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Kaufman Field Guides
Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America
Critically acclaimed for its innovative design, the Kaufman guide introduced a new generation to birding. The Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America includes the official names of birds and range maps. Additional information helps beginning birdwatchers get started, all in the same compact format that has made this guide the easiest to use for fast identification in the field.
392 pages, Paperback
First published September 22, 2000
7 people are currently reading
279 people want to read
About the author
Kenn Kaufman
35 books140 followersKenn Kaufman (born 1954) is an American author, artist, naturalist, and conservationist, with a particular focus on birds.
Born in South Bend, Indiana, Kaufman started birding at the age of six. When he was nine, his family moved to Wichita, Kansas, where his fascination with birds intensified. At age sixteen, inspired by birding pioneers such as Roger Tory Peterson, he dropped out of high school and spent several years hitchhiking around North America in pursuit of birds. This adventure eventually was recorded in a memoir, Kingbird Highway.
Thereafter he spent several years as a professional leader of nature tours, taking groups of birders to all seven continents. In 1984 he began working as an editor and consultant on birds for the National Audubon Society, a connection that continues to this day. Gradually he transitioned from tour leading to a full-time focus on writing, editing, and illustrating, always on nature subjects. His first major book, the Peterson Field Guide to Advanced Birding, was published in 1990. This was followed by another dozen books, including seven titles in his own series of Kaufman Field Guides. His next book, The Birds That Audubon Missed, is scheduled for publication in May 2024.
Currently, Kaufman devotes most of his time to writing books and painting bird portraits. His paintings have been juried into several prestigious exhibitions. He is a Fellow of the American Ornithological Society, a recipient of the Eisenmann Medal from the Linnaean Society of New York, and the only person to have received the American Birding Association's lifetime achievement award twice.
Kaufman resides in Oak Harbor, Ohio with his wife, Kimberly Kaufman, also a dedicated naturalist. Kenn and Kimberly mostly work on separate projects, but they collaborate as the "birding experts" for the popular Birds & Blooms Magazine.
Born in South Bend, Indiana, Kaufman started birding at the age of six. When he was nine, his family moved to Wichita, Kansas, where his fascination with birds intensified. At age sixteen, inspired by birding pioneers such as Roger Tory Peterson, he dropped out of high school and spent several years hitchhiking around North America in pursuit of birds. This adventure eventually was recorded in a memoir, Kingbird Highway.
Thereafter he spent several years as a professional leader of nature tours, taking groups of birders to all seven continents. In 1984 he began working as an editor and consultant on birds for the National Audubon Society, a connection that continues to this day. Gradually he transitioned from tour leading to a full-time focus on writing, editing, and illustrating, always on nature subjects. His first major book, the Peterson Field Guide to Advanced Birding, was published in 1990. This was followed by another dozen books, including seven titles in his own series of Kaufman Field Guides. His next book, The Birds That Audubon Missed, is scheduled for publication in May 2024.
Currently, Kaufman devotes most of his time to writing books and painting bird portraits. His paintings have been juried into several prestigious exhibitions. He is a Fellow of the American Ornithological Society, a recipient of the Eisenmann Medal from the Linnaean Society of New York, and the only person to have received the American Birding Association's lifetime achievement award twice.
Kaufman resides in Oak Harbor, Ohio with his wife, Kimberly Kaufman, also a dedicated naturalist. Kenn and Kimberly mostly work on separate projects, but they collaborate as the "birding experts" for the popular Birds & Blooms Magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
May 15, 2022
This is another excellent birding book, in my opinion. It covers the entirety of North America, as the title suggests, using real photos. The birds are split into types, primarily their size or style rather than color. This doesn't hurt it whatsoever.
I enjoy finding by color first, but I can see why this is not always the way to do things, especially if birders are color blind. However, this book does an excellent job illustrating the types of birds, multiples on one page and then their information on the opposite side with their ranges, etc.
A great companion to the state-specific guides and immensely usable and easy to carry!
I enjoy finding by color first, but I can see why this is not always the way to do things, especially if birders are color blind. However, this book does an excellent job illustrating the types of birds, multiples on one page and then their information on the opposite side with their ranges, etc.
A great companion to the state-specific guides and immensely usable and easy to carry!
August 29, 2021
My grandmother owned this when I was a kid, I wore the poor book out but I still have the raggedy old thing on my book shelf. I LOVED using it while bird watching and still do from time to time :)
December 9, 2016
About myself: I've been birding for all of three months, not really taking walks for the purpose of birding or making IDs until this past Christmas Bird Count. So I imagine I fall right in the target demographic for this work. My impression of the several times I've built a stack of several guides to look at something I've seen is that the Sibley Guide and its Eastern and Western children compete with the National Geographic Field Guide for the top/experienced birder and comparisons between one of those and the Kaufman's guide are rather silly, different purpose. Kaufman himself mentions that he leaves out things such as variants which experienced birders want because he was aiming at the less experienced birder. That leaves guides such as Peterson's, Stokes Guide To Birds, the Golden Guide and the American Bird Conservancy All The Birds Of North America as comparisons.
