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Another great thing about young birders is that they’re not yet set intheir ways. They’re pushing into new frontiers. They haven’t yetlearned that “nobody knows” or “it can’t be done.” They’re pioneeringnew methods for recognizing molt, identifying seabirds in flight, anddistinguishing warblers and sparrows by their nocturnal flight calls.When I want to learn new field skills, I more often than not wind upseeking the counsel of folks younger than I am.

With youthful brilliance comes a certain amount of brashness, it isoften said. Honestly, though, I don’t see a lot of that with today’s youngbirders. Somehow, somewhere, they’ve really picked up on Jon Dunn’smantra: If you want to become a skilled birder, you simply have toknow the literature. (How does he wield so much influence? Masstelepathy?) If you’re going to learn flight calls, you basically have tomemorize Bill Evans and Michael O’Brien’s CD-ROM—superhumanhearing isn’t enough. And if you really want to learn molts andplumages, you’re going to find yourself consulting Peter Pyle’s two-vol-ume Identification Guide to North American Birds pretty much on a dai-ly basis—20/10 vision isn’t going to do the trick.

Pyle’s two Identification Guides are basically the only field guides inNorth America that were conceived with the truly advanced user in

mind. All the other major guides—even the ostensibly high-end guideslike Sibley and Nat Geo—were produced with commercial success verymuch in mind. I’m not knocking Sibley and Nat Geo; they’re mar-velous, and I still refer to them frequently. But I’m also not so naïve asto imagine that a little bit of marketing didn’t go into their production.

Let’s put it this way: If I wanted to give a wonderful gift to a casualbirder, I’d give that person a Sibley orNat Geo. (Actually, I’d give a Smith-sonian Guide, but never mind.) Sure, you can use those guides for iden-tifying Empidonax flycatchers and Calidris sandpipers, but they’re also

Serious Fun for Serious (Often Young) Birders

Young birders are

great. I mean exactly

that. They have keen

vision and hearing,

they’re at peak

cognitive ability, and

their passion and

focus are undeniable.

On top of it all, young

birders’ lives aren’t yet

complicated (despite

what they may

imagine), and they

have all the time in

the world to go

birding. No wonder

they’re the best.

W W W . A B A . O R G 47

handy for recognizing the Downy Woodpeckers and White-breasted Nuthatch-es at your feeder. In due course, the casual birder might graduate to flycatch-ers and sandpipers, and eventually even to molt and geographic variation.

Which brings us back to the Pyle guides. If your interest in birding leadsyou toward the frontiers of field identification, you will inevitably discoverPyle’s two volumes. (By the way, it is totally fine not to be drawn into the fron-tiers of field ID.) And if you have a lot of time, keen sensory abilities, and apowerful brain—in other words, if you’re a young birder—you’re especiallylikely to make the acquaintance of the Pyle guides.

Check out what the contributors to this Birding forum have to say. Manyof them enthuse about the delights and glories of the Pyle guides, but not allof them are uncritical. Several contributors are interested in molt and geo-graphic variation per se, while others apply such topics toward the craft offield ID. Many different voices and perspectives are represented here. But I dodiscern a unifying theme in this forum. All of the contributors have gone be-yond cut-and-dried “book reviews,” electing instead to describe how the Pyleguides have had a direct impact on their lives as birders.

On an admittedly defensive note, I suppose a fair number of readers are go-ing to equate keen interest in molts and plumages with a certain amount

of geekiness. Well, come on! We’re all birders. It’s just a difference of degree.I’ll say this, though: There’s no denying the heartfelt delight of these young

birders—and of a bunch of us who remain young at heart.On that note, I’d like to wrap up with a personal anecdote. A year ago, my

daughter, who had just turned four, accompanied me to a professional meet-ing. At one point, she introduced herself to Peter Pyle, and the twoof them got to talking about Black-footed Albatrosses.In a moment, they were exchanging high fives—half a dozen in quick succession, as I recall.

