[Posted by Chuck Almdale]

Finally! Gasp! Now all of you birders who have been toiling under the burden of being forced to suffer with that annoying electronic field guide — yeah, the one with the tiny photos, indecipherable text, poorly-lit screens in broad daylight, and near-total-inability to easily scan through 81 sandpipers, 66 waterfowl, 65 warblers, 46 sparrows, or 42 flycatchers, not to mention 2 to 6 illustrations per species — yeah, that one — can breathe a sign of relief. Help is on its way.

The immensely valuable National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America is now out in its 8th edition. You can put it in your pocket or pouch, next to that 64-oz. bottle of water and the granola bar the size and chewability of a cinder block. You can write in it, use it as a lap-table, compare birds on the same page!, pass it to someone else and the pages won’t inexplicably disappear or even get stuck upside down, and everyone can see the colors and read the words and study the maps without shading it with an umbrella, instead of simply pretending to be able to see it as they do now so you won’t feel bad. It won’t even die on you out in the field, miles or days from the nearest electric socket. It’s your true friend in need, quietly waiting until you take it in hand. And it won’t beep, squawk or ring at you or try to sell you something.

Sounds perfect, doesn’t it?

This appeared in my desktop inbox, from Scott Weidensaul, author of Living on the Wind, via those friendly folks at Buteo Books:

In its eighth edition, this venerable guide is a reborn marvel — new range maps, changes to avian taxonomy, the addition of Hawaii’s incredible birdlife, and perhaps best of all, all-new and deeply instructive text by Ted Floyd, one of the giants of the field. I’m not sure how this book could be any better.

Buteo Books [Link] added:

Ted’s been around for about a million years, looking at birds and writing about birds. I’ve never [knowingly] met him but I’m quite sure he isn’t some sort of AI program which we all [should] know by now are loaded with errors and nonsense and highly reluctant to retract them when caught.

Anyways…the book is out, check your local bookseller if one still exists in your area, or order it from Buteo Books (guess what they specialize in) — 33 bucks & shipping — and maybe you can get one signed. My autographed (by all the authors!) and heavily annotated by me 2nd-edition decided one day to stay on the roadside wall at Parker Dam on the Colorado River, so now I make do with a 6th-edition, now 14 years old. Maybe it’s time to get a new one.

No, we don’t get any freebies for mentioning Buteo. I’ve bought books from them in the past, they’re OK and they haven’t cheated me.