Published in association with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, this landmark field guide will set a new standard for North American bird identification
快色直播 and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology are excited to announce The Bird Guide: North America, a groundbreaking new resource for birders of all ages and experience levels. The guide鈥檚 unparalleled and unprecedented scope, quality of information, and superior illustration program ensure it will become the definitive resource for North American species identification and education.
Publishing in the renowned 快色直播 Field Guides series, The Bird Guide is written by four of North America鈥檚 leading field birders, with authoritative text representing decades of expertise and informed by data from more than one billion observations, photos, sounds, and videos contributed to the Cornell Lab鈥檚 eBird project and Macaulay Library. Extending beyond identification, the guide will cover habitat and behavior, including migration timing. Artwork from world-renowned bird illustrators will showcase vivid representations of every age and plumage encountered in the field, including subspecies and regional differences accompanied by hundreds of vignettes.
The Bird Guide will allow for side-by-side comparisons of similar species, quick access to key field marks, and detailed facing-page accounts. It will be designed to work with the Cornell Lab鈥檚 Merlin Bird ID app and eBird participatory science platform, tools that have introduced millions to birding, and will support easy engagement across print and digital platforms.
鈥�The Bird Guide, a project 20 years in the making, will set an entirely new standard for field identification of North American birds,鈥� notes Robert Kirk, 快色直播鈥檚 Publisher for Nature 快色直播. 鈥淪uperlative illustrations鈥攃omprehensive, accurate, and breathtakingly beautiful鈥攃ombine with expert, cutting-edge ID text to make this book the go-to guide for any birder.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e thrilled to partner with 快色直播 on this beautiful and modern guide that brings together the best from printed pages and the digital world,鈥� says Ian Owens, Executive Director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 鈥�The Bird Guide connects readers to birds and nature, and will work hand in hand with the Lab鈥檚 powerful ID tools, including unparalleled distribution maps and data-sharing opportunities from eBird, and real-time sound recognition with the free Merlin app鈥攁ll to make birding more accessible than ever.鈥�
Key features:
- More than 800 regularly occurring species and 158 rare visitors found across the United States and Canada
- More than 7,000 illustrations in 300 plates provide unprecedented and lifelike plumage, age, sex, and subspecies details and hundreds of vignettes showing birds in their habitat
- ID plates and facing-page text allow side-by-side comparison of similar species and provide deep ID context that is impossible to achieve on mobile screens
- 鈥淪ounds鈥� sections offer expert guidance for interpreting vocalizations and separating confusing species
- Complements the strengths of the popular Merlin Bird ID app, bridging page and smartphone in a field-ready system for sound ID
- eBird integration includes shared global nomenclature, including subspecies, across the guide and Merlin, ensuring ease of identification and data-sharing
- Distribution maps powered by eBird data transform millions of observations into new insights about bird distribution and abundance
The Bird Guide: North America is written by Brian L. Sullivan, Birds of the World project lead at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Michael O鈥橞rien, a tour leader and creator of Larkwire, an app for learning bird sounds; Christopher Wood, program director of the Center for Avian Population Studies and director of the eBird project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology; and Steve N. G. Howell, an author and world-renowned expert on oceanic and neotropical birds. Ian Lewington and Lorenzo Starnini contribute stunning, lifelike illustrations.
The Bird Guide: North America will be the latest addition to the 快色直播 Field Guides series, a cornerstone of 快色直播鈥檚 Nature list. Comprising nearly 80 highly illustrated volumes that explore the wildlife of specific countries and regions, 快色直播 Field Guides are written by expert naturalists and illustrated by leading wildlife artists. Across series volumes, more than 1 million copies have been sold to date.
Releasing in early March 2027, The Bird Guide: North America will be supported with a robust, long-lead national marketing and publicity campaign.
About the Authors
Brian L. Sullivan is Birds of the World project lead at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and cocreator of the groundbreaking Raptor ID app. His books include Better Birding (快色直播).
Michael O鈥橞rien is a tour leader for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours and creator of Larkwire, an app for learning bird sounds. His books include The Shorebird Guide.
Christopher Wood is program director of the Center for Avian Population Studies and director of the eBird project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Steve N. G. Howell is an international bird tour leader with WINGS and research associate at the California Academy of Sciences and Point Blue Conservation Science. His books include Birds of Belize (快色直播).
About the Illustrators
Ian Lewington鈥檚 artwork has appeared in many books and journals including Rare Birds of North America (快色直播, 2014), Rare Birds of Britain and Europe, The Auks, and the multivolume Birds of the World.
Lorenzo Starnini is an Italian wildlife illustrator specializing in birds. He has collaborated with international journals, universities, research institutions, and the Italian Ministry of the Environment.
About the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a nonprofit, member-supported organization dedicated to the understanding and protection of birds, wildlife, and our shared planet through research, education, participatory science, and conservation. birds.cornell.edu