The Peterson Field Guide to Birds (eastern region) is an illustrated representation of all the birds east of the 100th meridian. Each bird is drawn and colored by the hand of Roger Tory Peterson, and pasted on a white or light blue plate, so as to make the birds easy to see in full detail. Peterson uses a method to aid the bird-watcher in identification by employing arrows to point out key field marks on each bird. This is a great tool to assist beginning birders.
Aside the illustrations, each bird is accompanied by a brief text about it's habitat, song, field marks, and page number for it's range in the back of the book. And if the bird has a similar species, a key field mark is stated to differentiate them apart. Having to find the range of the bird in the back of the book can be a bit of a problem in the field, especially when it's a new bird and may only offer a few seconds of a glance.
--Randy Scheiner--