I am well aware that I hold in my hands a national treasure, the product of a life well-lived, the "Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America." Its vinyl cover, its glossy pages filled with portraits of birds, not ordinary birds, but perfect birds, simply makes one catch her breath in awe.
A celebrated illustrator, writer, ornithologist, and educator, Peterson directly followed Audubon's footsteps in depicting the birds of North America, but with two differences: his book is a field guide in identifying birds and he didn't kill them to paint them. Peterson worked by memory and sometimes the hull of an old dead bird or a photograph or two. His son Lee writes in the Foreword: "He was able to piece together an image of the bird as it should have been. Not just any [bird], but all [birds]" (x).
The first thing I learned about birds when I began this new study is that they are the bellwethers of our environment. Peterson also "hoped to shift our relationship to our surroundings from one of exploitation to one of stewardship" (xi).
As for content, Peterson goes into much greater detail in teaching how to identify birds than he does in his First Guides, designed for beginners.
So, the list for bird identification:
Size, shape, wing shape, bill shape, tail shape,
Behavior, tree climber?, flight behavior,
Wade? Swim?
Field marks (one of Peterson's best bets for identification)
Tail, rump, eye, wing markings
Songs and calls
Nests
Ranges
Habitats
Of course, I looked up my Cormorants and thought for a second my special species wasn't there, but, aha! turn one more page and there he is with wings outspread--my Double-crested Cormorant who winters every January with all his buddies in my huge cypress tree standing alone in the bayou behind my house. Actually, now I feel honored that this big beautiful bird spends time at my house, so to speak. Oh, get this: he is similar in species with the loon who produces my favorite bird call.
Just how detailed is Peterson's Guide? In paging through the book I stopped at the Wren, described by Peterson as "mostly small, energetic, brown birds; stumpy, with slim, slightly curved bill; tail often cocked" (304). Here are six apparently quite similar birds, but Peterson's field guide arrows show us distinct differences:
House Wren: longish tail, white spotted underbody
Winter Wren: very short tail, completely colored and striped underbody
Bewick's Wren: white line over his eye and spotted lines underneath; solid white underbody
Carolina Wren: white line over eye but almost solid brown underneath, with faintly striped underbody
Sedge Wren: Stripes down top of head and eye and back
Marsh Wren: Solid brown on top of head with white stripe above eye and the most clear white stripes down his back
Even though the life history of each bird shows its range, there is a section in the back half of the book that provides more detail. The book closes with a Life list of all families under each of the 19 orders with blanks next to each one so that the birder and owner of the book can check off all birds spotted.
Silhouettes of birds of the water, flight, and roadside conclude this guide; however, a photograph and short biographical sketch of Roger Tory Peterson looks over those silhouettes.
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David
Most comprehensive reference to birds of North America
Reviewed in Canada on June 14, 2019
