Review: The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds

The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds by Richard Crossley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As far as bird ID guides go, this one is still very American, despite possibly "belonging to England tradition", which means quite poor. There is still a wealth of critical information missing from this book, especially considering its formidable size. But at least there are field marks, distribution maps, and even some mention of the habitat, which is more than I came to expect from American bird guides. I personally prefer drawings by a biologist to photos to drawings by an artist. So photographic illustrations in a more or less natural habitat are ok, though I'm not thrilled about them. But this is a matter of taste, I'm sure a lot of people prefers photos. All in all, this is not a field guide (way too heavy), but maybe a good reference for sorting out bird pics taken on a birdwatching trip.

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