Could this be North America’s best ID guide?
By Charlie • June 1, 2009 • 32 commentsA whole ten days ago - or about thirty posts in ‘10,000 Birds’ time - we asked for your help supporting a friend of mine, ex-pat Brit birder/ID expert Richard Crossley, secure a TV deal for a programme he is aiming to make. Many of you responded (thanks) by filling in an online survey, and Richard is hopefully going to be the latest Brit import to hit your screens a la Hugh “House” Laurie (maybe, maybe)…
Richard is a very well-known member of the Cape May birding scene now but I actually got to know him well years ago, on a birding trip that Richard, Paul Holt (another of the world’s best birders), and me (I taught them both everything they know*) made to India and Nepal way back in 1985 when all three of us had our teeth and hair and could stand up straight without our crumbling spines giving us grief…but more of that later.
About six months ago Richard told me in slightly vague terms about a book he was working on as a follow-up to the wonderful “The Shorebird Guide which he co-authored with Michael O’Brien and Kevin Karlson. He was, he said, taking masses of photographs and had this idea that he wanted to produce an ID plate that would give near and far views, in flight, at rest, feeding, sleeping, in the right habitat etc etc all on one page - in other words how birders actually see birds in the field. He was, he said, trying to create a book that he’d always wanted to own, and one that he was finding incredibly time-consuming to put together…
Was I intrigued? Is the Pope a Catholic, do bears cr*p in the woods, would I like 10,000 Birds to be the best birding site on the net…that would be a ‘yes’ then. So, and look how this post’s seeming random meandering suddenly makes sense, when Richard asked us to promote his TV show I mentioned that we might, possibly, perhaps, IF he coughed up a couple of plates of his book for me to post (I know, I know, how could I do that to a mate? Actually, I could ONLY do it to a mate of course, and he knew I didn’t mean it…)
Richard duly sent me about fifteen plates and to say I am knocked-out just doesn’t come close to describing my reaction (thankfully, imagine having to bluster or just deny ever receiving them if they’d been awful!). Do I like them? Is the Pope a Catholic [you've done this Charlie ~ Eds]…you’re right I have, so I’m just going to post a few of them below: bear in mind these are compressed jpgs of already compressed jpgs, that I added the watermarks, and that I have no idea how Richard aims to label the photos or what text he wants to include…but also bear in mind that every single bird here is a photograph not a painting, and just try and work out how many hours each plate must take to produce…
Wilson’s Petrel Oceanites oceanicus
Hooded Merganser Lophodytes cucullatus
Black Scoter Melanitta americana
Dunlin Calidris alpina
Lesser Nighthawk Chordeiles acutipennis
American Redstart Setophaga ruticilla
Mourning Warbler Oporornis philadelphia
What do you think then? The potential to be the best ID Guide in North America? There are more Plates at The ID Guide coming soon which I urge you to check out.
Please leave a comment to let us know what you think, because I’ve made Richard promise to do an interview explaining more about the book, his work on Cape May, and what it feels like to be constipated after eating nothing but eggs and oranges for a week (and where Nepalese ticks get to if you’re VERY unlucky) if enough people say they’re interested…
(*This is not strictly true…actually in fact not strictly even close to the truth in any sense whatsoever, but a little reflected glory would have been nice…)
All Plates copyright Richard Crossley and used with his permission.
By the way, while we’re talking about exclusives, don’t forget that we’re working with Kevin Loughlin of Wildside Nature Tours and giving away an “endemic dash” round the Enchanted Isle of Puerto Rico!
With 17 endemics on offer plus a host of Antillean specials Puerto Rico is a fantastic birding destination. Click the image to the left for the very simple questions, rules and conditions etc, and your chance to win this fabulous free-to-enter, no purchase-required tour! Entries count up until the end of June (2009) and the winner will be announced in early July.
Consider my socks officially knocked off. I hope the pics look as good in print as they do online.
An impressive lay out to be sure. They say a picture is worth a 1000 words, but I’m just as interested in how the text will deal with complex ID issues or birds with frequent hybrid issues such as Blue-winged and Golden-winged Warblers, but I think these layouts prove that photography has improved enough to be viable as a field guide. I know in the past many birders wouldn’t touch a field guide with photos because you could get bad light or distant image etc. I’m very interested to see where this might lead!