True happiness is elusive, but it was on displaythat afternoon at the meeting. And if the road tohappiness is paved with discussions of plumagevariation in albatrosses, then I’m all for it. I don’tthink you can find it in a shopping mall.

—Ted Floyd

The long-awaited second volume of PeterPyle’s Identification Guide to North AmericanBirds, covering waterfowl through alcids, wasrecently published. ABA members and friendscan purchase one or both volumes through ABA Salesonline <abasales.com> or by telephone (800-634-7736).

Commentaries by

John F. Garrett

Thomas B. Johnson

Tayler Brooks

Mike Andersen

Oscar Johnson

Steve Carbol

Sean P. Graesser

Jonathan S. Feenstra

Brian L. Sullivan

Michael L. P. Retter

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The Red-necked Grebe was all but dead. Found off theSouthern California coast, the grebe’s nape had been

ripped out, leaving a red, gory mess, and giving a wholenew meaning to its name—Red-necked Grebe. The grebedied soon thereafter and subsequently was brought to theLos Angeles Natural History Museum to be transformedinto a grebe specimen. Before this transformation, howev-er, Kimball Garrett, curator for the museum’s ornithologi-cal collection, examined the grebe to determine its age, sex,and whatever else he could learn. Reaching for his conve-niently located Identification Guide to North American Birds,Part II by Peter Pyle, he looked up the account on Red-necked Grebes.

Applying the Identification Guide to North American Birds,or “Pyle Part II,” to museum specimens is just one scenario

involving this invaluable book,which, because it contains awealth of specific details not al-ways measurable in the field,can be used for a wide varietyof other purposes. Where elsecould one read that the whiteband at the tail tip of Accipiterhawks is less than four millime-ters in Sharp-shinned but morethan four in Cooper’s Hawk?What better reference is there

for separating American from Pacific Golden-Plovers, usingsuch features as primary projection and the number of vis-ible primary tips, both of which are detailed in Part II?Where else is there a book that explains how bill thicknesstranslates into the age of Dovekies, or shows how eye col-oration determines the sex in adult Blue-footed Boobies, orlists the recommended band size for Little Blue Herons, orprovides a detailed explanation of the complicated moltstrategies of terns? Sure, many articles deal explicitly withthese topics, but the only guide that covers all North Amer-ican birds (north of Mexico) from waterfowl to alcids,plumage by plumage and feather by feather, is Part II.

Many of us who have grown accustomed to the Identifi-cation Guide to North American Birds, Part I, or “Pyle PartI,” have learned all about molt patterns in passerines andnear-passerines, about how the only sapsuckers in juvenalplumage in late fall and winter are Yellow-bellied Sap-suckers, how the amount of white in the outer rectriceshelps identify longspurs, and much more. Now the long-awaited sequel to Part I has been published, providing agoldmine of information on the North American birdsthat the first volume excluded: waterfowl, alcids, and

everything taxonomically in between.Simply reading the introductory section of Part II will

make you a more knowledgeable birder. This section pro-vides a remarkably comprehensive and informative intro-duction to bird topography, wing and tail morphology,molt, fault bars, feather wear and bleaching, cloacal char-acters, skull pneumatization, and more. Whether you’re thecurator for a world-class ornithological collection gather-ing data on a mangled grebe or a simple birder attemptingto put a name to a mysterious golden-plover, the Identifica-tion Guide to North American Birds, Part II is there to help.

John F. Garrett711 South Mentor AvenuePasadena, California 91106johngarrett@jps.net

JFG is a Southern California teenager who has been activelybirding and studying birds since the age of eight. In 2007,he was named Young Birder of the Year by the AmericanBirding Association.

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Plumage aspects of puffins are well known on the breedinggrounds but not for birds at sea. Information for this figure onAtlantic Puffins (insets, Horned Puffins) came largely from thefew specimens in non-breeding and pre-definitive plumagesavailable, mostly beach wash-ups. See also Birding, July/August2005, pp. 412–418. From Identification Guide to North AmericanBirds, Part II, p. 785. Illustration by© Siobhan Ruck.

