On a ledge near the large back door of our house, we keep a small collection of bird books, mostly to help us identify the various visitors to the backyard. Some, obviously, are more useful than others, and one in particular has gotten a lot of use, especially by my daughter, who has found a real passion for bird identification.

Well, there's a new "best book" in the collection. On a recent visit to the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, I bought a copy of Roger Tory Peterson's Feeder Birds: Eastern North America (the title on the cover) or A Field Guide to Feeder Birds: Eastern and Central North America (the title on the title page). Dated 2000 in the copyright, it's a revised edition of an earlier work; Peterson, who was a giant in environmental and ornithological fields, died in 1996, and his earliest publications date back to the 1930s.

So far as field guides go, Feeder Birds is very easy to use, with nice comparison images of similar birds to make identifications truly a breeze. Each section includes a page of highly detailed drawings of the birds and, beside it, a description of each bird including its vocal characteristics, preferred foods and other notes, plus a map showing its range.

Earlier in the book are brief chapters describing the details one should look for when identifying birds, with sketches showing differences in everything from size and shape to wing and tail shape to posture and style of flight. There is a section detailing what foods will attract specific birds, and discussions of the proper way to site feeders in proximity to available shelter. You'll also learn how to protect your feeding birds from predators, from feral cats to opportunistic owls, as well as plants to grow that will attract birds to your yard, styles of feeders to use, and more.

This is a truly useful book, and I am glad to give it a prominent space in my collection. This is the new standard by which all other birding books will be judged!

(For the record, the other book referenced at the beginning of this review is Stan Tekiela's Birds of Pennsylvania, and it is still highly recommended for reasons that will be explained shortly in a separate review.)