Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion

Starred review from April 15, 2006
What, a bird book without pictures? That's right. This field guide companion is not intended to be taken into the field. Accomplished birder Dunne (director of the New Jersey Audubon Society's Cape May Bird Observatory; "Pete Dunne on Bird Watching") introduces readers to a well-known but perhaps underused birding technique. Called General Impression of Size and Shape (GISS), or the -Cape May School, - it allows birders to make general identifications first, then sort out the precise identification using this sourcebook later on. Each of the North American species accounts includes the necessary and usual information, e.g., status, distribution (no maps!), habitat, cohabitants, movement/migration, plumage, flight, and vocalizations. Refreshingly, Dunne opts for the least technical terms (e.g., "eyebrow" instead of "supercilium"). Another recent field guide companion, "National Geographic Complete Birds of North America", includes more than 4000 illustrations, photographs, and range maps. To make space for all that, however, the species accounts are less conversational than those in Dunne's book and draw fewer comparisons. Both volumes work well, but Dunne's title should appeal, as he says, to the serious birder striving to become more accomplished. No serious bird collection should be without it. Recommended for all libraries. (Index not seen.)" -Nancy Moeckel, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH"

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