When and by whom was the first fielders' bird guide written and published?

queproblema

My dad was always whipping out one of his Roger Tory Peterson field guides to the birds and trying to get us to strain our eyes to see if there was, for instance, a yellow patch under the wing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Tory_Peterson Mar 23 07, 10:51 PM

McGruff

Question #77756. stina_girl1 asks: when was the 1st bird feild guide published? #77756, Posted on Mar 24 07 by stina_girl1 (deleted) star_gazer says: Popular interest in identifying things in nature probably were strongest in bird and plant guides. In 1902, Florence Merriam Bailey, wife of well-known zoologist Vernon Bailey wrote a Handbook of Birds of the Western United States which was arranged by taxonomic order and had clear descriptions of species size, distribution, feeding and nesting habits, resembling the modern field guide. From this point to the 1930s, many much more modern parts of field guides were tried out by Chester A. Reed and others such as changing the size of the book to fit the pocket, including color plates, and different subjects such as garden and woodland flowers, insects and dogs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_guide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_guide Mar 24 07, 10:46 AM Mar 24 07, 10:13 AM

queproblema

Surely you don't mean a book by John J. Audubon? He was a fielder, all right, but most of the readers of his books and admirers of his paintings weren't/aren't. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_of_America_%28book%29 Mar 24 07, 12:11 PM

star_gazer

Back when Audubon wrote his book unfortunately the practice was still to shot the birds, stuff them, and draw pictures with the stuffed birds as a models. So his books are not field guides. Mar 24 07, 6:09 PM

queproblema

I agree, star_gazer, and think maybe stina means who put together the first book of realistic illustrations of birds. Alexander Wilson was the first of American birds, according to the Audubon Society. (It's surprising they mistakenly say "America" instead of "North America.") Audubon was a "fielder" in the sense that he actually went traipsing out to their natural habitat, and yes, brought them back dead. But not many people would tote his folios along when they go birdwatching. http://www.audubon.org/nas/jja.html This shows bird studies over the centuries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_ornithology Mar 24 07, 8:57 PM