Product Description

Sparrows and Finches offers birders information on this rich variety of species right in their own backyard. It's hard to keep all those little brown birds apart. This handy, bring-along guidebook is designed to help beginner and advanced birders to identify accurately over 48 types of sparrows, finches, and their look-alikes.

Sparrows and Finches focuses only on these two families within a defined geographical location: the Great Lakes and eastern North America. As result, it offers comprehensive coverage in a small, convenient format.

The book is heavily illustrated with 220 full-color photographs taken by award-winning photographers that show these birds in their natural habitats. Comparison pages group similar-looking birds on a single spread for quick reference. Concise and accurate information on each bird includes:

- Common name
- Biological classification
- Song description
- Identifying features
- Seasonal changes to plumage color

Sparrows and Finches will prove indispensable to naturalists, students, and birders at all levels of experience. A special section entitled What Can I Do to Help the Sparrows offers simple ways to attract sparrows and finches to your own backyard. This is an engaging and friendly guide that reveals the rich diversity among a seemingly common family of birds so often taken for granted.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #696155 in Books
• Brand: Firefly
• Published on: 2003-04-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

From Booklist
This tidy little book provides a nice introduction. Sparrows, those "little brown jobs," have always presented an identification challenge for birders. Earley describes the 26 species of eastern sparrows (along with the much easier to recognize finches). One way to distinguish sparrows is by their throat patterns, which are illustrated in a box on the upper left of each account. Well-chosen clear photographs accompany each species and will be of great assistance in distinguishing among the species. This book also covers western vagrant species and has a useful "cheat sheet" and comparison photos. This terrific primer will be welcomed in all eastern libraries. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Colorful photographic guides... delightful companions for beginning birders in eastern North America. -- Diane C. Schmidt, E-Streams 09/2003

Concise and well-written... an excellent reference work and field guide. -- William H. Adams, Science Books and Films 12/15/2003

Detailed descriptions that point out the unique qualities of each bird as well as full-color photos... accessible, portable and affordable. -- Jim Williams, Minneapolis Star Tribune 10/29/2003

Essential field guide... features 40 species detailing their similarities and subtle differences and including valuable "nature notes" with most entries. -- Essex Free Press 05/21/2003

Highly illustrated with exquisite color photographs in a natural setting... a welcome addition to my library. -- Bill Carney, New Hampshire Wildlife 07/2003

Intended to help birders... they generally succeed, accurately portraying sexual and seasonal differences in plumage. -- Charles F. Thompson, Ibis 01/2004

Makes identifying these remarkable and diverse families of birds as easy as possible. -- Princeton Times of Trenton 12/14/2003

The most comprehensive information on several targeted species, packed in a colorful, convenient format. -- Bird Times 10/15/2003

These tidy little books provide nice introductions ... well chosen clear photographs accompany each species ... terrific primer. -- Nancy Bent, Booklist 07/01/2003

Well-done, birder-friendly guides that fit easily into any field pack and are recommended for both beginning and advanced birders. -- W.H. Gross, BirdWatcher's Digest 09/2004

Review
Well-done, birder-friendly guides that fit easily into any field pack and are recommended for both beginning and advanced birders. (W.H. Gross BirdWatcher's Digest 200409)

When identification of some of these birds becomes especially vexing. This book can help... 220 excellent color photographs. (Donald S. Heintzelman International Hawkwatcher 200506)

Concise and well-written... an excellent reference work and field guide. (William H. Adams Science Books and Films 20031214)

Makes identifying these remarkable and diverse families of birds as easy as possible. (Princeton Times of Trenton 2004)

The author... is a naturalist/teacher who clearly knows how to present bird-identification information in an organized, attractive, and educational format. (Charles Leck American Reference Books Annual, Volume 35 200309)

Lovely books ... range maps are the first I've seen ... that fully delineate both breeding range and wintering range. (George Bryant Toronto Ornithological Club 20030521)

Essential field guide... features 40 species detailing their similarities and subtle differences and including valuable 'nature notes' with most entries. (Essex Free Press 20030701)

These tidy little books provide nice introductions ... well chosen clear photographs accompany each species ... terrific primer. (Nancy Bent Booklist 200309)

Colorful photographic guides... delightful companions for beginning birders in eastern North America. (Diane C. Schmidt E-Streams 20031015)

The most comprehensive information on several targeted species, packed in a colorful, convenient format. (Bird Times 200307)

Highly illustrated with exquisite color photographs in a natural setting... a welcome addition to my library. (Bill Carney New Hampshire Wildlife 20031029)

Detailed descriptions that point out the unique qualities of each bird as well as full-color photos... accessible, portable and affordable. (Jim Williams Minneapolis Star Tribune )

Intended to help birders... they generally succeed, accurately portraying sexual and seasonal differences in plumage. (Charles F. Thompson Ibis )

Excellent information, more than 200 quality color photographs and delightful prose make these must-have guides. (David Bird Montreal Gazette )

Customer Reviews

A great book for beginning birders
For the beginning birder, the identification of Sparrows (in particular) and Finches can be a trying experience due to their similarity in appearance. This guide attempts to simplify the process for those in the eastern region of North America. Naturally, for the beginner, reems of scientific information is out of the question; what is need is key information and clear, detailed photographs in order to gain familiarity. And that's what this guide provides. There's no two ways about it, this is an excellent resource for the beginning birder.

Straight-forward photo guide for beginning on the sparrows
Basics: 2003, hardcover, 128 pages, 220+ color photos of 62 species, range maps

If you're looking for a less complex book to help you begin learning the sparrows and finches of the eastern US, this book will be helpful and welcome. There are over 220 color photos of the 42 species expected to be found in the east along with another 20 vagrant species from the west.

The photos are the center piece of this book. All are sharp, quality photos. Except for the vagrants, all birds have 2-5 photographs. The multiple photos show gender and age differences where relevant or, front and back for less variable species.

The text for each bird does not get bogged down with too much detail, which is good when first learning these birds. For the experienced birder, this book will not be appreciated nearly as much as is the information found in the Beadle or Rising books. Each bird has a short paragraph on its general natural history along with a simple list of identification notes on which to focus when looking at a bird. Names of similar species are given to help forcomparison.

For the vagrant species, just one smaller photo is shown for each bird. These are discussed with a brief paragraph of 5-8 short lines.

A nice addition in the back of the book is the inclusion of nine tables and photo charts to help compare similar species. As an example, there's a table for "Redpoll Comparison" and a photo chart for "Streaked Underparts Comparison" species.

There's nothing here that's not found in the better US field guides; however, it does present the information a little more simply and with a greater reliance on good photos for the birders who are less comfortable with sparrows.

I've listed several related books below...
1) A Guide to the Sparrows of the United States and Canada by Rising
2) Sparrows of the US and Canada: A Photo Guide by Beadle/Rising
3) Sparrows and Buntings: A Guide to North America and the World by Byers/Curson/Olsson
4) Finches & Sparrows : An Identification Guide by Clement/Harris/Davis