Birds of Minnesota Field Guide: Compatible with Birds of Minnesota Audio CDs

Rating:
Summary: We love this book!
Review: Tekila's book was our first introduction to bird-watching five years ago, and provided a painless, rewarding way for beginners to get their feet wet on this wonderful hobby. My pre-teen children rapidly began to successfully ID the birds in our yard and at our feeders, and success breeds the desire to continue! This book contains the 100 or so most commonly-seen birds in MN, and if you get serious about this you'll want a more complete guide too (I recommend Sibley). We have given this as a gift to many friends and family, esp. nice as a theme gift with a feeder and seed! When we went to Florida we bought his FL volume and IDed 50 species in 10 days time. I need to buy a new one as we have worn ours out, and my daughters pointed out recently that some photos have been improved in the newer versions.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful first bird book.
Review: The order that most advanced bird books display is what will turn off the novice birder. This book solves that by ordering by color (and then size). The color pictures are good and the descriptions are top-notch. The checklist at the back of the book is also good because it is attainable in the average year (unlike the Peterson guide which has the Passenger Pigeon on its checklist). I would recommend this as a first MN bird book, then move onto the Peterson, Sibley, Stokes, or Kaufman guides.

Rating:
Summary: Easy to Use Field Guide
Review: When I visited my mother in July, she had this book sitting near the patio doors that opened to the backyard. It was the easist field guide that I have ever used. Categorizing the birds by color is what made it so easy. Even a novice like me could pick up the book and begin identifying the birds in the backyard right away. The thing that disappointed me the most is that Stan Tekiela doesn't have a similar one for Washington State, where I live.