"National Geographic" Guide to Birding Hot Spots of the United States - Softcover

This work features 500 birding hotspots in 50 states across North America - packed with key information on when, where and how to see the rarest species. It includes 250 colour maps of ideal and little known sites. This book is the indispensable guide to the best places to see birds in North America. At 320 pages and more than 250 illustrations and maps, "Hotspots" is an easy to carry, easy to browse guide, for the bird enthusiast. This guide will take the birdwatcher off of the well worn paths of other guides, detailing how and when to go to little known sites to discover rare species. This guide is suitable for both the novice bird watcher, with advice on getting started, and also for the advanced birder who will delight in discovering the unique places set out in this book. The book has an Introductory "Birding Basics" section, which prepares birders for the field. Then 13 regional chapters cover New England to the Southwest. Each regional chapter starts with a regional map with roads and birding sites for the 3-4 states in that region. Within a regional chapter, each state has a map with more focused roads and sites.

Within each state, concise site listings give National and State Parks and Reserves, bird sanctuaries, deltas, nature trails, interpretive centres, jetties, bays, even science centres. Find specific directions to each site. Each entry includes the birds you're likely to see there, the best seasons and time of day to see them. Frequent sidebars focus on specific bird behaviours or ID points you'll see at designated sites.

Mel White, a contributing editor to National Geographic Traveler, has been a birder for forty years and is the author of the American Birding Association A Birder's Guide to Arkansas, among other books. Paul Lehman, an ornithologist and avian mapping expert, was chief mapping consultant for the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America and the National Geographic Atlas to the Birds of North America. Jonathan Alderfer, chief consultant for the National Geographic Birding Program, is a respected field ornithologist and one of America's foremost birding artists.