Peterson Reference Guide to Birding by Impression: A Different Approach to Knowing and Identifying Birds

A highly visual guide to identifying birds in the field based on the important, unchanging features of size, shape, structure, and behavior

Birding is an extremely rewarding and fun hobby, but some situations can be frustrating or unsuccessful because of a variety of challenging viewing conditions. This guide to identifying birds offers the holistic “birding by impression” method, which not only helps with these difficult conditions, but also develops an efficient mental identification process using left- and right-brain skills. It begins with a conscious assessment of a bird’s unchanging physical characteristics, including general size, body shape, structural features (bill, legs, neck, and wings), and behavior. Using this approach, birders can quickly assess all birds and distinguish new and uncommon species from familiar ones. They can then examine more detailed field marks to fine-tune the identification. Rather than a traditional field guide, this book presents an interactive how-to approach to a more complete identification process.

Want to bird like the experts? Birding by Impression shares an exciting approach to bird identification that encourages the use of both right- and left-brain skills to form a complete ID picture. By combining a careful assessment of a bird's unchangeable features with the traditional method of looking at plumage details, readers are better equipped to tackle the difficult task of separating similar birds. Information about groups of birds, with representative images, as well as comparative photos of similar species, provide additional support.

With more than 200 photographs, this highly visual book shows birds in actual field conditions (such as compromised lighting), and provides quiz photos that allow readers to test their own ID conclusions.