Richard Crossley - The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds

THE CROSSLEY ID GUIDE

Eastern Birds

Richard Crossley

This stunningly illustrated book from acclaimed birder and photographer Richard Crossley revolutionizes birding by providing the first real-life approach to identi_ cation. Whether you are a beginner, expert, or anywhere in between, The Crossley ID Guide will vastly improve your ability to identify birds.

Unlike other guides, which provide isolated individual photographs or illustrations, this is the first book to feature large, lifelike scenes for each species. These scenes640 in allare composed from more than 10,000 of the authors photographs showing birds in a wide range of viewsnear and far, from different angles, in various plumages and behaviors, including flight, and in the habitat in which they live. These beautiful compositions show how a birds appearance changes with distance, and give equal emphasis to characteristics experts use to identify birds: size, structure and shape, behavior, probability, and color. This is the first book to convey all of these features visuallyin a single imageand to reinforce them with accurate, concise text. Each scene provides a wealth of detailed visual information that invites and rewards careful study, but the most important identification features can be grasped instantly by anyone.

By making identication easier, more accurate, and more fun than ever before, The Crossley ID Guide will completely redefine how its users look at birds. Essential for all birders, it also promises to make new birders of many people who have despaired of using traditional guides.

WATERBIRDS

Swimming Waterbirds pp.

Flying Waterbirds pp.

Walking Waterbirds pp.

LANDBIRDS

Upland Gamebirds pp.

Raptors pp.

Aerial Landbirds pp.

Songbirds pp.

by Richard Crossley

Copyright 2011 by Richard Crossley

Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Permissions, Princeton University Press

Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540

In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW

nathist.princeton.edu

All Rights Reserved

ISBN 978-0-691-14778-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010934303

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

This book has been composed in Gill Sans

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Brian and Margaret Crossley
A lifetime of encouragement and caring.
Thank you.

This book is for beginners, experts, and everyone in between; indeed anyone who loves to identify birds, or just look at them, or simply enjoys the beauty of the outdoors. Its main goal, using unique photographs and page layouts, is to show birds as we really see them in the field. Straight-talking text, in conjunction with abundant and painstakingly selected images, provides keys to improve and hone basic and advanced identification skills and enhance all-around enjoyment of birds in their varied habitats.

Im not exactly sure when this book was first conceived. I suppose, like other serious birders, I always try to weigh the pros and cons of bird books, to determine which is the best and how I might improve on any or all of them. I have always loved photographs but felt their potential was never fully realized in field guides. This lifelong interest was heightened during my work as co-author of The Shorebird Guide. From that simple starting point, this project has developedsometimes painfullyinto its final form as this book. Im proud of what I have achieved, but Im also sure that this is just the first in a new generation of nature guides. As technology advances, Crossley Books will be looking to push the boundaries and help promote birding and the outdoors. So watch this space!

My goal for the book was to make it visually striking, educational, innovative, entertaining, and comprehensive. I wanted to create a book that replicates the world of birds as I see it. Of course, Im not sure if I have managed to achieve all this, but my hope is that this book will help to change the way we look at birds, and, more importantly, the way we look at and use books. If this is successful, it will help us become better birders, and also increase our appreciation for our beautiful surroundings.

This book has been an excitingsometimes overwhelmingchallenge. I have taken it from inception, virtually a blank sheet of paper, through many frustations and failures, to its final design. I photographed all of the approximately 10,000 images in this book (I consider over 99% to be all!). Unlike other photographic guides, I wanted this to be entirely mine: photographs, words, designeverything.

I regard this book as one part of a broader aim to both serve and expand the world of birding, make it more fashionable, current, and exciting. You, too, can be part of the journey. See additional text for this book and our other adventures at WWW.CROSSLEYBIRDS.COM .

Whether I succeed or not, I continue to learn so much and its quite a ride.

I hope you enjoy and learn from all of this!

Richard Crossley

Cape May, NJ

Size Guide: DOVE8.25in; MUSW60in