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The geographic variation of North American birds is nobetter represented than in the “Pyle guides.” Each

species account serves as an immediate reference to thedefining characteristics of all named subspecies and evendescribes the variation within subspecies groups. I find this

both an amazing reference anda cautionary tale. Usually whenI see a bird in the field thatstands out as being anomalousin plumage or occurrence, Iconsult Pyle to see what I canlearn about the identification ofthat particular age or sub-species—and I never fail topick up something new fromthe text.

In a birding world where ho-listic, impression-driven identification is gaining populari-ty, a cautious interpretation of Pyle reminds me that extracare, lots of field time, and a dose of humility are necessaryif I want to accurately diagnose birds beyond standardspecies-level taxonomy. For example, I enjoy studyingflocks of geese from fall through spring. In the easternGreat Lakes region, we enjoy small numbers of GreaterWhite-fronted Geese during migration, and the AmericanTundra vs. Greenland origin question inevitably arises.Even armed with subspecific identification criteria such asthose presented succinctly in Pyle II relating to bill color,upperparts feather edging, and flank stripe, it remains astruggle for me to feel confident about identifying some ofthese geese to subspecies. Although I have trouble at thesesubspecies boundaries (like many, I suspect, who enjoy cat-egorizing birds below the species level), I admire the com-prehensive accounts in the Pyle guides for this very reason.Trying to apply esoteric identification criteria in a field con-text forces me to think harder about status and distributionat the same time I’m evaluating plumage and structuralcharacters on a bird.

My appreciation of Pyle II is not complete without a fewcriticisms. I am disappointed that this second volume doesnot include some form of photographic molt primer, whichcould potentially spark more interest in the jargon-denselanguage of the text. Conversations with other birders haveraised this issue of Pyle being technically dense to the pointof frustration, as in “...CBS/PF/DPB/HY/SY/ATY...OMG!”That’s true even for those of us who have adoptedHumphrey-Parkes terminology as part of everyday birdinglife. This said, it isn’t often that people turn to the Pyleguides seeking the artistic interpretations of a Lars Jonsson

or Robert Bateman. I almost always consult Pyle when I’mlooking for specific information regarding subspecies dis-tribution or a tough or obscure identification. These guidesare written as serious technical texts for bird students. Al-though it requires considerable effort to interpret, Pyle IIhas distilled current molt and plumage terminology intoabout as readable a form as it might attain.

The Pyle guides excite me because of the doors theyopen. If we as birders absorb the criteria distilled into thePyle guides and attempt to identify field-separable taxawhenever possible, this upgraded approach to field birdingwill certainly contribute to better overall understanding ofbird migration, status, and distribution. It can only en-hance efforts in bird conservation in the future.

Thomas B. Johnson150 Triphammer RoadIthaca, NewYork 14850tbj4@cornell.edu

TBJ is an undergraduate biology major at Cornell University,where he pursues a strong interest in bird migration anddistribution. Hooked on traveling and photography sincechildhood, he is devoted to learning more about birds andpromoting their conservation.

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Being one who is always looking for the next great re-source to add to my library, I couldn’t wait to get my

hands on the second part of the Identification Guide to NorthAmerican Birds upon hearing word of its release. After be-coming accustomed to using the first installment of thisguide to look up information on songbirds and near-passer-ines whenever I felt the need, the prospect of having accessto large amounts of data on non-passerine identification,molt, and aging techniques was exciting.

I never cease to be amazed by the level of detail at whichthis book provides information to the user. Such detailshave allowed me to find an-swers to questions that wouldhave otherwise gone unan-swered. Where else would Ihave learned to look at thelength and shape of the claw onthe middle toe of a juvenileHudsonian Godwit as a possi-ble aid in distinguishing it froma juvenile Black-tailed Godwit?Or perhaps I am faced with be-ing able to identify a juvenile

W W W . A B A . O R G 49

tropicbird by looking only at its central rectrices. Fromreading Pyle, I know that the length and pattern at the tipof the central tail feathers are important details to take noteof to make a confident decision as to species.

