The Sibley Guide to Birds, Second Edition (Sibley Guides) Flexibound – Illustrated, 11 Mar. 2014

The finest book on all birds of USA

A masterful piece of work, with larger, clearer illustrations and many more species included. The revised layout makes the book a joy to use.

Everything that you read about this book on Amazon.uk is true. The book is amazing, is truly a bible for the birds of north America. But the dark colours ruined all the excellent artist job done by David Sibley. There is already a second printing available that, for what I read, resolved all the problems of the previous printing, but it's impossible to know which one you gonna get when you're ordering, if Amazon.uk doesn't a separation between the two printings... it's all a question of luck, on the end... Really bad job for the publisher... My advice: don't buy this book if you're not sure that is the second printing.

I have had the marvellous first edition of this book for over ten years, and I hastily bought this updated second edition as soon as it came out.But there are two problems with this new edition. These problems are not with what the author has produced, but with the printing. Firstly, the colours on some of the bird illustrations are too dark. Secondly, the print of much of the text is a sort of faint grey colour instead of black, and also rather small, making it difficult to read.There has been a lot of discussion about this on the American Amazon website (Amazon.com), and it seems there is the possibility of changes being made when a new print run is produced by the publishers.PS: September 2017: Now five stars if you get the right print run.Knopf have now produced a second and a third print run of this book, which have corrected the problems that I referred to above. I’ve just got myself a copy of the third print run, and this is now definitely the five star book that it should have been in the first place.But be careful – there are still copies of the faulty first print run on sale, and apparently Bloomsbury/Helm currently have no plans for producing a corrected print run of their edition of the book.So you need to be sure that you get the Knopf edition, and to be sure that you are getting a copy of the second or third print run. (The Natural History Book Service website actually allows you to choose between the corrected version and the original faulty one. The corrected version is more expensive, but well worth the extra money.)Phil Webster.

Muy completo en cuanto a las especies de Norteamérica

Excellent book. Very detailed and accurate. Illustration of all birds is excellent. One of the best books I have ever owned.

He adquirido recientemente este libro y me parece una pasada. Muy completo, bien maquetado, con unas buenas ilustraciones (aunque no lleguen al nivel de otras guías como la Svensson, igualmente son buenas) y a un precio realmente asequible. Personalmente, no he tenido ningún problema con el color de la impresión de las ilustraciones.-------------------------------------I've recently acquired this book and I think it's wonderful. Very complete, well laid out, with good illustrations (although they don't reach the level of other guides like Svensson, they are still good) and at a really affordable price. Personally, I have not had any problems with the color of the printing of the illustrations.

**UPDATE 2**I have purchased the second printing of this second edition and I am very happy with the corrections. The richer colors add new life to Sibley's paintings, the text is clear and easy to read and the layout is much improved. Page space is better utilized in this edition, allowing Sibley's beautiful illustrations to take center stage. The only caution I add is that, to my knowledge, there is no way to know what printing of the second edition you are purchasing when ordering through Amazon.com.**UPDATE**The second printing has been released and should be available at brick & mortar book stores as well as a number of online stores. Hopefully Amazon will make a distinction between the first and second printings so that its customers can order the correct one. In case there is no way of knowing which printing you are buying from Amazon, I offer the following 2 options:1) Go to a brick and mortar book store and physically purchase the guide. You will want to turn to the copyright page and look for "Second printing, July 2014". If it says "Second Edition, March 2014" then you are holding the first printing with the off colors and light font.2) Go to an alternative online source such as Buteo Books, where the second printing is in stock, available for shipping and it is specified as the second printing. They even have the option to buy the first printing if one is so inclined.When I obtain the second printing, I will update this review. So far, I have heard good things: the font is readable and the colors are more representative of what one would see in the field. I'm looking forward to this second printing!**A very annoying feature of this guide is the font. Not the size necessarily, but where many of the bird illustrations are WAY too dark, the font is way too light and lacks contrast. I keep tilting the book to get a better angle as if the text is catching or reflecting light but it's not. I have great eyesight, but I find the text a strain to read. Many of the birds are too dark and the colors are simply wrong. This shouldn't be a matter of opinion. The book betrays itself with statements like "brilliant red" on the scarlet tanager when it's obviously showing dark red; "flaming-orange throat" on the blackburnian when it's dark orange; "bright orange-red bill (never as dark red as many Caspians)" on the royal tern, well it's not bright and when you flip to the Caspian it's almost the same color! The orange-crowned warbler is green, the hooded warbler has a highlighter-yellow face, the baltimore oriole's orange is more like an american robin's red and there are many more disappointments. Some of the bird's faces are so dark that you can barely discern any detail. Sibley set the bar and his second edition does not measure up.Update: Thank you to R. Matz for providing a link to an article from birdforum.net in which Sibley has stated in a Facebook correspondence "There are a few images (like the male Scarlet Tanager) that are obviously not OK and will be corrected in the next printing, but I think that involves a very small number of images. The font is another issue, and it's clear that too many are finding it hard to read. Tests are already being done to find a way to fix that in the next printing."Improving the readability of the text will be a major improvement. Along with the male Scarlet Tanager, I hope Sibley will fix color issues with the following birds:- Eastern and Western Bluebirds (too dark)- Orange-crowned Warbler (too green)- Blackburnian Warbler (make the orange "flaming")- Baltimore Oriole (brighten the orange)- Lighten some of the birds on which the facial features cannot be discernedI look forward to the next printing (which should be available this September)and the fixes it will offer. A "Thank you" to B. Walker for contacting Knopf to find out that a fix is in the works and that we should have a new print available to purchase by late Summer.

C'est incontestablement l'un des meilleurs guides pour cette région du monde même si sa taille ne le rend pas très pratique à emporter sur le terrain. L'Amérique du Nord est un grand continent et il y a de nombreux oiseaux à voir. Si les auteurs avaient voulu privilégier la légèreté de l'ouvrage, ils auraient dû sacrifier un certains nombre de pages, ceci ce faisant au détriment de l'aide à la détermination. J'avais déjà un vieil exemplaire du National Geographic, mais celui-ci est bien meilleur. Les dessins sont bons et les oiseaux sont représentés dans leurs différents plumages. Les cartes manquent forcément de précision étant donné la taille de l'Amérique du Nord mais elles sont d'une aide certaine. Je n'ai, en revanche, pas aimé la classification des espèces à cocher située à la fin de l'ouvrage. Elle respecte la taxonomie actuelle mais elle n'est pas très facile à utiliser à mon sens. J'aurais préféré la classique classification alphabétique.