favorite field guides (from a real field-guide freak!)

WE ARE BLESSED to live in an age when field guides are having a heyday, and I confess to being a passionate consumer of them. I applaud presses like Princeton University and University of Chicago, plus publishers of series such as the Peterson, Sibley and Kaufman guides, for investing in these essential works.

Listeners to my weekly public-radio show will know I often interview field-guide authors who help me make sense of the natural world around me (all my nature stories, including those, are here). Links below the last row of book-cover photos on this page will take you to interviews I’ve done with authors of some of the recommended guides.

Disclaimer: Links reached by clicking any of the books or captions are to my Amazon affiliate account, where I earn a commission if you shop.

Cover,USEFaust Fireflies, Glow Worms, and Lightning Bugshires image FIREFLIES, GLOW-WORMS AND LIGHTNING BUGS, by Lynn Frierson Faust (Eastern and Central U.S. and Canada), is both charmingly written and technically expert, awakening us to their diversity.
swift guide butterflies image SWIFT GUIDE TO BUTTERFLIES: By Dr. Jeffrey Glassberg, president of the North American Butterfly Association. A fully revised photo-driven butterfly ID tool. Even an easy photo-driven index.
622889 NaturalistsNotebook Cvr image THE NATURALIST'S NOTEBOOK by Nathaniel Wheelwright and Bernd Heinrich is a guide to being a better observer of nature in every season, with a 5-year blank calendar-journal at the back to call your own.
garden insects cranshaw image GARDEN INSECTS of North America (Princeton): Whitney Cranshaw and David Shetlar's comprehensive, easy-to-use reference is a gardener's must-have tool; now fully revised (Dec. 2017).
51BTwOQLV3L. SX331 BO1,204,203,200 1 image SPIDERS AND THEIR KIN is a tiny treasure, a little book that will get you understanding and appreciating these incredibly important creatures, and even beginning to ID the major groups. Best $7ish ever spent.
SPARROWS jacket cover image PETERSON REFERENCE GUIDE TO SPARROWS OF NORTH AMERICA, by Rick Wright, helps you get to know "your" sparrows (and juncos and towhees).
peterson book cover final image PETERSON GUIDE TO WOODPECKERS: Learn from a longtime conservationist and woodpecker expert why most species are mainly black and white, and how they evolved to withstand all that hammering and much more, plus in-depth species profiles.
51QxOFmE9tL. SX348 BO1,204,203,200 1 image COMMON SPIDERS OF NORTH AMERICA: Want to get really serious about spiders? This is the book, richly illustrated and packed with learning: ID hints, native ranges, even behavioral insights into different species.
51caw6buSXL. SX393 BO1,204,203,200 image BETTER BIRDING: Not a field guide, but a science-heavy guide to how pros observe birds using contextual cues, from senior staffers of eBird.org and American Birding Association. Includes raptors; sea, water and shorebirds; birds of the woodland edge; etc. Science-heavy.
0415 CommonLichen Cover 585x911 image COMMON LICHENS is an intimate look at these not-plants, not-animals that are essential to Earth's health.
k8998 image MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA: Who knew I lived alongside 52 species of mammals of America's 462 total?
"Tracks and Sign of Insects" book cover TRACKS AND SIGN OF INSECTS by Charley Eiseman demystifies all the lumps and bumps and squiggles and webs you see outdoors and ask, "What's that?"
61vSK9zXD4L image KAUFMAN FIELD GUIDE TO BUTTERFLIES of North America: Probably the only butterfly book you'll ever need, plus easy to use.
51rMG79TmqL image KAUFMAN GUIDE TO INSECTS, a perfect overall guide to representative insects of every major group, with biology and life histories.
9780226076447 image WEEDS OF NORTH AMERICA (Chicago University Press): the continent's 500 most troublesome plants, identifiable in all their life stages, seed to maturity.
41k0EPokgpL image DRAGONFLIES AND DAMSELFLIES of the West (Princeton University Press), Dennis Paulson's ode to Western odonates.
western trees image TREES OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICA, from Princeton: 630 native and naturalized species, ID'd and profiled.
eastern trees image TREES OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA, from Princeton, with 825 native and naturalized species ID'd and profiled.
41MJWZ3XAHL image THE SIBLEY FIELD GUIDE TO BIRDS of Eastern North America is my daily go-to for confirming who's who out there. By David Sibley.
51572yFh7nL image THE SIBLEY GUIDE TO BIRDS, the current master work of North American birds, written and illustrated by David Sibley.
Dragonfiles and Damselflies of the East by Paulson DRAGONFLIES AND DAMSELFLIES of the East (Princeton Field Guides) by Dennis Paulson, an ode to the Eastern odonates.
Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America PETERSON FIELD GUIDE TO MOTHS of Northeastern North America is an eye-opener for anyone who thought only butterflies were interesting.
Hawks in Flight 2nd Edition hres image HAWKS IN FLIGHT by Pete Dunne and colleagues, a look into the world of raptors--their ID, and life histories.
Wojtech Bark cover image BARK: A FIELD GUIDE to Trees of the Northeast, by Michael Wojtech, teaches ID by bark, and also what bark does and how it evolved.

my field-guide author interviews