Another aspect of bird identification this book has greatlyimproved for me is my understanding of molt—the compli-cated process that every bird must undergo regularlythroughout its life to survive. Along with molt comes learn-ing to interpret information related to a bird’s age (or possi-bly sex) from the mosaic of different feather generations vis-ible on its body at a given time. Learning which birds replacewhat groups of feathers, and when, throughout the year hasadded a whole new dimension to my understanding of howtheir plumage aspects change during each molt cycle.

Raptors and gulls are the groups of birds that have al-lowed me to learn the most about molt in the field sincethey are large-bodied and often congregate in sizable groupsthat are easily accessed by the observer. Spending hours ex-amining a flock of gulls in September and throughout thefall has been a great way for me to begin to observe and takenote of how birds of varying ages go about replacing theirfeathers and how each of the immature plumage cycles dif-fers in appearance from the last. Bald Eagles are interestingto study, too. They take four or five years to reach adult-hood, and it is a fun challenge to try to assign a bird to a dis-tinct age group, such as HY/SY or TY/4Y.

This book has played a large role in changing the way Ilook at any bird, spurring me to think beyond the initialquestion of, “What species am I looking at?” to having adeeper knowledge of the complex and fascinating life of thecreature in my binocular view.

Tayler Brooks2453 239th Place SWBrier,Washington 98036ornithophile@gmail.com

TB is an 18-year-old Washington native whose interest in birdsbegan when she was 12. Besides birding whenever possible,Brooks also enjoys reading literature related to birds. In the fu-ture, she plans on participating in avian monitoring projectsacross North America.

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Some recently published advanced bird guides—for ex-ample, The Shorebird Guide by Michael O’Brien and coau-

thors—focus on a holistic approach to identifying birds.The authors of these books, some of the best birdersaround, stress an understanding of relative shape and sizeas a key first step toward identifying birds. Peter Pyle, in his

Identification Guide to North American Birds: Part II, ap-proaches bird identification from the other end of the spec-trum—a detailed feather-by-feather approach in which anunderstanding of molt, age, and sex of individual birds isfundamental. To be sure, reasonable proponents of eitherend of this spectrum regard both methods as necessary andworthwhile pursuits. Indeed, I believe a synthetic approachusing both methods will make anyone a better birder. Foranyone with a good-enough view of a bird or a close-updigital photograph, Pyle’s Identification Guide is worthy ofour attention.

In Part II, as in Part I, Pyle guides us on a journey of ob-servation that goes beyond species-level identification.While species identification may suit the needs and inter-ests of many birders, the most serious among us desire

more. If we are careful and pa-tient, Pyle teaches us how toobserve and (most important-ly) interpret the details infeathers. Such details allow usto make inferences about aparticular bird’s age and sex.Some may see these merely asadditional tools for identify-ing birds and adding them toone’s lifelist, and that’s fine.Others, however, may findspecial appeal with this ap-

proach because it provides inroads into a frontier of birdingthat is both complex and challenging. Since no two birdsare ever in precisely the same stage of molt, the possibilitiesof observation are limitless with Pyle’s approach.

The introductory text of Part II is a 46-page “must read”for serious birders. Pyle presents a highly informative, al-beit dense, primer on molt. You need to grasp this materialbefore delving into the species accounts. The species ac-counts (ducks to alcids) contain the bulk of the book’s in-formation, and the data presented are excruciatingly thor-ough. A nice improvement over Part I is the tables of meas-urements for groups of related species. This makes thesedata much more readable and comparable than if they wereburied in the text. Also, Pyle’s treatment of morphological-ly recognizable subspecies is commendable. He providesworthwhile data on identification and distribution of sub-species, something the American Ornithologists’ Union hasfailed to do since 1957—the last time a Check-list was pub-lished with such data.

