Birds of North America - My Gather Win

My prize in the Gather contest Tips for Birdwatching this Spring came this weekend!  I was so surprised when I opened this package.  It's a big heavy book, full of so much information.  I have two smaller bird books that cannot compare in any way to this one.  On the inside jacket it says "Birds of North America is the only guide to use a fully integrated photographic approach to profile the extraordinary range of bird found in the North American region.  Written by a team of expert contributors and edited by Francois Vuileumier of the American Museum of Natural History, its comprehensive coverage, easy to use layout, and outstanding visual impact ensure that it will appeal to bird enthusiasts of all ages and levels of experience."  This is absolutely true.

This book has so much information, real photographs which is a plus when you are trying to identify a bird you just saw or photographed, behavior, habitats, species profiles, areas where the bird you are looking at can be seen, flight information, occurrence, and it even shows similar species with a photo.  It shows the bird in flight, adult, and some show the male and the female and the juvenile.  The pages are color tab coded in the upper corner as you can see in the photo for each type of bird.  The content guide is wonderful and in the back there is a section of Rare Species with photos.  Next is a section of vagrants, which is a list of species that occur only very rarely in North America and Canada.  This listing has the common name, scientific name, family/scientific name and description.  No photos.  There is an extensive glossary and index, and acknowledgments.  This book is huge and heavy.  It measures 11 1/2"  from top to bottom  9" across and is 2 1/2" thick.  I don't think I've ever seen a book with so much information, listings of birds or beautiful photos like this one. 

Thanks so much Gather staff for offering this wonderful prize and choosing my article as a winner.  This will be used a lot by my husband and me.