Birds: A Golden Guide from St. Martin's Press

This guide will help you identify-quickly and easily-the birds you are most likely to see. It tells you:

What to look for Where and when to look How to attract birds

Range maps show where each bird is found, and handy tables at the back of the book contain a wealth of additional information about migration, eggs, nests, and food. This is the perfect bird book for beginners at any age.

An illustrated guide to the identification of 129 common birds in the United States and southern Canada, describing their physical characteristics and habitats. Includes a table listing migration dates and nesting and feeding habits.

This guide will help you identify-quickly and easily-the birds you are most likely to see. It tells you:

What to look for Where and when to look How to attract birds

Range maps show where each bird is found, and handy tables at the back of the book contain a wealth of additional information about migration, eggs, nests, and food. This is the perfect bird book for beginners at any age.

Children's Literature

This reissue of the classic Golden Guide first published in 1949, updated with new material, is still one of the best guides to identification of 129 bird species for middle elementary school children. This update includes several birds dropped from (black-crowned night heron) or added to (cattle egret) the roster, birds now named more specifically (Eastern rather than common bluebird), and shinier paper. However, most of the illustrations are repeats from earlier editions but still seem clearly rendered. Endmatter includes maps of the four principal flyways, a double-page chart of birds, their migration patterns, sixes, nest materials and locations, and typical foods, making this a useful source for reports as well as a way to sort for found nests or eggs. This introduction fits neatly in a backpack and will whet children's appetites for the larger, more complete works that are used by older birders. 2001 (orig. 1949), St. Martin's Press, $6.95. Ages 7 up. Reviewer:Susan Hepler

Golden Guides first appeared in 1949 and quickly established themselves as authorities on subjects from Natural History to Science. Relaunched in 2000, Golden Guides from St. Martin's Press feature modern, new covers as part of a multi-year, million-dollar program to revise, update, and expand the complete line of guides for a new generation of students.