Determining the age of a goose can be helpful for identification, and can also reveal some interesting behavioral and ecological information by enabling you to sort out family groups and subflocks. Given good views it’s not hard to distinguish Canada Geese that are still in juvenal plumage from those that are in adult plumage. By […]
Ageing Canada Geese Read More »
Have you seen any Field Plovers lately? Blue Nutcrackers? Day Owls? These are all alternate common names of North American birds. Richard Banks has assembled a complete list of outdated English names of North American birds along with the current official names for those species, and it makes a great resource to find out what
Obsolete Bird Names Read More »
Here are page-by-page corrections and changes for The Sibley Guide to Trees. This listing will be updated periodically as issues come to my attention. Please feel free to leave comments or send me an email if you notice anything that is not listed here. inside front cover – The two-letter abbreviation for Nunavut should be
Corrections to The Sibley Guide to Trees Read More »
This list covers changes (through Nov 2009) to the official names of birds as published by the American Ornithologist’s Union (AOU) in periodic supplements to the AOU checklist. The checklist and all supplements can be found here. Note that the names printed in the Sibley Guides have not been revised. These are the changes that
Updated bird names for The Sibley Guide to Birds Read More »
The following list details corrections made in 2001 in the 4th printing of The Sibley Guide to Birds. If you own a 1st or 3rd printing you can make these corrections to your book. A “quick index” was added to the book in the 4th printing. If you’d like to download a quick index for
Corrections to 4th printing of the Sibley Guide to Birds Read More »
In the past, tree identification guides have emphasized the presence of opposite leaves as one of the most important field marks. In the Sibley Guide to Trees I used a more holistic approach, like modern bird identification, giving equal weight to all parts of the tree. A tree might catch your attention because of its
Trees with opposite leaves Read More »
One of my regular birding spots is a small farm field near my house in Concord, Massachusetts. I can walk around the entire place in about 20 minutes, but I usually take about two hours and get in some good sparrow-study. The clump of taller vegetation shown here is always a good spot to study
Probability in bird identification Read More »
Reader Sherman Dunnam sent me a note about an error in the introduction to maples on page 332. The third paragraph begins “All maples have palmately compound leaves…” This should instead say “Nearly all maples have palmately lobed leaves…” And could go on to elaborate that a few species have the leaves so deeply lobed
Correction to maples, page 332 Read More »
I have spent the last seven years working intensively on my new Guide to Trees, but of course a few misstatements and errors somehow managed to creep in. I’m always interested in learning more, correcting my mistakes, and passing along to you – the reader – newer, better, more accurate information. So if you notice
Updates to the Tree Guide Read More »
Two events related to The Sibley Guide to Trees: It is the featured product today on the Daily Grommet website. I’ll be checking in periodically, responding to comments and answering questions through noon tomorrow (Wednesday Sep 23rd). And “The Art of Identification” – a show of my artwork and field sketches at the Massachusetts Audubon