I agree that Kaufman has improved greatly on the other photographic based guides. The other photo guides I've seen suffer from the fact that their photos are too good (paradoxically). Since the overwhelming majority of birds I see are under clouds or trying their best to be inconspicuous, the vibrancy of, say, Stokes actually makes it harder to ID the bird. Kaufman's use of the arrows to highlight field marks and putting similar birds on the same page a la Peterson guides helps a lot as well. The Golden Guide does not quite measure up since it is harder to tell what to look for in the absense of field marks in the descriptions. And the order of 'All the Birds' I find hard to work with.
The real comparison for the Kaufman Field Guide is the Petersons Field Guide To Birds Of Eastern And Central North America and its western sibling. I have purchased both, and each of them spend time in my pocket. I tend to favor Peterson because the pictures are larger (5th edition), for some birds it includes a number of variants (which Kaufman deliberately omits) and the pictures are sharper (I can abstract the natural blending of colors myself)so the difference between sharp boundaries and more blended boundaries of color are actually meaningful (e.g. Carolina and Black-capped chickadees). And I actually find the closer to taxonomic order easier to navigate (since families that are close tend to be close to each other). The Kaufman quick tabs get me to the right part of the book, but within the tab I often end up flipping through all the pages. The taxonomy (as a non-biologist) order actually becomes someone ingrained quick enough, which I imagine makes sense, since it is based on physical reality.
Of course, between Peterson and Kaufman, I would echo the advice that you actually have to look at both to pick one (if pick one you must). The styles are different enough that I find both useful, and I always look at the other one when I get back home. Much of the question is if the use can get past the abstraction of the painting to real life viewing, or if they give up the shown details for the more realistic texture that the touched up photographs can give even when the improved depiction of texture probably does not help for identification in field conditions.
I agree that Kaufman has improved greatly on the other photographic based guides. The other photo guides I've seen suffer from the fact that their photos are too good (paradoxically). Since the overwhelming majority of birds I see are under clouds or trying their best to be inconspicuous, the vibrancy of, say, Stokes actually makes it harder to ID the bird. Kaufman's use of the arrows to highlight field marks and putting similar birds on the same page a la Peterson guides helps a lot as well. The Golden Guide does not quite measure up since it is harder to tell what to look for in the absense of field marks in the descriptions. And the order of 'All the Birds' I find hard to work with.
The real comparison for the Kaufman Field Guide is the Petersons Field Guide To Birds Of Eastern And Central North America and its western sibling. I have purchased both, and each of them spend time in my pocket. I tend to favor Peterson because the pictures are larger (5th edition), for some birds it includes a number of variants (which Kaufman deliberately omits) and the pictures are sharper (I can abstract the natural blending of colors myself)so the difference between sharp boundaries and more blended boundaries of color are actually meaningful (e.g. Carolina and Black-capped chickadees). And I actually find the closer to taxonomic order easier to navigate (since families that are close tend to be close to each other). The Kaufman quick tabs get me to the right part of the book, but within the tab I often end up flipping through all the pages. The taxonomy (as a non-biologist) order actually becomes someone ingrained quick enough, which I imagine makes sense, since it is based on physical reality.
Of course, between Peterson and Kaufman, I would echo the advice that you actually have to look at both to pick one (if pick one you must). The styles are different enough that I find both useful, and I always look at the other one when I get back home. Much of the question is if the use can get past the abstraction of the painting to real life viewing, or if they give up the shown details for the more realistic texture that the touched up photographs can give even when the improved depiction of texture probably does not help for identification in field conditions.
May 23, 2014
This is our Gold Standard birding field guide. It's our (especially my Serious Birder Son's) favorite and must-have volume. Considering that we have the National Geographic (several different editions), Smithsonian, Peterson, Reader's Digest, Sibley, and DK guides - in addition to a large number of reference guides that are not portable - it says a lot that we consider this the best (field) guide you can buy.
Some of the pros of this guide are:
- color-coded edges lets you easily find specific sections (ducks, raptors, warblers, etc.)
- not much wasted white space
- lighting-adjusted photos are used rather than paintings
- compact size, even for a field guide
- the scientific and common names were all up to date at time of publication (names can and do change when new research is published on taxonomic findings whereupon the American Ornithologists Union officially changes the names)
Some of the pros of this guide are:
- color-coded edges lets you easily find specific sections (ducks, raptors, warblers, etc.)
- not much wasted white space
- lighting-adjusted photos are used rather than paintings
- compact size, even for a field guide
- the scientific and common names were all up to date at time of publication (names can and do change when new research is published on taxonomic findings whereupon the American Ornithologists Union officially changes the names)
April 29, 2024
A fantastic guide book. It features real pictures (I can not stand/can not use books w/ drawings, no matter how life-like), easy to read maps (especially important when you're trying to identify something you don't recognize), brief descriptions with important field marks noted and compared to similar birds, and multiple birds per page for comparison. My only complaint would be that the pictures are small, but that keeps the book pocket-sized enough to take it into the field. This really is more of a field book and I wouldn't give up any of my more in-depth books for deeper reading and better pictures but this one is definitely going out with me for warbler season and already helped me identify a lifer Nashville warbler.
