Birding resources
Below are a few of our favorite resources for the beginning and avid bird watcher in this area.
By no means a comprehensive list, the ones below reflect our guides’ preferences.
Field Guides to US or western birds are useful in central Mexico as many of our birds are also found in the southwest United States and California. There are also many birding apps that you can download to your smart phone, tablet or other device: iBirds, Sibley and Audubon are the most commonly used. They are available from the Apple Store or from their websites.
Field Guides
Birds of North America
New York, Houghton Mifflin, 2005
An extremely useful field guide, with photographs rather than drawings.
The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America
New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2nd Edition 2014
Sibley’s guides are authoritative; uses paintings rather than photographs. The Sibley guides are replacing Peterson’s as the standard.
Birds of San Miguel de Allende: 81 Birds commonly seen in and around town
Pamphlet. Available from Audubon.
Guía de Aves del Charco del Ingenio
Photographer: Susan & Wayne Colony.
Edited by the Jardín Botánico, in collaboration with the Instituto de Ecología del Gobierrno de Guanajuato. 2014.
Available at El Charco.
Text in Spanish.
Reference books
The Sibley Guide to Birds
New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2000
Comprehensive. His Field Guides are distilled from this book.
A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America
Sophie Webb
New York, Oxford University Press, 1995
Still the “bible” for birds of Mexico, although becoming somewhat outdated. Generally referred to as “Howell & Webb.”
Sibley's Birding Basics
New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2002
“…introduces readers to the basic information that underlies the techniques of modern bird identification.” – David Allen
NOTE: also available in Spanish.
The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior
New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2001
A companion to his Guide to Birds.
Online Resources
Learn about the local birds of San Miguel
Note: Includes links to All About Birds website.
El Charco del Ingenio
www.elcharco.org.mx
Note: Includes bird and butterfly lists compiled by Wayne Colony.
All About Birds
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/search.aspx
Note: An invaluable free site from the famous Cornell Lab of Ornithology. A comprehensive guide to birds, with songs and photographs.
Listen to the sounds of 602 North American bird species.
www.bird-sounds.net
Xeno-Canto
www.xeno-canto.org
“Sharing bird songs from around the world.” Multiple examples for every bird. Birdsongs can be downloaded.
David Sibley
www.sibleyguides.com
Note: Contains useful information about bird identification, including changes in birds’ names. Also has links to many other bird-information Websites.
Signe Hammer
shammer266@icloud.com
April Gaydos
President, Sociedad Audubon de México
audubondemexico@gmail.com
NOTE: All book cover images are for reference only. As books are updated and new issues published, many times cover images will change.
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