num_pages: 177
description: Our LaZer Focused Field Guide to the Flycatchers of North America deals exclusively with a relatively short list of species, all but two of which belong to the Tyrannidae family. More specifically, the guide aspires to two goals—helping people locate flycatchers and helping them positively identify the ones they see. It best serves birders who want to earn their way to higher proficiency, and to do so expediently. This guide isn't like the Merlin app, which attempts to do all the work for its user, who doesn't have to think about the underlying process. With our guide, we hope to lead users toward the goal of becoming better able to assimilate the practices and processes utilized by highly-skilled birders.Aspiring to this lofty aim, this guide provides clearly labeled data to identify the most definitive physical features of each of the flycatchers found in North America. Our LaZer Focused Field Guide provides the user with a complete list of salient focal features to use while attempting to identify the birds they're likely to see. We know the path to birding excellence involves the study of various aspects of the activity, other than the physical features of the species. We've included reference to the birds' life habits, habitat preferences, migratory patterns and ranges where relevant, with the goal of giving the user all the resources they need to both locate and positively identify as many of these species as possible. As we see it, the problem with many of the reputable field guides currently used by novice birders lies in the copious amount of details they provide. Without a filter, many people get lost in the metaphorical weeds those details represent. More information doesn't necessarily provide an easier path to excellence; a smaller amount of more important information serves most people more efficiently. Introduction (cont.) With this goal in mind, we've described the species in our guide using the least amount of relevant details we can, without sacrificing anything significant. We've done so by identifying the features most relevant in identifying the species positively, relying primarily on their physical attributes. Accordingly, we've selected photographs which accurately capture the physical features in a manner which makes them most useful in the process. More importantly, we've also included direct comparisons of similar species, so the user can see them simultaneously, using clearly identified Focal Features labeled with red arrows, circles, asterisks, lines and other symbols.Our goal is to provide a resource to help developing novice birders find and properly identify more flycatchers, including the trickiest ones they can expect to see in these United States.
language: English
title: Lazer Focused Field Guide to the Flycatchers of North America