Birds of Iowa by Stan Tekiela contains information and color photos on 112 of the more commonly found species of birds in Iowa. This is a very good guide for the beginning Iowa birder and the color photos make the book enjoyable to look through for experienced birders.
The book is far from being a comprehensive guide, showing roughly a quarter of the 400+ birds on the official state list. This focus makes it an excellent choice for beginners and casual birders who do not want to be overwhelmed with a more substantial guide showing hundreds of species, many of which they would not be seeing in their own backyard.
The guide is very simple to use. The sixteen page introduction provides useful information on why to bird Iowa, basic features of birds, migration habits and tips for identifying birds. Birds are organized by color, not family making it easy for beginners to find the bird they are looking for. When the genders of the same species are different color, the species is listed in both color sections with references to the other gender's page. Each bird gets a 2-page layout. The first page has a full color photograph of the bird while the second page contains Stan's write-up. Each write-up is written in the same format, with descriptions of male, female and juveniles, migration habits and a very useful section called comparison in which Stan compares this bird to another similar bird to point out the differences. Range maps appear on each page, with the legend conveniently appearing on every page. Many books have the legend only at the beginning of the book, requiring you to search for the legend if you forgot what a certain color means on the map. The book is small in size making it easy to carry around in the field as well. An easy to use index and a simplistic checklist are also provided.
Due to the narrow focus of the book, even beginning birders will still want a more comprehensive guide, but this relatively inexpensive book is a great complement to any Iowa birders book collection. It is especially valuable to beginners and casual birders by showing only the most common birds of Iowa.
--Bob Norris--
Birds of Iowa Field Guide. Stan Tekiela. 2000. Adventure Publications,
Inc.
Stan Tekiela is a Midwesterner who has made a partial career out of writing
series of cookbook field guides like this for different states. So far he has
covered birds in 38 states and now is starting on herps and wildflower.
Trusting the author, there are accounts on 112 birds. If males and females look different, they have different accounts, on different pages, with a great deal of overlapping text. The reason the males and females are listed separately is that birds are arranged by color. I would prefer a book that groups birds by families, as do the other two small field guides to Iowa birds, as well as most field guides. This would give the user a chance to learn about family characteristics, an important Identification Clue.
The species accounts include: Size, Identification, Nest Description, Who Incubates the Eggs and for How Long, Egg Description, Length of Fledgling Period and who Feeds Fledglings, Food, Migration, and Description of Similar Species.
The species are illustrated by large, good photographs, which show sexual differences but not age differences.
There is neither a complete checklist, nor a list of places, although there is a very small reference section that does cite Tom Kent’s web site for a checklist.
--Rick Hollis--