Ultimately, the best thing about Pyle’s Part II is knowingit exists. It may not be the book you reach for first whenfaced with a perplexing identification challenge, but whenyou do, it will guide you through an entirely different set of

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techniques for bird identification. Pyle’s two volumes aremonumental synthetic contributions to ornithology. Thedata help us understand and interpret patterns of molt atthe species level for all North American birds, and for thisreason every serious birder and ornithologist alike shouldbe appreciative.

Mike Andersen813 Canterbury LaneLawrence, Kansas 66044mja43@ku.edu

MA has been birding for 15 years, having pursued birdsthroughout the western hemisphere. He is a Ph.D. student atthe University of Kansas with research interests in patterns ofbiogeography and speciation in neotropical birds.

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When I first heard that the second half of the “Pyleguide” was going to be published imminently, there

was talk that this new reference was going to be a ground-breaking work, and I for one wasn’t disappointed. From myperspective as both a bander and a birder, and having seenwhat Pyle I did for banding, I was understandably excitedto get my hands on the second volume. It is true that atleast to some extent, the first volume of the Pyle guide washelpful in aging birds in the field. However, most of thebirds dealt with in that volume are small in size, and toughto age in the field based on molt—not that it can’t be done.

However, aging birds is relatively mucheasier with the taxa in the new volume—birds such as gulls, terns, pelicans, shore-birds, ducks, and oh so many more.

I often get the impression from birdersthat this new Pyle guide is only really use-ful at home or for banders, but at least forme, taking this guide into the field hasrevolutionized the way I go birding. Re-member that flock of shorebirds you sawlast fall? You may have scanned throughthem looking for some vagrant, but it wasa slow day and there wasn’t anything “ex-citing,” so you went on to the next spot.But now you can take out your trustyPyle guide and spend hours trying to de-termine the molt status, age, subspecies,and in some cases sex of all the differentindividuals in the flock. So in those drea-ry days of March when the spring mi-grants haven’t quite arrived yet and the

wintering species are starting to leave, I can go down to thebeach and try to figure out what a third-cycle Brown Peli-can looks like. Believe me, it’s tough, but so much fun.

And to think that just 75 years ago ornithologists werefor the first time able to age and sex birds without using ashotgun—thanks to the publication of the first field guide.But their knowledge of this field was very limited and hasincreased by leaps and bounds since then, with this newestreference being the greatestleap thus far. Most of all, thisguide does a great job of il-lustrating how little isknown. The two volumes to-gether are the first guides oftheir kind and they deal with“only” 700+ species that oc-cur in the ABA Area, so let’sget out there to gather and publish similar data on the ap-proximately 10,000 other species of birds on the planet.

Oscar Johnson622 King StreetSanta Cruz, California 95060henicorhina@yahoo.com

OJ is majoring in Ecology and Evolution at the University ofCalifornia–Santa Cruz, where he studies tropical biology.Johnson is a sub-regional editor for North American Birds, atechnical reviewer for eBird and the Great Backyard Bird Count,and compiler of the Salton Sea (South) Christmas Bird Count.

W W W . A B A . O R G 51

Most birds replace primaries from the innermost feather (P1) toward the outermost(P10), but Limpkins replace them in the opposite direction in a “Staffelmauser” (step-wise) wing-molt pattern. Could this unique strategy have something to do with thefact that the outermost primary is modified (angled outward) in adults but not infirst-cycle birds? From Identification Guide, Part II, p. 492. Illustration by© Siobhan Ruck.

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I approach and use the “Pyle guides” largely as an artist.My artistic style is defined by detailed realism and biolog-

ical accuracy. I often find myself rendering birds I encoun-tered months or years earlier or as a commissioned artist il-lustrating the stories or articles of other authors, and it is insituations such as these that the Pyle guide is the most use-ful to me. Combined with detailed photo models, the Pyleguide is the next best thing to a bird in the hand. It is ahandy reference when tackling traits related to sex, age,molt, and appearance at different times of year.

