David Sibley is well known to birder’s who use the Sibley Guide to Birds, but now he has turned his attention to the trees of North America with the publication of the Sibley Guide to Trees.
I am very excited to get this book because David Sibley is a master of organization. His Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern North America (and the Field Guide to the Birds of Western North America) is the best field guide to birds I’ve ever used (and I’ve used all of them), first because, unllike the Peterson guide all of the information is on one page (in Peterson the picture is on one page, the description on another, and the range map on yet another), each bird can be viewed both from above and below, and the description is very complete.
The desktop version of the two field guides to birds, The Sibley Guide to Birds, goes into much more detail than is able to be squeezed into the field guides. The companion to this volume, The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior, is an excellent source for understanding the lives of each species of bird. And Sibley’s Birding Basics is a must read for every aspiring birder to understand what the important features of birds are and learn to use these features for identification.
Sibley also co-authored, with Clay Sutton and Pete Dunne, Hawks in Flight, which is the definitive guide to identifying raptors in migration, and with Pete Dunn The Wind Masters: The Lives of North American Birds of Prey.
It is because every one of these books is in dog-eared condition because I have used them so much, that I am eagerly anticipating the release of Sibley’s Guide to Trees this week, after seven years in the making.
Birders World interview with David Sibley about Sibley’s Guide to trees:
Have you read the Sibley Guide to Trees?
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I really didn’t see the need to look at the Sibley Guide to Trees until I read your article. I saw something written about it recently but didn’t realize it was totally new. Funnily enough I was looking for a tree book for my husband a year or so ago and I couldn’t find one I liked. I do have a bird guide I like – American Bird Conservancy’s Field Guide, All the Birds of North America – so I’ve never looked at the Sibley Guide to Birds. I’ll have to check them both out now!
Sibley is an amazing illustrator and a stickler for detail. I’d buy any new book of his sight unseen, but this one looks really good.
I just ordered it, sight unseen. His bird books are invaluable, and I know the tree book will be very helpful. Thanks for the heads-up.
Thanks, Mim! Sibley’s bird books are definitely the best, and the only one I use in the field.