Comments and/or questions?
Web Master

New Peterson Field Guide Available

by
David Christie

     About 3 months ago, I heard that Roger Tory Peterson's last book, the 5th edition of his classic "A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America" had been published (Houghton Mifflin, 2002).

      This revision of the eastern bird guide was 85% finished when Roger Tory Peterson died in 1996. Completion of the book was supervised by RTP's widow, Virginia Marie Peterson, who is listed as co-author, aided by three well-known American birders. Douglas Pratt painted the final plate of flycatchers that Peterson was working on the day he died. That unfinished plate is reproduced in the front of the book, along with a moving foreword by Robert Bateman.

      This is not as major an update as the 1980 edition was. Owners of that book will immediately recognize the new book as being similar in many, many ways. However, there are numerous changes, the most significant being inclusion of birds of the lower Rio Grande in southern Texas and a complete revision of the distribution maps. (Brian Dalzell contributed New Brunswick input. Check the NatureNB archives for Brian's account [Personal RTP Encounter; 9:43 PM 8/8/1996] of sending distribution information to the Petersons.)

      The previous edition was widely criticized because one had to flip to the back to check the distribution maps, so the new book is about 2 cm higher and 1 cm wider to allow inclusion of fingernail-sized maps beside the main species text, in addition to the maps at the back. An added benefit of the larger size is that the paintings are generally a bit bigger than they were formerly, as are the main maps (now numbering 452 vs. 390), but the book may fit less easily in a jacket pocket.

      Peterson painted seven new colour plates and modified 85 others, while 59 are repeated from the 4th edition. (I didn't count; those numbers are mentioned in Virginia Peterson's preface. The text and plate section is about 30 pages longer.) On the whole, most will look very familiar. Besides the addition of new Texan and vagrant species, changes include, for example:

• the addition of colour to plates showing silhouettes of hawks overhead, flight patterns of ducks, and shorebirds in flight,
• a plate with loons in flight, along with cormorants that were adequately treat before
• repainting of many of the shorebirds, often including illustration of juvenile plumage (but the juvenile Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers seem more drab than in life),
• one plate illustrating the 4-year transition of a Herring Gull from juvenile to adult and another that does the same for Ring-billed Gull (3 years) and for Bonaparte's Gull (2 years).
• and many small touches

      I see more changes in the first half of the book than among the songbirds and suspect that Peterson had plans for a more extensive revision but his age and failing health didn't allow him to carry it out. I wonder whether, if he were still alive, the species wouldn't be presented in his former grouping of duck-like waterbirds close together in one part, gull-like birds in another, etc., rather than in the more taxonomic sequence that we find in this new book.

      For most species the text is similar in length to what it was in 1980, nearly the same or with small additions (including mention that female Red-winged Blackbirds may have pink or buff throats). Some difficult species are more extensively rewritten to aid identification, e.g., Accipiters and Connecticut Warbler.

      In summary, this book covers a slightly larger region and dozens more species, with somewhat improved paintings and text, and fully updated maps. For experienced observers in eastern Canada, it is a valuable reference, slightly improved from its predecessor. For novices and intermediate level birders who are gaining familiarity with a wide range of species it is still the excellent identification guide that the "Peterson" has been for many years.

      I learned my bird identification skills using the 1947 Field Guide, and have a great attachment to Peterson and his work. This new book won't get the same wear and tear as that one did, but it will be consulted. It occupies an honoured place on my book shelf among the many bird guides I now own.