[cartman]

Was thinking of picking up the Shewey book as it looks comprehensive and has photos instead of paintings. This would be for casual id's, not taking up birding as a hobby. I'm most interested in the actual pics of the birds for visual id's. Text details important too, but the pictorial renderings are paramount. Opinions about this book if you've used it? Pros and cons? Other books you like/prefer and strengths and weaknesses of those books?

[IanB]

Looks like an attractive volume, and Timber Press is a good publisher for this region. The photos look good, and the conversational style of the descriptions seems like a nice, informal way of placing the birds in some geographical context. That said, the argument in favor of paintings over photos is that a good illustration should be able to distill into one image the hundreds or thousands of individual birds of a given species that the artist has examined. An experienced birder will confirm that what positively id's a bird is a set of distinctive "field marks" that distinguish it from other candidates. The most similar birds are usually the other species in a given genera, so the format that is most helpful is one that places those birds in similar postures in adjacent illustrations. The current leader in this approach is the Sibley 2nd edition.

[DIYSteve]

Well done paintings by an expert are much better than photographs for IDing bird species. A photograph merely captures the image of one individual at a specific point in time. (Individual birds, like people, look different, and the individual in a photograph might look quite different on another day a week later.) Contrast an expert drawing, which is a representative composite based on years of experience seeing the many individuals of a species. Nearly all experienced birders use books with paintings, e.g., Sibley's, Peterson, NatGeo or Golden, as their primary field guide. ETA: There are recent efforts to manipulate photographs to create a representative composite, but IMO they have a long way to go before catching up with Sibley, et. al. I recommend getting two books: 1. A western U.S. field guide. I've tried them all and much prefer Sibley's, but Peterson, NatGeo or Golden are fine and popular with birders. Peterson invented the modern field guide decades ago and his guides were the standard when I started birding in the 1970s, but IMO Sibleys is a huge improvement. Check out all 4 guides and pick the one you like. 2. For WA birds, Brian Bell's Birds of Washington State provides good descriptions re habitat and behavior, and range maps. Belle's book shows only one representative of each species, so it is no replacement for a comprehensive field guide which shows male, female, immature and variant representatives. Shewey's is an alternative for information, but is limited by use of photography.