May 29, 2020
The only field guide I’ve read so take my comments with a grain of salt. But this one is supposed to be great for beginners and as a beginner I’ve found it really helpful. Features an informative introduction, a helpful pictorial table of contents, easy to read maps, and a checklist in the back of the book to keep track of which birds you’ve seen. The birds are presented in photographs which are somewhat stylized to look like illustrations. Lots of helpful information about appearance, sounds, and possible changes in appearance. All in all, seems to be a great guide for new birders.
May 2, 2020
This is the very first field guide I ever owned. My moms girlfriend gave this to me one day and I was hooked on birds. I prefer Kenn’s field guides because he uses actual photos. I know it’s not as popular as Sibley, but to me the photos provide information that sometimes illustrations leave out, at no fault of the artist. Kenn’s species descriptions and field identifiers are also very succinct and on point.
January 30, 2020
My copy has so much wear and tear from constant reference while birding with binoculars, that I had to duct tape the cover to waterproof it! We sure learned it like the backs of our hands in ornithology and bird taxonomy classes to ensure a swift find of a mystery bird on a flyby.
January 24, 2023
Birds of North America has been my go-to guide for years, when I want to recognize the new bird that I see. The book is really a treasure for bird watchers everywhere. I am grateful I still have a signed copy of it. Highly recommended!
January 19, 2018
Excellent field guide for beginners and intermediate birders. The image plates have a handy highlight pointing to the identifying element for each bird, to help with confident IDs in the field.
January 26, 2018
Accessible, easy-to-use beginning/intermediate bird book. We keep ours close to the windows which overlook our feeders. Includes maps of the species' migratory ranges and good identification tips.
November 21, 2020
Excellent field guide with illustrations and info to identify birds.
June 25, 2023
Conveniently sized, concisely arranged, contains birds
November 16, 2024
I love birds!
June 14, 2017
Among the dozen or so guides I have, this is the one that I take with me in the field. The book is well-organized and the photos are digitally-enhanced. I feel like I'm able to do faster lookups with this book and it seems like just the right weight and size for carrying.
April 18, 2009
I am a total bird-nerd, and if you only own one bird field guide (and yes, I recognize that most people have no reason to even own one) this is the one to get. Many field guides are strictly photo images, and for many species, it can be incredibly difficult to get a photo representative of the way the bird actually looks. Others have only drawings, which can emphasize identifying marks, but seldom look enough like the actual bird to be of much use. This book takes real photos and digitally enhances/edits them so they are the perfect combination of 'real' and 'useful'.
December 1, 2007
I really love the setup of this book. There's information on distribution, migration patterns, time-of-year to expect to see each bird in your region (via a distribution map for each species), and a description of the call. Images consist of a photo (or two) of each species, with arrowheads pointing to relevant characters, and a bit of tweaking to emphasize salient features (e.g., maybe brightening up a yellow cheek patch)
April 13, 2008
This field guide is great because the pictures actually look like the birds you're trying to spot! It has retouched digital images instead of drawings. Every time I look up a bird I find it quickly and don't have doubts about what it is. It's also great to have both Eastern and Western birds in one compact guide.
April 10, 2010
Great birding guide for beginners and pros alike. The compiled photos that fill the book are all excellent examples of birds as they appear in the field.
This is the first guide I recommend to anyone who asks me for bird guide advice.
This is the first guide I recommend to anyone who asks me for bird guide advice.
July 18, 2013
Hands down, this is the best field guide for birds I've been able to find. The digitally-enhanced photos make it so much easier to compare birds in the field to birds in the guide. The organization and descriptions are superb, too.
January 18, 2016
One can never have enough birding field guide, IMHO. The uniqueness of this guide is that it combines enhanced photographic images (instead of drawings) with "Peterson's arrows" noting the key identification features.
August 1, 2007
I haven't compared it with it's competitors, but this is small, well-organized and comprehensive.
March 24, 2008
A fantastic field guide for Birds of North America. Well categorized and easy to identify species.
June 21, 2008
This is very descriptive, and really handy to have if you are an avid bird watcher. It has all real pictures, and plenty of info about the diffarent kinds of birds.
June 22, 2008
This one is even easier to use than my National Geographic guide, with photos instead of illustrations. Bought this on our roadtrip to CO and it was very handy!!
July 27, 2009
This book is my constant companion when hiking or traveling. It is so easy to find new birds and the descriptions are always spot on.
February 12, 2012
How to easily identify birds in my area.
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June 8, 2011The first guide (I think) to use digitally-edited photos of birds. I actually never use this one in the field, but it's interesting to compare the photos with what I've seen later on.
July 15, 2018
I am sure I have at least a dozen bird guides on my bookshelf, but this is may favorite, and always the one I will take with me.
August 2, 2011
Easy to follow. Well organized. The pictures are actual photos that have been enhanced with a computer. Great for beginning birders like myself.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews