Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to the Birds of North America

February 9, 2015 By John E. Riutta in Newly Noted Books Tags: Birds, book, brown, field, guide, hachette, little, News, stokes

Even though it’s only February, I’m beginning to hear my local birds becoming far more vocal each morning; which tells me that it’s time to think about the spring migration. It’s also time to begin thinking about new field guides – the most recent example of which to arrive on my desk being Donald and Lillian Stokes’ new The Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to the Birds of North America from Little, Brown, and Company.

Covering just over 250 of the most commonly seen species throughout the continent, this new little field guide looks to be just the think for both beginners as well as those more experienced bird watchers and other naturalists who want a guidebook ready-to-hand but don’t feel like toting a full-sized guidebook into the field.

I’ll be carrying this promising little guidebook in a jacket pocket for the next few weeks and consulting it frequently in order to give it a good field test. Look for my assessment of it here very soon.

John E. Riutta

Founder and publisher of The Well-read Naturalist. Inveterate autodidact. Has repeatedly been found out standing in many fields. Plays well with otters.

→ John E. Riutta

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