National Audubon Society

National Audubon Society Birds of North America

Audubon Birds North America cover

Surpassing 900 pages as it does in order to contain the “more than 800 species” of birds presented in its species profiles, “Birds of North America” is a much weightier tome than its series sibling, “Trees of North America.” Not surprisingly, it is not by any means a field guide but rather a reference guide – a role it can be expected to play reasonably well for general readers who would like an attractive, extensively illustrated reference guide around the house.

National Audubon Society Trees of North America

Trees North America cover

While the National Audubon Society has a long and justly respected name in the world of natural history books, the history of these books themselves has been a bit – shall we say – “up and down.” Those sufficiently long in the tooth (such as myself) may well remember the well-crafted volumes by such authoritative authors as Richard Pough, with their well-wrought and thorough yet never prolix text, finely detailed black & white illustrations, and in later editions even central color plate sections. Then of course, there was that later series…