I use the Pyle guide in conjunction with live modelsketches and photo references as a reminder of all the phys-iological details I know to be present on a bird but that maynot be captured by the eye or the camera. For species thathave a wide distribution and populations or subspecies thatvary in appearance—such as Common Eider, Osprey, andShort-billed Dowitcher—the Pyle guide helps me rendercorrect bill structure, plumage, and other physical details

for the specified location.This may seem like esoteric

overkill, but I can attest fromexperience that it is humbling,painful, and worrisome tohave a pro birder critique along-labored-over bird illus-tration for skill and executionwhile simultaneously count-ing wing feathers for accuracy.Even with great attention todetail, my work has been in er-ror more times than I care to

admit. Nowadays I check with Pyle before signing myname to my artwork.

The guide couples spartan black-and-white drawings re-garding feather and bill structure and feather patterns withdescriptive text. A general introductory section breaksdown basic bird identification mechanics like aging andsexing, while detailed species profiles and molt and featherwear fall under the various family accounts. This technicalapproach may not be instantly accessible to those accus-tomed to gestalt-oriented field guides, but the text gives thedefinitive basics, as demonstrated by this excerpt on An-hingas: “Darters; One North American species. Familycharacters include elongated bodies; very long necks andsmall heads; broad wings; long and broadly rounded tailswith transversely corrugated central rectrices in ASYs; nar-row, straight and unhooked bills with serrated tomia; shortbut strong legs; and totipalmate feet (webbing between allfour toes). Anhingas have 10 functional primaries, 15–16

secondaries, and 12 rectrices.”Another interesting feature of the guide is the inclusion

of reported hybrids. Some intriguing combinations includeMallard × Canada Goose, Northern Shoveler × Muscovy,Gray Partridge × Willow Ptarmigan, and a bizarre report ofa Red-necked Grebe nesting and laying eggs with aEurasian Coot.

I like, use, and recommend Pyle’s first Identification Guideto North American Birds, and have eagerly awaited this com-panion installment. That being said, this book will not andwas not designed to appeal to everyone. However, for ban-ders, artists, researchers, and lovers of technical minutiae,this book—like its predecessor—comes highly recom-mended.

Steve Carbol1069 Milano Point #1626Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921carbols@comcast.net

The Education Manager for the American Birding Association,SC is working on a book about his birding experiencesfeaturing his essays and ink illustrations. Carbol lives inColorado Springs, Colorado with his lovely wife, Alysonand his cairn terrier, Chester.

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Iremember the first time I saw a “Pyle guide.” I had juststarted learning how to band from Laurie Doss, a science

teacher at The Marvelwood School, a boarding school inConnecticut where I attended high school. When I firstopened the book, it just looked like a lot of analytical datasummed up in words to make sense out of what bird youwere looking at in the hand. But what I would come to re-alize is that the Pyle guide is essential for becoming a greatbander and a more knowledgeable person in the generalbirding world. Part II is a crucial resource for those whosework encompasses non-passerines. Part II will be especial-ly helpful for those people in the birding community whoare avid hawk watchers or counters. And it is especiallyhelpful for relating molt patterns to the age of a bird.

For bird banders like me, Part II is an essential daily com-panion. There will be times when we accidentally get aSharp-shinned Hawk in our nets, for example. And if youare involved in a formal hawk-banding operation, thisguide will be essential to the smooth running of the pro-cessing. In any event, this guide will help you to make aninformative ruling on the age and sex of a bird of prey. Ihave a banding sub-permit at the Featherbed Lane stationin New Jersey (run by Hannah Suthers), and I frequently

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consult the Pyle guide in the field.The Pyle guide also helps me greatly when I’m writing a

paper based on museum specimens. That’s because I haveall the information I need, right in front of me, to sex or agethe birds I’m studying—quite unlike when I had to usemultiple sources to determine such things.

