Product Description

In this book, bursting with more information than any field guide could hold, the well-known author and birder Pete Dunne introduces readers to the "Cape May School of Birding." It's an approach to identification that gives equal or more weight to a bird's structure and shape and the observer's overall impression (often called GISS, for General Impression of Size and Shape) than to specific field marks.

After determining the most likely possibilities by considering such factors as habitat and season, the birder uses characteristics such as size, shape, color, behavior, flight pattern, and vocalizations to identify a bird. The book provides an arsenal of additional hints and helpful clues to guide a birder when, even after a review of a field guide, the identification still hangs in the balance.

This supplement to field guides shares the knowledge and skills that expert birders bring to identification challenges. Birding should be an enjoyable pursuit for beginners and experts alike, and Pete Dunne combines a unique playfulness with the work of identification. Readers will delight in his nicknames for birds, from the Grinning Loon and Clearly the Bathtub Duck to Bronx Petrel and Chicken Garnished with a Slice of Mango and a Dollop of Raspberry Sherbet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #184185 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 736 pages

About the Author
PETE DUNNE is the author of eleven books, including Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion and Pete Dunne on Bird Watching. He is the vice president of the New Jersey Audubon Society and director of its Cape May Bird Observatory.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
A Guide to the Guide

How To Make This Book Work For You

There is nothing particularly complicated about a guide to bird identification.
All it is (or hopes to be) is a book that explains what to look for to distinguish
one species from another. In addition, both directly and indirectly it tells you
how to go about doing so. For this book to work for you, you don't need to
know any more than this. All you have to do is turn to the account of a
species of interest. Read the text. Bring the information to bear in the field, or
in the case of a bird you've already found and studied, compare the text to
the details housed in your memory (or inscribed in your field notes) and see
whether you have a match.
But if you want to maximize the potential of this book, and if you
are the kind of person who is interested in the whys as much as the what
and the how, then you are invited to keep reading. Certain principles govern
the information provided here and the manner in which it is presented. If you
understand these principles, this book will serve you better.
First, insofar as this book is designed to be a supplement, it is
presumed that you already have one or more of the standard illustrated field
guides to birds at your disposal. As they have been since the publication of
the seminal Peterson field guide in 1934, a basic field guide is every birder's
primary resource when confronting an identification challenge. This book is
meant to augment these primary guides by offering more information. It also
strives to present information as naturally as possible by replicating the
identification process used by an experienced birder: looking at the big
picture first and sleuthing for details later.
Inexperienced birders commonly use field marks to jump-start an
identification. Experienced birders use field marks to confirm it. For very
understandable reasons, standard field guides are thematically allied to the
jumpstart school. This guide is more wedded to process.

Don't Keep an Open Mind

Even before they sight a bird, experienced birders are bringing their
experience to bear. They know that birds are creatures of habit and habitats
and that the nature of a habitat encourages certain species to be there and
discourages the presence of others. For example, you would expect to find a
Carolina Wren in a suburban, coastal community in New Jersey. You would
not expect a Rock Wren, a bird common to arid, rocky slopes.
Also, experienced birders know that different bird species have
defining ranges (Rock Wrens are western birds that are not found east of the
prairies, so they are not likely to be found in New Jersey) and that a bird's
range is determined not only by geography but by seasons. The range of
Rock Wren extends into southern British Columbia, southern Alberta, and
southwestern Saskatchewan in the summer, but in the winter northern
breeding members of this species retreat farther south. This species is not
located in Canada in winter.
So when these birders go birding, their accumulated knowledge
and experience enable them to predict which birds they are likely to
encounter based on location, habitat, and time of year (among other clues).
And because they are able to go into the field juggling fewer variables, the
identification process is greatly simplified for them.
When a wrenlike bird pops up on a scree slope in June in the
Rocky Mountain foothills just west of Calgary, Alberta, they can test a
hypothesis— "Is it Rock Wren?" (the expected species)—rather than
approach the problem by asking: "Now, which one of the nine species of
wrens found in North America is this?"
But, you may be saying, I'm not an experienced birder, so I
cannot apply such a search engine to filter what I see. That is exactly the
function of the introductory paragraph in each species account.

