Review: National Geographic Complete Birds of North America

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,
Edited by Jonathan Alderfer, with Jon L. Dunn, maps by Paul Lehman
National Geographic Society, October 2014.
ISBN-10: 1426213735; ISBN-13: 9781426213731
744pages;  10.1 x 7.2 x 1.8 inches

This is a truly magnificent volume and one I am pleased to add to my library. Although I live in Australia and do most of my birding here I have been birding in a number of non-Australian countries. Sadly, I have yet to spend any time birding in the North American continent, a state I would like to correct sometime soon. This wonderful volume just adds a keen impetus to that desire.

I did not buy the first edition of this great work, so I cannot make comparisons. It has been “fully revised and updated” so I will have to take the editor’s word for that. There has been a significant increase in the number of species covered, now numbering over 1000. Edited by Jonathan Alderfer, this volume is a natural companion to the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America.

Look at the numbers

This monumental work stacks up well as far as the numbers are concerned:

• a total of 744 pages
• Over 1000 species featured (compared with 962 in the 1st edition and 990 in the Field Guide)
• Over 800 distribution and migration maps
• 150 full colour photographs
• 9 photographers
• Over 4000 illustrations
• 21 artists
• 89 family groups included
• An interesting group of rarities discussed
• The text draws on the combined expertise of 25 birding authorities
• Two pages of references to Additional Reading

Format and layout

Each family of birds has a short introductory essay, followed by thorough coverage of each species in that family. Each species is then given a thorough coverage in the main body of the text, including:

• a general introductory paragraph
• Identification details (including male/female, juvenile and plumage variations)
• Geographic variation (where appropriate)
• Details of similar species
• Voice
• Status and distribution
• Population notes, including changes in numbers
• Range maps
• A small, field guide type illustration
• A photograph (selected species)

Range maps

The colour-coded range maps are very detailed and include:

• breeding range (salmon)
• year-round range (purple)
• winter range (blue)
• migration range spring and autumn (orange)
• migration range mainly in spring (green)
• migration range mainly in autumn (yellow)
• a range of other symbols (eg arrows showing direction of migration – see below)

Birds in flight

One of the useful details include the illustrations showing different aspects of a species in flight. This is particularly handy for those species birders see more often in flight rather than sitting or perching.

Concluding comments:

Overall, this is not only an impressive publication, it is immensely useful and helpful. It is by no means a thorough scientific handbook featuring and summarising all the current knowledge on each species; other handbooks do not far more effectively. (As an aside, it is nothing like our Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds (HANZAB) which is in 7 volumes, each of over 1000 pages of small print.) It doesn’t pretend to be an exhaustive authority on all things birds in North America. However, it succeeds admirably in being a single-volume reference to all the species of one continent, easy to read, easy to use and a delight to read – or just browse. It will delight all birders, from casual and inexperienced backyard birders through to field-hardened experts.

All I have to do now is:

• Find space on my bookshelf for this new volume
• Save up for a birding trip to North America.

Simple.

Good birding.

Disclosure: I would like to thank National Geographic for kindly providing a review copy of this book.

Further reading:

• National Geographic Pocket Guide: Birds of North America
• National Geographic Complete Birds of North America 2nd edition: a book review
• Review: Brushed by feathers by Francis Wood
• Review: a Field Guide to the Birds of Colombia
• Review: A Field Guide to the Birds of Australia (8th edition, Simpson and Day)
• A guide to the birds of East Africa: a novel