Sibley Guide to Birds original cover design in 2000
Sibley Guide to Birds new cover design for 2009
Information from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc (publisher)
Info and sales at your local independent bookstore or Amazon.com
Publishing history: First edition, first printing in Oct 2000
minor corrections and updates in 4th printing in 2001 (those changes are listed here)
new cover design in Sep 2009
A UK edition “The North American Bird Guide” published in 2000 by A. & C. Black
A leatherbound limited edition is published by Easton Press
The Bird Info page has in-depth discussions of bird identification and updates to the bird guides, listed by species.
Changes to official bird names since 2000
A comment on subspecies names in The Sibley Guide to Birds
A list of subspecies illustrated and their scientific names
A comment on the colors and maps in the Sibley Guide to Birds
The Sibley Guide to Birds represents more than 12 years of work by David Allen Sibley. The final draft of the artwork and text took over six years to complete, and the finished book was published in October 2000.
Before painting and writing the final draft David spent over 6 years working on the problems of layout and design. The challenge was to meet the goal of illustrating every species and every significant plumage variation; illustrating every species in flight from above and below; describing the complete range of vocalizations for each species; showing all significant subspecies variations; and doing it all in a format that is logical and easy to understand so that even beginners would not be overwhelmed by the amount of information.
The solution was a new and unique design arranging each species in a vertical column on the page. Most two-page spreads show four species, with the images of birds in flight lined up across the top of the pages, birds at rest below that are arranged from the drabbest plumage at the top to the brightest at the bottom. Beneath that is the voice description and then the range map. The book can be thought of as a continuous strip to be scanned horizontally, with birds in flight across the top and range maps across the bottom.
Arranging the birds in this orderly way allows the user to make comparisons easily between different plumages of the same species (by scanning up and down) as well as between similar plumages of different species (by scanning left to right). If you’ve seen a drab fall warbler, all you need to do is scan the upper images of each species to see all of the drabbest warblers. If you’ve seen a woodpecker in flight, a quick horizontal scan across several pages will show all the possibilities at a glance.
Hi Tom,
A quick index for the first printing of the large Sibley Guide is still available at the Avisys website here http://www.avisys.net/field%20guide%20indexes.htm. The 4th printing and later of the large North American Guide, and all printings of the Eastern and Western Guides include a quick index just inside the rear endpapers, so there is no need to print your own.
Good Birding!
David Sibley
Will the e-guides be available for the Android OS
Thank you
We’re working on it. I’ve been tweaking the Blackberry version and expect to be looking at a beta version for Android any day now, and hopefully it won’t take too much longer to get those out for public release.
Both of the books listed above. Your 1st book from 2000 up to your latest book. Do they all have a small map at the bottom of the page showing the Months/dates the bird are passing through or nesting ect…
Thanks,
Each species has a small map showing the range in summer, winter, and migration. But there’s no indication of the dates beyond that. In most states or counties you can get a checklist with “bar graphs” showing each species’ status monthly or weekly through the year, and ebird also can show some graphs. That will give you much better local information than the broad overview that the books show. Hope this helps.
Hi, Mr. Sibley,
Do you publish the Field Guide to Western Birds in Spanish?
Your guides are now the standard. Thanks for your hard work!
Steve Johnston
srj5@earthlink.net
Comment ,Thanks, Field guide is a great book..I am trying to identify sandpipers, (centeral N.J., on a tidle creek) The sandpipers have black chicks if that helps, the adults are adeep dark brown hard to see markings, Dark legs and beek. Thanks. Now once again thanks to you i have identified through my rear window: Black and Yellow night herons ,great blue herons,Great egret, A snowey or little egret(had yellow feet and a plume (long and Thin)Cormarant,mallard,eider,merganser,bufflehead,skimmers,one belted kingfisher, and so on with all the common little birds More thanks Bill Pamplin
My guess is you are seeing Virginia Rails. The only birds with black chicks are in the rail family – rails, moorhen, coot – and among those the Virginia Rail best fits your description. Nice find!
My four year “used” soft cover Eighth Printing edition of The Sibley Guide to Birds has been referenced an average of several times a week and is immensely appreciated for its content and the quality construction of the book itself.
Hola sr. Sibley. Quiero decirle que su guía es excelente!! de mucha utilidad aquí en México para la identificación de las aves migratorias. Saludos!
Hola Gia. Muchas gracias.
So I don’t have buyers regret, are you working on a revised edition to be released anytime soon?
I am currently working on a major revision, but it won’t be out until Spring of 2013 at the earliest.
This is a sweet story. I had wanted your book since it first appeared, but having just depleted my guide book funds with butterfly, dragonfly, Howell & Webb, New Nat Geo, I just didn’t have the funds when you were here at the RGVBF to get it. So I waited. I went to my local thrift store one day a month ago and they were just restocking the books and guess what I found? A virtually new book, yours, lying on top, only the cover was creased, the insides not even written in or a name in it. This may not sound so sweet but wait. So I open it up when I get home and there is a clipped out Reader’s Digest article about your book in the back. Clipped and stapled. Aw. Maybe some little grandma found the book too big to carry around or the writing was too small? Who knows? Her loss, my gain. I had heard you made some interesting comments of an anthropomorphic nature and finally came to one that I love. It’s true, the White-winged dove does have a “bemused expression”. Made me wonder what Gary Waggerman, my friend and WWD expert thought about that one. Did he ever talk to you? He’s gone now, but this made me smile. I am especially enjoying the hawk section, since we get everything down here in the RGV. Am studying it now and enjoying the whole book. Thank you for your great achievement.
Claire Baker