The above-mentioned southern border species, which are likely to show up again at some point, will probably be encountered by far more U.S. birders than those Siberian vagrants that occasionally make it to the Aleutians. Recent European handbooks include every species for which there are documented records, and there is no reason why a comprehensive North American guide shouldn t do the same. My major complaint about the text is that many species accounts are not tightly written. The lead sentence should contain the key field marks, but only too often such is not the case. Similar to but slightly larger than Empidonax flycatchers but with no eye-ring.
Wings extend farther down the tail.
For my money, that s a model fieldguide ID summation. In any case, no one field guide is going to be appropriate for all birders. The Peterson Eastern and Western guides are especially good for beginning birders because they emphasize key field marks and similar species. But their taxonomy and nomenclature are out of date, and they do not include the South Texas specialties or the many vagrants that have turned up with increasing frequency. And, compared to any edition of the National Geographic guide, they tend to omit the subtleties, illustrating only a limited number of forms.