I’m stunned. Absolutely amazing. I want one.
Charlie, when you’re right, you’re right! Amazing photos and I urge folks to check out the ‘coming soon’ gallery for larger and more examples.
So, Charlie, you’ll be getting us advance copies, right?
Patrick: These pics are highly compressed - in print they’ll be WAAAAY better.
Will: I’m interested too. Hopefully Richard will find some time to give me an ‘interview’ and let us all know
Connie: So do I, so do I…
BB: Folks, do as he says because seeing how far Richard’s got with this project is really inspiring!
Corey: Not now you’ve said that
Wow! These plates are amazing and just what birders have been waiting for. They really do convey the way we actually see birds in the feild, a huge leap forward in field guides. Any idea when we might see the finished work? If Richard needs help promoting the book in the UK just say the word! Brilliant!
Definitely VERY impressive! I would definitely get a copy of this field guide.
I love the look of the plates. If the rest of the guide can exude the energy he exhibits in the show video, he may very well have a winner!
Beautiful. I’m certainly interested.
Wow….love the pics! I would definitely buy this book when it comes out.
I would pay ANY price for this guide - consider me extremely impressed!!!!!
These plates are magnificent! The idea is brilliant, and I look forward to trying out such a guide in the field. What I like about the approach is that it atttempts to place a lifetime of birding insight into one page… not that one could absorb it all, nor easily. But I can imagine seeing a glimpse of a bird in a certain position and combing the plates to see if any match. Will still take years of experience before careful ID is made, but it’s one more tool in the toolbox for those of us who do not have access to personal birding guides!
I want one for myself and at least two as gifts. And that’s just as a field guide. I’d think he could sell prints of the plates separately. I might be interested in the Carolina Wren, for example.
[...] Could this be North America’s best ID guide? [...]
Holy Cow Charlie! Can you ask Richard if I can order one now?
I suppose the biggest problem with photo guides is that the subjects are normally pictured in so few positions that it makes it a lot more challenging to really be able to gage the what the key ID features should look like. but the way that Richard has presented the various positions/angles/behaviours really makes me think that this will be an invaluable guide - especially when looking through one’s own images back at home and trying to compare them to what the book says…
Wow. I bought the National Wildlife Federations field guide because I was impressed with the photos. This one could blow that one away. I only say “could” because there are more elements than pictures for a field guide.
Of course I expect it to be very well rounded. I have The Shorebird Guide and that is my “bible” when I am shorebirding.
I’m eagerly expecting this book.
Will I have to rent a trailer to tote it around?
The photos will sell books, but the accompanying text will make or break it as a serious field guide. Note that plates like this filled with all the plumages of 4-year gulls would not be very useful without a very serious explanation of the variation. Even a poor field guide will help you successfully ID 90% of the birds you see, so we don’t need another guide to do that. What would be useful now is something that takes a step beyond Sibley. The photos are stunning as art, but whether the book will truly provide anything new is yet to be seen. The Shorebird Guide is as close to perfect a bird guide as I have come across, so I would say there is reason for optimism!
My personal wish for a new guide is for Sibley to create a larger non-field guide ID reference book that focuses soley on the harder ID issues, hybrids, and the rare vagrants that were left out of the main guide. Kind of like Kaufman’s Advanced Birding on steriods with big Sibley paintings!
Love the pictures. The different angles and males/females in the same pictures creates a holistic and unique quality that, I think, captures the essence of the species. I would buy this book in a second.
Those are beautiful
Richard Crossley’s THE SHOREBIRD GUIDE is superb, and his latest effort seems to easily exceeds that. He is certainly onto an excellent NEW approach!! As a field guide-aholic, I’m definitely interested to learn where his new project leads. Although text is a critical element, if the text for this proposed book is half as helpful as the text in his earlier book, I will certainly buy the new field guide. Go Mr. Crossley Go. . . . . . . .
WHATS THE SAYING I WANT IT NOW!!! GREAT PICS! YOU THINK YOU HAVE ALL THE FIELD GUIDES THAT YOU NEED. BUT I WANT THIS ONE TOO!!!!
Thanks all for such a positive endorsement. Richard is on a pelagic off Hatteras at the moment, but I’m hoping he’ll get a chance to leave a comment when he’s recovered!
