Peterson First Guides are the first books the beginning naturalist needs. Condensed version of the famous Peterson field Guides, the First Guides focus on the animals, plants, and other natural things you are most likely to see. They make it fun to get into the field and easy to progress to the full-fledged Peterson Guides.

This field guide, geared for younger readers, is a more consice version of the longer Peterson's guide. On the positive side, it is smaller, and convieniently will fit in a pocket (for most adults). It has 188 of the most common species that most birders will be introduced to when learning about birds. It features illustrations rather than pictures (as does the adult version) with multiple similar species on the same page, however, it does not feature some of the disambiguation pages that are so helpful in the full guide. It also follows the same taxonomic format (without most of the latin names) as the Peterson's guide, so it familiarizes learners with the format most guides follow.

The biggest (and to me, this is big) fault I have with the guide is that it covers all of America and does not include range maps. Combining this with the fact that so many birds that are often encountered in my area (SE Louisiana) are absent (y. crowned night heron, w. pelican, tricolor heron, b. necked stilt, to name a few very common birds in my area from the first few pages) make this guide less useful than other beginners' guides I have come across. ( )

598.29