Ahem.
At any rate, they come quite in handy for animal studies. And they are an absolute must-have for bird watching. Here are the first ones that came to my mind when I started preparing for this weekend's GBBC:
The National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America is the best field guide without question. (We have gone through at least 4 in the last 18 years, but we are pretty hard on field guides when we travel/camp.) I highly recommend it for every family.
Unfortunately, the other three guides were purchased in Spain and they are really hard to find here. For a while, Amazon was carrying the Miniguia de las Aves, which I absolutely love because despite its miniscule size, it is packed with information about birds including, growth, feathers, nesting habits, senses, feet, beaks, eggs, migration, habitats, and so much more. But when I double checked today, they didn't seem to have any more :(
The Gemas Collins Aves Guía Fotográfica is a cute book, laid out in a more traditional field guide style and includes a picture, a brief description and a few facts. My kids like the small size.
The Aves del Mundo is a more serious book. Originally published in English, it is a visual guide of over 800 species representing the diverse families of birds. It is excellent and I have used it extensively when I can't remember the name of a particular bird in Spanish. It also has a small section at the beginning that describes anatomy, classification, etc. It also has a glossary in the back, completely in Spanish, defining the technical terms used in the book.
I have been scouring the web to find a source for these Spanish books, but have hit a brick wall. If any of you know where to purchase any of these, please share with all of us!
I really, really wish there were some fun bilingual field guides for children. If there are any publishers reading this post, I hope you will consider publishing some!!!
Con mucho cariño...