mom and him went through the entire book and wouldn't put it down.

Canada on Jun 21, 2020

Mel: Most of the backyard birds were in this book. The kids had fun identifying birds they saw and learning more about their habitat, nesting and egg identification. Very easy reference for kids.

Canada on Jun 10, 2020

M. Holmes: This is a fantastic book. I'm homeschooling my children and we are studying birds. The only birds I could identify were cardinals, pigeons, and mourning doves. Thanks to this book, my children and I can now identify over 12 kinds of birds! That may not seem like much, but people have to start somewhere.

The color arrangement is the key to this book. Most other books assume you have some knowledge of the type of bird, like a swallow, flycatcher, wren, towhee, etc. That won't work with a beginner. I have no idea where to begin! I've got an Audubon Field Guide and I've spent precious minutes flipping through 10's of pages trying to find the bird I'm looking for. This book is different in that it is organized according to the color of the bird. It makes it extremely easy to find just about any bird. My 7 year old daughter took a picture of a bird in our backyard and just based on the colors, was able to identify it as a Red-Winged Blackbird! The pictures mostly contain Male and Female coloring, and occasionally Winter and Summer coloring. So if you see a brown bird which turns out to be a female of a species, you'll see a picture of the male, whatever color he may be, and vice...

United States on Jan 29, 2016

TooManyHobbies: On a whim I installed a bird feeder and within minutes of filling it with food the birds arrived. It was great, it was wonderful, but I quickly realized that I couldn't identify half of the birds that came to visit!

I rushed out and bought a few bird identification books, and the Stokes Beginner's Guide to Birds has become my favorite. It is my favorite because:

1. The photos are crisp and clear, and the colors are amazingly vibrant.

2. The photos of the birds are large, probably taking up 2/3 of each page.

3. Because the photos are so large there is not a lot of room for text, but the text that is there is direct and to the point. For each bird there is information on 5 topics: Identification, Voice, Habitat, Nesting, and Attracting. Because of the limited page space, only a few sentences (2-3) are used to explain each topic.

This book is a great guide for beginners. It is short, sweet and to the point.

But possibly a little too short? Shortness would be my only criticism of this book. Not enough species are listed. There are a few birds that visit my feeder that couldn't be identify using this book alone.

So this is a great book...

United States on May 06, 2013