Published in association with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, this landmark field guide will set a new standard for North American bird identification
Princeton University Press and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology are excited to announce The Bird Guide: North America, a groundbreaking new resource for birders of all ages and experience levels. The guide’s unparalleled and unprecedented scope, quality of information, and superior illustration program ensure it will become the definitive resource for North American species identification and education.
Publishing in the renowned Princeton Field Guides series, The Bird Guide is written by four of North America’s leading field birders, with authoritative text representing decades of expertise and informed by data from more than one billion observations, photos, sounds, and videos contributed to the Cornell Lab’s eBird project and Macaulay Library. Extending beyond identification, the guide will cover habitat and behavior, including migration timing. Artwork from world-renowned bird illustrators will showcase vivid representations of every age and plumage encountered in the field, including subspecies and regional differences accompanied by hundreds of vignettes.
The Bird Guide will allow for side-by-side comparisons of similar species, quick access to key field marks, and detailed facing-page accounts. It will be designed to work with the Cornell Lab’s Merlin Bird ID app and eBird participatory science platform, tools that have introduced millions to birding, and will support easy engagement across print and digital platforms.
“The Bird Guide, a project 20 years in the making, will set an entirely new standard for field identification of North American birds,” notes Robert Kirk, Princeton University Press’s Publisher for Nature Books. “Superlative illustrations—comprehensive, accurate, and breathtakingly beautiful—combine with expert, cutting-edge ID text to make this book the go-to guide for any birder.”
“We’re thrilled to partner with Princeton University Press on this beautiful and modern guide that brings together the best from printed pages and the digital world,” says Ian Owens, Executive Director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “The Bird Guide connects readers to birds and nature, and will work hand in hand with the Lab’s powerful ID tools, including unparalleled distribution maps and data-sharing opportunities from eBird, and real-time sound recognition with the free Merlin app—all to make birding more accessible than ever.”
Key features:
- More than 800 regularly occurring species and 158 rare visitors found across the United States and Canada
- More than 7,000 illustrations in 300 plates provide unprecedented and lifelike plumage, age, sex, and subspecies details and hundreds of vignettes showing birds in their habitat
- ID plates and facing-page text allow side-by-side comparison of similar species and provide deep ID context that is impossible to achieve on mobile screens
- “Sounds” sections offer expert guidance for interpreting vocalizations and separating confusing species
- Complements the strengths of the popular Merlin Bird ID app, bridging page and smartphone in a field-ready system for sound ID
- eBird integration includes shared global nomenclature, including subspecies, across the guide and Merlin, ensuring ease of identification and data-sharing
- Distribution maps powered by eBird data transform millions of observations into new insights about bird distribution and abundance
The Bird Guide: North America is written by Brian L. Sullivan, Birds of the World project lead at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Michael O’Brien, a tour leader and creator of Larkwire, an app for learning bird sounds; Christopher Wood, program director of the Center for Avian Population Studies and director of the eBird project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology; and Steve N. G. Howell, an author and world-renowned expert on oceanic and neotropical birds. Ian Lewington and Lorenzo Starnini contribute stunning, lifelike illustrations.
The Bird Guide: North America will be the latest addition to the Princeton Field Guides series, a cornerstone of Princeton University Press’s Nature list. Comprising nearly 80 highly illustrated volumes that explore the wildlife of specific countries and regions, Princeton Field Guides are written by expert naturalists and illustrated by leading wildlife artists. Across series volumes, more than 1 million copies have been sold to date.
Releasing in early March 2027, The Bird Guide: North America will be supported with a robust, long-lead national marketing and publicity campaign.
About the Authors
Brian L. Sullivan is Birds of the World project lead at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and cocreator of the groundbreaking Raptor ID app. His books include Better Birding (Princeton).
Michael O’Brien is a tour leader for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours and creator of Larkwire, an app for learning bird sounds. His books include The Shorebird Guide.
Christopher Wood is program director of the Center for Avian Population Studies and director of the eBird project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Steve N. G. Howell is an international bird tour leader with WINGS and research associate at the California Academy of Sciences and Point Blue Conservation Science. His books include Birds of Belize (Princeton).
About the Illustrators
Ian Lewington’s artwork has appeared in many books and journals including Rare Birds of North America (Princeton, 2014), Rare Birds of Britain and Europe, The Auks, and the multivolume Birds of the World.
Lorenzo Starnini is an Italian wildlife illustrator specializing in birds. He has collaborated with international journals, universities, research institutions, and the Italian Ministry of the Environment.
About the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a nonprofit, member-supported organization dedicated to the understanding and protection of birds, wildlife, and our shared planet through research, education, participatory science, and conservation. birds.cornell.edu