Identification Right Think

The introductory paragraph for each species provides a biographical
backdrop. The elements include STATUS, DISTRIBUTION, HABITAT,
COHABITANTS, and MOVEMENTS/MIGRATION. STATUS relates to the
bird's numeric abundance and condition of residency (whether it is a
permanent resident, a summer or winter resident, a visitor, or a vagrant). You
are likely to see birds that enjoy large populations and less likely to see
those whose populations are small. The terms "common," "uncommon,"
and "rare" are most commonly used to describe a bird's status. A "common"
bird is one you are very likely to encounter; "uncommon" refers to the bird
you might see, but perhaps another, similar (and perhaps more common) bird
should also be considered as a candidate. "Rare" birds are the ones you have
only a slim chance of encountering. If you encounter a bird that resembles a
rare species, your identification may well be correct, but you should
approach the possibility with caution.
DISTRIBUTION defines the geographic area in which the bird is
typically found. For some species, this remains fixed all year. For other
species, distribution shifts seasonally. HABITAT describes the biological
setting—climatic, topographical, and vegetative—that the species favors and
offers examples of such settings. COHABITANTS are the other birds (or
animals) that are also specialized for and likely to be found in a bird's
preferred habitat. MOVEMENTS/MIGRATION provides the dates (and
sometimes the routes and key staging areas) a species moves between its
breeding and wintering areas; this passage sometimes carries the bird
across regions that do not fall within that species' breeding or winter range.
Taken in sum, STATUS, DISTRIBUTION, HABITAT,
COHABITANTS, and MOVEMENTS/ MIGRATION constitute the biological
framework that defines where a bird is likely to be and when it is likely to be
there—and thus whether a species is likely to be what you believe it to be.
In a word, these elements of species' biographical backdrop
define probability. Experienced birders use probability all the time, and
inexperienced birders eventually come to appreciate it. They also come to
understand that probability is not confining and in fact is empowering. It helps
turn a complicated question ("Now, which one of the 800 species of birds
found in North America is that?") into a simple one ("Is this the species I
expect?").
You're in Cape May Point, New Jersey. You see a large wren in a
suburban yard. The question you'll ask is: Is it Carolina Wren, the default
large wren for the region? Almost always the answer is yes. But as salient a
factor as probability is, it is not determining. It suggests, but it doesn't
certify. Probability has a qualifying companion called possibility. Birds don't
always follow the rules. They sometimes turn up outside their prescribed
ranges and in marginal or ill-suited habitats or at odd times. Getting back to
the aforementioned Rock Wren, it so happens that in December 1992 a Rock
Wren was found in Cape May Point, New Jersey, rummaging around in the
scattered debris of a house under construction.
So the last piece of information imparted in the opening
paragraph, designated VI—short for VAGRANCY INDEX—is a conditional
modifier. This index relates to the known vagrancy tendencies of a species or
the possibility that it may turn up where it doesn't belong (in terms of its
normal geographic distribution). There are five ratings.
0 No pattern of vagrancy. The chances of this species
being seen outside its range are scant to nil.
1 Some slight tendency to wander, but such
occurrences are regional, extending not far beyond the established borders of
the species' range, or there are simply very few records of vagrancy.
2 The species shows some modest pattern of vagrancy.
It is possible to encounter it outside its normal range but still not likely, and
you should consider other, more likely possibilities first.
3 This species has demonstrated an established,
widespread pattern of vagrancy. Ignore the range descriptions. This bird could
be sighted almost anywhere.
4 The species is so widespread that there are few places
left in North America for it to wander.
If you don't care to remember the particulars, just remember the
rating system. The lower the number, the less likely a species is to wander.

Birds Are the Sum of Their Parts (and More), or, But How Did You Know It
Was a Wren and Not a Swan?

The field marks used to differentiate birds relate most often to structure and
plumage. Used in concert to make an identification, both are important. But a
bird's structural characteristics are in many ways more fundamental and
more determining. More than plumage, structural attributes (such as bill
shape, neck length, body shape, leg length, or foot shape) link birds to
closely related species; also, because these attributes vary less between the
ages and sexes within a species, they are commonly not as variable or
transitional as plumage. Accordingly, the description for every species looks
first at structure and concludes with plumage, focusing first upon the most
fundamental traits.
SIZE AND OVERALL SHAPE: Birders argue as to whether size or
shape is a bird's most determining characteristic (the one experienced
birders note first when making an identification). The fact is that most birders
see and assess these qualities simultaneously, thus quickly simplifying the
identification process.
STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS: Bill size, shape, and length,
head size and shape, the contours of a bird's neck, the shape of its ...

Customer Reviews

A Refreshing Primer for Bird ID
When I bought this book, I thought it was an identification key. It is not nor does it need to be. Especially in the field where markings are difficult to see. I really enjoyed his emphasis on habitat and "vocalizations". Very thorough. It's not an exciting read but it sure is informative. Experienced birders could supplement their knowledge with this different approach. Novices would certainly benefit by having a fresh start with birding techniques. Using the "Cape May" approach might make a birder out of anybody.

Great companion guide...
This is a wonderful addition to The Peterson Field Guide - greater in-depth information regarding habitat and plumage.

A good companion is hard to find
This field guide companion looks stark at first, with no pictures, but that is part of the point. With many fine field guides available, this is meant to supplement them, and in no way replace them. The necessarily brief descriptions of a field guide are nicely fleshed out in this volume, which is best suited to browsing after returning from the field, or for thumbing through when you can't get out into the field. The best addition to my stay-at-home birding library since Ehrlich, Dobkin & Wheye's "The Birder's Handbook."