Covering every bird family on Earth, this definitive, easy-to-use volume is an authoritative yet concise reference for both novice birders and experts. It's a fascinating colorful guide to all the birds on our planet, their identification, structures and plumages, habitats, behaviors, and ranges.

Information is organized taxonomically by family based on the latest official guidelines, with detailed descriptions, worldwide distribution maps, and carefully selected profiles of 500 representative species.

Throughout, there is spectacular and informative color photography by the world's leading wildlife photographers and superb artwork birders have come to expect from National Geographic.

Illustrated sidebars complement the family accounts, exploring everything from the courtship dance of the Birds of Paradise to the Harpy Eagle's predatory tactics. The text is wrapped up by a useful glossary and a detailed index that puts an astonishing range of information at the reader's fingertips.

• Hardcover
• 384 pages, 900 color photographs and illustrations
• 6 7/8" x 9 3/4"
• © 2009

Jonathan Alderfer is chief consultant for the National Geographic Birding Program and host of our birding blog.

Author, editor, and field guide illustrator, he is one of America's foremost birding artists and an expert ornithologist.