These are interesting pictures. But do you have some indication that they’re going to be used in an identification guide? Because if so, obviously, Richard will have to come up with more than just pictures.
During the last decade or two, the level of identification skill of the average North American birder has actually declined. Seriously. There are more reference works available than ever, but birders are misidentifying birds more than ever. Part of the reason is that birders are focusing more on picture-matching and less on really understanding what they’re seeing. At one time, a birder faced with a tough I.D. would study the bird and really look at its details. Now they look at pictures and say, it looked like X picture in X book or on X website. And since they don’t know which characteristics are significant and which aren’t, their picture-matching often leads them to misidentify their birds.
If Richard can provide text that will really interpret all these pictures, then he’ll indeed have created a useful I.D. guide (albeit one that’s about 1600 pages long). If he tries to skate by with just pictures, he’ll undoubtedly sell a lot of copies, but he won’t add to the skill level of birders. People will just have more material for incautious picture-matching, and they’ll proceed to misidentify even more birds than they do right now.
I am intrigued, this has potential. Some of the pages though have so many birds, it’s reading cluttered to me (that just be my brain). And will this give the newbie birder a false impression that a flock is always that big?
One addition that I would find useful would be a page of several species of warblers in fall plumage for side by side comparison.
As for Kenn’s comment of “the level of identification skill of the average North American birder has actually declined,” perhaps many birders have always misidentified birds a lot, but we have a much bigger microphone and platform to announce our misidentifications. The number of people with a mild interest in birds has grown as has our ability to communicate and interact with each other, so we hear about it more often.
@Kenn
Though-provoking comment.
I wonder if you’re lamenting the loss of skill (synthesis ID) when in fact, there is a widening of the sets of skills (more matching ID) emerging as the nature of birding changes.
I’ve noticed, as most birders have access to technology to capture bird sightings (photographs, for example) there is less onus on making an identification right away in the field. I’ve spoken to birders for my research where they no longer bring a bird book into the field because they’re taking photographs and bringing those home to make the ID. This data echoes the comparison mode of ID you describe.
I imagine birders of previous decades had their share of misidentification, so would you say that you’re worried about birders missing out on something important if they do more and more of their IDing by matching vs. synthesis? What would that be?
I suspect, however, that the nature of birding is changing as birders gain new technologies—this idea of a pastiche bird book, and birders reactions here, reflect a different kind of birding that many appear to be interested in. So is this reflective of a generational shift?
These plates are unbelievable, and to say that I am eagerly anticipating this guide is an understatement. Now that photographic guides have achieved their current high-quality status (i.e. Smithsonian and NWF), I personally prefer them over illustrated ones. A new guide including these types of plates and supportive text would be a significant evolution indeed. Unlike the birders to whom Kenn is referring, I don’t base an ID on the fact that the bird in front of me seems to match a picture in a book. Like most of the other birders I know, I base an ID on field marks, behavior, habitat, and range. It just so happens that I prefer to see those field marks conveyed in a top-notch photograph. This is not to say that I don’t consult Peterson/Sibley as well, but for me a great photo beats a great illustration any day. Anyway, thanks for the heads-up on this exciting new guide, Charlie. Any ballpark idea of when it might be published?
For those following this thread - and are as interested and excited as I am by the potential of this book - Richard emailed me today to say he’s away for another week but will get in touch when he gets back: I’m going to get as many answers as I can from him when he does!
Certainly beautiful photos, which alone would make the guide desirable.
I would agree with some previous comments regarding harder ID challenges for us mere mortal birders.
Godd selection of plumage and age variations in species where this is a bigger factor.
Maybe move away somewhat from taxonomic layout and focus on gouping like species, allowing composites of similar species in flight, in general, and in more difficult poses, alongside the composites of those individual species in detail as shown.
I can see that the undertaking becomes larger, and the possible real estate required greater, but perhaps then we would be looking at something unequalled.
Richard’s idea is wonderful and is marvelously executed. The book will be most worthwhile even if it can’t include more than 1000 pages on ID tips.
I would love a different photo of the immature Ivory Gull, however. The one in the upper left-hand corner is too shaded to show all I’d like to see, as least as reproduced here.
Just Just Just sUPERB & wONDERFUL
I’ Can’t Elobrate it with words because i dont have proper words for Nature
Sushil K Agrawal, Raigarh, Chhatisgarh, India 13-07-2009