Reddit reviews National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 7th Edition

FYI, the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America has a note about this duck as there was a population imported into California that escaped.

We recently bought

National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 7th Edition

and

National Geographic Complete Birds of North America, 2nd Edition: Now Covering More Than 1,000 Species With the Most-Detailed Information Found in a Single Volume

Off Amazon and I LOVE them! We opted for a Non-Amazon seller and we paid less than $5 each WITH shipping. I am very impressed with the layout, I have found it a pretty fast flip to find a species while looking at it.

I've got the Sibley guide pretty well used, and my Nat Geo guide is older than a lot of people I know, so it's probably time to get the updated edition to complement the Sibley guide.

Here's the Amazon link for the 7th guide book.

https://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Field-Guide-America/dp/1426218354

thanks for that recommendation, I'll look it up! I definitely like the idea of not carrying extra things around with me; the only drawback would be using battery on your phone and not being able to make notes in the book. But I'm definitely going to consider that, I like packing light when I travel.

The only suggestion I can give is a bird book for North America, I really like the [National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America] (https://smile.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Field-Guide-America/dp/1426218354/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1526682335&sr=8-2&keywords=national+geographic+bird+book); this is the 7th edition, I have the sixth. A lot seems to be based on personal preference of bird organization and whether they use drawings or pictures, but I really like this one!

For a general bird guide, I like the Sibley guide (you can use the Sibley East field guide, or the larger Sibley guide for all of North America). There are also those who swear by the National Geographic guide and insist that it is superior.

That should be good to get you started – eventually if you get more into birdwatching, then there are more detailed guides for specific groups.

For insects, I love this massive photographic guide. For a smaller book you can take into the field, the best one I know of is Kaufman. There is also a Kaufman guide for butterflies, specifically.

I'm afraid I don't have any recommendations for mammals, reptiles, or amphibians for your area.