The Warbler Guide

Starred review from September 1, 2013

Little yellow birds with high-pitched melodies migrate every spring to confound many birders trying to identify them. Avid birders Stephenson (articles in Birder and Bird Watcher's Digest) and Whittle (photographer) pull together every distinguishing characteristic in this guide. The first 100 pages cover generalities of what to look and listen for, while the bulk of the material presents species individually, offering diagrams and bullet points that highlight major distinctions, multiple color photographs with views from every angle, comparison species, aging and sexing, a distribution and migration map, and sonograms for the species and similar sounding nonwarblers--in all, each species is covered in six densely packed pages. The "visual finders" pages may enjoy the book's heaviest use. The "Face Quick Finder," for example, presents side views of the heads of 80 species, displayed across a spread. Similar spreads depict views from other angles, as well as seasonal and geographic distinctions. Some "finders" cover sonograms, graphing songs, and chip and flight calls of various warblers, distinguished by pitch and quality of sound. Those unfamiliar with visualizing sound this way may be aided by comparing audio and sonograms of the same species; The Guide's Song and Call Companion is available for $5.99 at macaulaylibrary.org/guide/the-warbler-guide; free audio can be found at allaboutbirds.org/guide/search. The work closes with brief descriptions of similar nonwarblers, hybrid warblers, an eight-photo quiz and review, pictorial and narrative descriptions of various warbler species in flight, a taxonomy tree, a table of measurements, silhouettes, a table of habitat and behavior, a glossary, a list of resources, and an index by common and genus species names. Additional material can be found at thewarblerguide.com, which unfortunately is not the URL listed in the guide. Some will find this title too bulky to carry into the field, but dedicated birders will happily tote it along for the wealth of information contained or buy the ebook. VERDICT This is the book to get for warbler identification. Highly recommended for public libraries with bird-watching patrons and academic libraries with ornithology classes.--Teresa R. Faust, Vermont Dept. of Libs., Berlin

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.