The Sibley Guide to Birds

This is currently THE North American bird book if you're a serious birder.

The volume covers all the birds, and most of the plumages of all the birds you can find on the continent (north of Mexico). If you have more than a passing fancy, it's well worth owning. Heck, it's well worth owning for the fantastic watercolor paintings by the author.

Its large size makes it generally impractical for use as a field guide, but if you can leave it in your car you should take it along. When you come back from a hike you are likely to be able to answer many of your questions by using this book. DON'T read it while driving (or even walking).

Field Guide to Birds of North America

Okay, so the above guide is THE guide to own. However, I think this is THE field guide to own. The text is clear and the illustrations are very well done. Kenn Kaufman took the illustrations from photographs and digitally enhanced them to bring out the species characteristics. This took over my pocket on birding trips almost as soon as it was issued.

Note though, that there are people who would violently disagree with me (some of them are good friends).

Sibley Field Guide to Eastern Birds and Sibley Field Guide to Western Birds

The illustrations and to some degree the text in both of these very good books are scaled down versions from the Guide to Birds listed above. Both of these volumes are worth adding to your collection. I just find them less useful in the field than the Kaufman book.

A Field Guide to Western Birds and A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America

These are the classic field guides. Roger Tory Peterson began modern bird watching with the publication of his eastern guide in the 1930s. While still useful and used by many people (including me), they are no longer considered the highest standard in field guides by most birders.

Birds of North America

An earlier edition of this guide was my first bird guide, which is now residing, lost, in Mississippi. The illustrations are pretty good, and the information is pretty concise and done well. I can heartily recommend this book.

The National Geographic Field Guide to Birds of North America

This would be a fantastic and wonderful field guide if it were just a little smaller. In order to make it stand out from the other guides a decision was apparently made to cut the paper a little larger than the others. Sorry. It no longer fits in my pocket so I don't carry it in the field with me.

However, they managed to get the most beautiful artwork of any of the field guides (in my opinion, of course). Even if I can't recommend it for the field (it's heavy, too) I do recommend, like the Sibley Guide to Birds, that you get a copy and put it in your car. If you have to choose - choose this one first then save up for the Sibley.

These guides are the ones I find least useful, however many others will use nothing else. These use photographs rather than paintings, which most of the other guides use. The photos are of variable quality (though each new edition does get better). The lighting in some of them is horrid.

I'm also not fond of how they're laid out, unlike any of the other guides, so it's harder to switch from these to other guides - but again, some people find this the best guide.

 Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America

A big book - the size of the Sibley Guide above. Like that one, not an easy pocket field-guide. It has mostly the same information as the regional Peterson guides. If you're a Peterson Guide user already, this might be the one to get for the house. If you're a Sibley Guide user you may want this one as the alternate reference for the car.

Kingbird Highway

Though not a field guide or really even a guide to birds at all, every birder should read this book. It's a road trip story about one of America's premier bird watchers. It's a travelogue you'll barely believe. It's a great book. It gets inside the mind of someone with an obsession and how that obsession plays out over the course of a year. I really think it's a general reader book, not just one for bird watchers.