Sharp new pair of bird ID books

Never a fan of bird identification books that use photographic images, I’m pleasantly surprised and very impressed by a set of such books recently published by Princeton University Press. These are horses, well, birds, of a different color. The photo images in “Birds of Eastern North America” and its companion, “Birds of Western North America,” are what you would expect to see in a fine birding magazine. Paul Sterry and Brian Small have created books with large, superior photos placed on pages designed to be lively and interesting. The text accompanying each species is three or four times as long as what you find in most ID books. It's pertinent and sharply written. Yes, you'll need two books if you want to cover all of North America, each at $18.95 soft cover, but well worth the money. You don't have to buy both eastern and western books, of course, but I'd be certain that the eastern edition was on my shelf, say no later than the December holidays.