The Pyle guide is also a great launching pad for addi-tional projects of your own. For example, I’m using it as a

baseline for creatinga similar guide forPanama and subse-quently, I hope, forall of Central Ameri-ca. When I’m downin Panama doing re-search, I try to lookfor things and jotnotes down to be

able to produce something that will be as informative asthese two guides. Peter Pyle has succeeded once again inbringing the knowledge of the bander and advanced birdertogether into one guide to be used as the primary referencefor our day-to-day needs. Having both Pyle guides is es-sential to being an informed member of the birding andbanding communities alike.

Sean P. Graesser37 East Broad StreetHopewell, New Jersey 08525spg1327@yahoo.com

SPG is a 20-year-old currently residing in Hopewell, New Jersey.He attends Binghamton University, New York, and is an alumnusof The Marvelwood School, a boarding school in Kent, Connecti-cut. His primary ornithological expertise in-volves woodpeckers. Graesser plans to con-tinue with his higher education, obtaining aPh.D. in zoology.

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In the time after I began birding and wasgrowing through the “each species is

new and amazing” stage, the finer detailsof the birds I was seeing became more im-portant to me. Is that a male or female?How old is it? Why are some feathersworn while others are fresh? Etc. It is thiscuriosity that kept me, and keeps many ofus, birding and learning and not contentwith simply checking off another species.

We study field guides,journals, and websites;we seek detail in textand plates and photo-graphs. We use this in-formation while hud-dled up on a pelagic tripor on the edge of sodfarm during a debatefollowing the proclamation of a Short-tailed Shearwater oran American Golden-Plover. Indeed, a wealth of anecdotalknowledge and many published articles deal with thesemore-subtle points of identification.

Reference material is of little use in the field, becauselooking at the bird is more important than looking at thebook. If we could simply hold a picture up to any bird wesee and confirm its identity, we would have little reason tostudy and become more knowledgeable. And it wouldn’t bevery fun. Enter Pyle II. Within its pages are data in quanti-ties that are nothing short of ponderous. Though some ofthe details are not particularly relevant to me as a non-ban-der, it is all of ornithological interest and much is very use-ful to me as merely an observant birder. The text and illus-trations describe physical characteristics less distinct thanthose capable of being portrayed in field guide artwork—characteristics that may often be applied in the field to dif-ferentiate between similar taxa and between different agesand sexes of a species. Problem identifications like thosethat exist among dark-rumped storm-petrels, dark shear-waters, and large white-headed gulls, or among the ages ofalbatrosses or eagles, can be tackled with this information.Furthermore, with the advent of high-resolution digitalphotography, it is possible to capture moving birds with anextent of detail that allows these additional identification

W W W . A B A . O R G 53

Progressive generations of rectrices become whiter with age in Bald Eagles,and tail molt can also be incomplete. By combining sequence of replacement(usually R1➞R6➞R3➞R4➞R2➞R5) with feather patterns, it is usually possible toage Bald Eagles precisely up to four or five years of age. From IdentificationGuide, Part II, p. 409. Illustration by© Siobhan Ruck.

channels to open—for which the Pyle guide becomes quitevaluable and a convenient cache of such information.

The framework laid out by Pyle II assists me in compar-ing the details of my field observations with the data frommore in-hand specimens than I will probably ever see. Thevast collection of data in Pyle II is an encouragement to meto look even closer at the birds to which I’ve grown accus-tomed and to study the details which I’ve either not appre-ciated or not been previously aware of. It always helps toknow what to look for, and I’ll continue to learn.

Jonathan S. Feenstra556 S. Fair Oaks Avenue, Suite 108Pasadena, California 91105feenstra@alumni.caltech.edu

JSF began birding in Appalachian New Jersey. He holds a Ph.D.in physical chemistry from Caltech. While in California he foundthe birding too exciting to resist, and he now lives in Los Ange-les as a freelance ecological consultant and a guide for WINGS.

