All the Birds of North America (1997)
American Bird Conservancy
Concept and Design by Jack L. Griggs
HarperCollins, $20
Encompassing eastern and western birds, this guide has a cover that advertises it as revolutionary. It certainly is unconventional. Instead of page numbers, it uses"key numbers," one for every two-page spread, with sweeping illustrations atop the text and range maps. The introductory section is smack in the middle of the guide, which, tall and skinny, is fortified by a plastic cover and sturdy pages.
Most of the guide's space is devoted to its many illustrators, who render the birds well and place them in attractive habitat settings, though colors in many plates of the guide I have seem washed out. Birds are often shown flying, and plumage closeups highlight the finer points of identification.
As an aid to identifying and understanding birds, the author stresses the role of feeding adaptations, especially bill shape and size. The yellow-breasted chat and the gray catbird, for example, appear on the same page because their bills are similarly shaped and both birds are skulkers.
Species accounts, stripped to the essentials, give information on habitat, identification, and voice.
Endangered and threatened species names are highlighted in red and yellow, respectively. Considering their minuscule size, the range maps are surprisingly clear. Long descriptions precede each major bird group, often providing fascinating insights into the natural history of members of the group.
Although species locators on the inside covers, water birds in front and land birds in back, promise instant identification, I instantly lost interest in making sense of the counterintuitive tools: color bars, icons, and key numbers. The beginning of the book has a section on extinct birds, complete with computer-enhanced pictures, and at the end there is a section on birds of Alaska and Arctic Canada.
