One good bird deserves another
Feb. 11th, 2014 09:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceIn the Church of Coffee, it must be the laity that adds the cream. I am just sayin'.
But I came home from coffee club, and was standing at the kitchen window brewing coffee - and the feeding station was an explosion of birds: at the seed feeder, at the water dish and on the table, even (at last!) pecking at the seed bell. Mostly what we have decreed to be house finches, but a hummer also came by while I was watching - and this other bird, which I think has a black head and dark grey back, maybe lighter on the chest, and big white flashes on the sides of its head. Help?
...And if you're getting tired of helping, which is the best resource, the best field guide for Californian birds? And should I be looking for a website or an actual y'know book, which works better when you're starting from nothing and have poor eyesight anyway, even if you weren't looking through the mesh of an insect screen?
But I came home from coffee club, and was standing at the kitchen window brewing coffee - and the feeding station was an explosion of birds: at the seed feeder, at the water dish and on the table, even (at last!) pecking at the seed bell. Mostly what we have decreed to be house finches, but a hummer also came by while I was watching - and this other bird, which I think has a black head and dark grey back, maybe lighter on the chest, and big white flashes on the sides of its head. Help?
...And if you're getting tired of helping, which is the best resource, the best field guide for Californian birds? And should I be looking for a website or an actual y'know book, which works better when you're starting from nothing and have poor eyesight anyway, even if you weren't looking through the mesh of an insect screen?
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-11 07:23 pm (UTC)For paper books (and also apps) Sibley is not so good IMO; the Audubon Society's photographic guides (the books) are very helpful because they use actual photos and are organized by bird type, size, and color, and you can page around, which is less than easy on any app.
ETA: I see a lot of folks recommending Peterson, which I do not for a beginning birder. It's too confusing. The beauty of the Audubon guides (< a href="http://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-American-Western/dp/0679428518">National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds, Western Region, to be exact) is that the photos and organization allow you to sort far more easily than Peterson. Peterson thinks you want to tell one finch from another. More likely you don't even know you're looking at a finch: you see a little brown job with some red around the head. Audubon is geared for that kind of search, and the photos are most helpful. There is detailed information on range and so on in the back.
Peterson is good for a particular type of detail-oriented birder, or an experienced one. I do suggest Audubon for a starter.