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When I first started working as a field tech banding birds,the “Pyle guide” was my bible. I pored over its pages

with each new capture, trying to learn everything I couldabout the bird in hand and wanting to record each piece ofdata in its complete richness. I remember thinking how thisguide was the “White Album” of bird books, with plain textand a no-nonsense cover. The information inside sold it-self. There was nothing else like it. I remember how it was

on the shelves of every office I everworked in, and in the hands of eachbird bander at various sites acrossthe country. I learned a lot about ag-ing and sexing birds early on, I start-ed to think about the variability inbird plumages caused by molt andwear, and I generally gained agreater understanding of the com-plexity of bird identification. Theonly drawback then was that it was-n’t complete. What about hawks,ducks, and shorebirds?

More than ten years later I’m nowusing the newest Pyle guide to betterunderstand and explore bird identi-fication issues in a whole new suiteof species. My own studies haveforced me to look more closely thanever at difficult groups of birds, and

the new Pyle guide is the first place I go to see what is cur-rently known, as well as where gaps exist in our currentknowledge. Without fail, every time I open the book tolook at a group of birds for reference, I learn something.Sometimes the information is complete and I’m satisfied,while other times my curiosity is piqued and I generatemore questions than answers.One thing is for certain, thework of Peter Pyle in develop-ing these two guides has beennothing short of monumental.The amount of informationnow available on birds is stag-gering, and Pyle has capturedand distilled it succinctly inboth of these guides. These arethe “go to” references wherequestions of age/sex and subspecies are concerned, andthese guides represent a true gateway for birders wishing toenter a new world of complexity, identification, and appre-ciation of birds.

Brian L. Sullivan230 Chestnut StreetPacific Grove, California 93950heraldpetrel@gmail.com

BLS is a project leader with eBird and the Avian KnowledgeNetwork, both based at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Sullivanalso serves as photo editor for Birds of North America Onlineand for the ABA publication North American Birds.

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T H E P Y L E G U I D E

Tropicbirds do not start breeding until at least three or four years of age, and theirmolts and plumages prior to breeding are poorly known. InWhite-tailed Tropicbird,it is best to combine the extent of dark markings on the upperparts with “Staffel-mauser” (stepwise) wing-molt patterns to determine plumage cycle and age. FromIdentification Guide, Part II, p. 293. Illustration by© Siobhan Ruck.

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Part II of the “Pyle guide”is a must-have resource

for the ornithologist andthe serious career birder,but like Part I, it is not des-tined to be consulted bymere mortal birders on aregular basis. In terms ofaccessibility, the addition ofmany well-done line draw-ings is a welcome step inthe right direction, although many could have easily beenlabeled in a more intuitive manner (rather that labelingevery figure with often hard-to-decipher letters). The infor-mation on molt and subspecies is likely to be of the mostuse to birders in the field.

The 18-page section on molt is revolutionary and pres-ents never-before-published information. I can honestly sayit’s a must-read, but it is not reading to be tackled by thefaint of heart. Occasionally, important jargon is not defined,

reinforcing the idea that this guide is targeted toward a spe-cific, educated audience. More user-friendly illustrationscould have helped immensely in this section.

Perhaps unwittingly, Pyle has become the continent’s au-thority on subspecific taxonomy, distribution, and nomen-clature. This information has sadly not been updated by theAmerican Ornithologists’ Union in more than 50 years, andto call its inclusion here most welcome is quite an under-statement.

I was expecting more of a hybrid field guide/banders’book, but Part II is undeniably a dense and invaluable sci-entific tome.

Michael L. P. Retter3346 Peppermill DriveWest Lafayette, Indiana 47906mlretter@yahoo.com

MLPR works as a tour leader for Tropical Birding and can befound guiding anywhere from Canada to Mexico and Ecuador.When at home in the Midwest, Michael works as both “Sight-ings” department editor and a technical reviewer for Birding.

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