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.
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…