New paintings. New maps. Digital updates. A revised text. A larger trim size. And a URL for accessing video podcasts. Combining the Peterson field guides to Eastern and Western birds of the United States, this book celebrates the centennial of the famed birder's birth. With a 200,000-copy first printing; national tour with Lee Peterson, the author's son. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Peterson's brilliant A Field Guide to the Birds (1934), an all-time best-selling work covering eastern North American birds, revolutionized the identification of things natural, inspiring the creation of dozens of guides to other forms of nature. Now, for the first time (and long overdue), his eastern and western guides, each with several earlier editions, are here combined and revised. The 1966 Birds of North America by C. S. Robbins et al. (rev. ed., CH, Mar'84) was the first guide to address all North America. Today, almost all bird guides do. Conversely, the best American guide ever, D. A. Sibley's Sibley Guide to Birds (CH, Mar'01, 38-3913), was almost immediately followed by spin-off pocket guides to the East and West. Smaller than Sibley, bigger than other guides, this Peterson is not quite a pocket guide. It continues posthumously Peterson's fine quality, revised by a team of experts and including some new color plates. The range maps accompanying each species account are especially excellent; they are also reproduced on a much larger scale with annotations in the back of the book. The text here is beefier than in many modern guides. Includes three hours of video podcasts, the first guide to provide this feature. Summing Up: Essential. All academic, public, and professional libraries. H. T. Armistead formerly, Free Library of Philadelphia

As new or revised field guides are published, they are getting too big to carry in a pocket. This one is no exception. It is larger and heavier than earlier Peterson Field Guides and combines the Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds (1992) and the Peterson Field Guide to Western Birds (1992) in a single volume. The new features include a more conversational text, online access to video podcasts, and small range maps with the plates as well as the usual range-maps section at the end. The text covers both Canada and the U.S., so it is more inclusive than many guides. When his first edition was published some 75 years ago, Peterson's system for identifying field marks became the gold standard for birders worldwide. This updated edition has corrections to the taxonomy (name changes and specie identifications). Every effort has been made to present the most current information. Peterson's paintings have been digitized, and 40 new paintings in his style are included where needed. The contributors who worked on this guide are well-known and respected birders, illustrators, and writers and have maintained the high standards that Peterson set. Birding field-trip leaders will want to make room in their backpacks for this guide because the large illustrations will be very useful in teaching while birding. Libraries of all types will also want this volume marking the 100th anniversary of Peterson's birth because of its concise, accurate information and large illustrations.--Scarth, Linda Copyright 2008 Booklist