This book is a great resource for identifying the 56 species of warblers in the US and Canada. It presents views of each species from all angles, including fall and spring plumages. Winter and summer ranges are shown, as well as fall and spring migration routes. Stephenson, a birding journalist/guide and musician, and Whittle, a professional photographer and educator, use a unique system of sonograms as a way of song identification. The photographs (more than 1,000 in color) are good to excellent. Various useful appendixes follow the species accounts; "Habitats and Behavior" is especially helpful. The list of resources at the end of the book includes books, articles, and websites, as well as birding apps. This excellent guide will be valuable to both amateur bird watchers and ornithologists. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic, general, and professional ornithology collections. K. L. Williams emeritus, Northwestern State University

Little yellow birds with high-pitched melodies migrate every spring to confound many birders trying to identify them. Avid birders Stephenson (articles in Birder and Bird Watcher's Digest) and Whittle (photographer) pull together every distinguishing characteristic in this guide. The first 100 pages cover generalities of what to look and listen for, while the bulk of the material presents species individually, offering diagrams and bullet points that highlight major distinctions, multiple color photographs with views from every angle, comparison species, aging and sexing, a distribution and migration map, and sonograms for the species and similar sounding nonwarblers-in all, each species is covered in six densely packed pages. The "visual finders" pages may enjoy the book's heaviest use. The "Face Quick Finder," for example, presents side views of the heads of 80 species, displayed across a spread. Similar spreads depict views from other angles, as well as seasonal and geographic distinctions. Some "finders" cover sonograms, graphing songs, and chip and flight calls of various warblers, distinguished by pitch and quality of sound. Those unfamiliar with visualizing sound this way may be aided by comparing audio and sonograms of the same species; The Guide's Song and Call Companion is available for $5.99 at macaulaylibrary.org/guide/the-warbler-guide; free audio can be found at allaboutbirds.org/guide/search. The work closes with brief descriptions of similar nonwarblers, hybrid warblers, an eight-photo quiz and review, pictorial and narrative descriptions of various warbler species in flight, a taxonomy tree, a table of measurements, silhouettes, a table of habitat and behavior, a glossary, a list of resources, and an index by common and genus species names. Additional material can be found at thewarblerguide.com, which unfortunately is not the URL listed in the guide. Some will find this title too bulky to carry into the field, but dedicated birders will happily tote it along for the wealth of information contained or buy the ebook. VERDICT This is the book to get for warbler identification. Highly recommended for public libraries with bird-watching patrons and academic libraries with ornithology classes.-Teresa R. Faust, Vermont Dept. of Libs., Berlin (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.