How to go from a beginner to an expert birder Better Birding reveals the techniques expert birders use to identify a wide array of bird species in the field―quickly and easily. Featuring hundreds of stunning photos and composite plates throughout, this book simplifies identification by organizing the birds you see into groupings and offering strategies specifically tailored to each group. Skill building focuses not just on traditional elements such as plumage, but also on creating a context around each bird, including habitat, behavior, and taxonomy―parts so integral to every bird's identity but often glossed over by typical field guides. Critical background information is provided for each group, enabling you to approach bird identification with a wide-angle view, using your eyes, brain, and binoculars more strategically, resulting in a more organized approach to learning birds. Better Birding puts the thrill of expert bird identification within your reach. Reveals the techniques used by expert birders for quick and easy identification - Simplifies identification with strategies tailored to different groupings of birds - Features hundreds of photos and composite plates that illustrate the different techniques - Fosters a wide-angle approach to field birding - Provides a foundation for building stronger birding skills "One of Audubon’s 12 Best Bird Books of 2015" "One of The London Free Press’ “Great flock of birding books 2015”" "[A] serious, immensely informative book. . . . The book is like an expertly guided tour--one that visits wetlands, open country, waterways, forests, shores, and other habitats from Alaska and the Pacific coast to Florida's Dry Tortugas and the Gulf Stream waters off Cape Hatteras, making clear, along the way, what members of each group have in common and how they differ, and, indeed, why each bird is." ― BirdWatching Magazine "This book, written by George Armistead and Brian Sullivan, is a refreshed approach to species identification. While most field guides focus primarily on plumage, this approach is 'wide angled' and more holistic with habitat, behavior, and other contextual elements coming into play." ― London Free Press "The book covers some water birds and hawks, wrens, flycatchers, swifts and more, but wisely confines itself to groups of birds involving relatively few species. Each section includes numerous photographs and in some cases composite photo illustrations for comparisons. The accounts also include distribution maps." ---Tom Palmer, Lakeland Ledger "It comes as no surprise that Better Birding is unashamedly directed towards a North American audience. Yet because the book is devoted to better ID techniques of bird families shared across the Northern Hemisphere or vagrant species which show up on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, many of the chapters contain pages of undoubted interest to a UK audience. . . . The authors should be congratulated in sticking to their chosen parameters and not falling into the trap of producing yet another full field guide to North American birds but instead focusing on/singling out a number of bird groups worthy of special mention." ― Another Bird "The first 27 pages of Better Birding should be required reading for students of Birding 101. . . . The writing is clear, concise, and witty when it needs to be. The photographs couldn't be any better. In short, I can't think of a good reason not to have this book." ---Kirby Adams, National Parks Traveler "An excellent book. . . . Sullivan and Armistead are two of the best birders in the country, each advancing the ways we understand and enjoy birds. . . . The introductory material . . . is particularly strong. . . . The book is richly illustrated with stunning photographs accompanied by concise and informative captions." ---Christopher Wood, Program Leader for ebird at Cornell Lab of Ornithology "The writing is . . . accessible but full of new observations about birds whose identification I haven't thought about thoroughly or critically enough in many cases. . . . This latest addition to the arsenal combines not just the finer points of identification (many of these original or obscure) but also a fresh way to look at some really wonderful sets of birds. . . . The approach is a holistic one, a very fresh and modern one, and it's the closest book I've seen that hints at how hardcore birders approach a day's birding in terms of hopes and expectations as well as identifications. In the end, it's the sharp photography that sells this book. Mouthwatering images." ---Edward S. Brinkley, author of, National Wildlife Federation Guide to Birds of North America "This book is extremely well conceptualized. As you read the text it becomes obvious it is written by two experts in the field, and the plates showing side-by-side comparisons of similar-looking species are brilliantly laid out. Since I am a raptor enthusiast, I read the accipiter section first, and was impre