David Sibley knows every North American bird by its shade, tilt, habitat, gender and juvenile plumages. Sibley was only seven when he began drawing birds. It’s a habit he never shook. As an adult, Sibley merged that encyclopedic knowledge with his skills as a self-taught artist to become one of America’s best-known field guide authors.
The National Audubon Society is immensely fortunate to partner with David Sibley for our online field guide to North American birds. Released in 2000, The Sibley Field Guide to Birds was a New York Times bestseller.
Sibley was immediately compared to renowned birder and artist Roger Tory Peterson, placing him in a long line of naturalist artists that leads straight to our namesake, John James Audubon.
Sibley released a second edition in March of 2014. According to sibleyguides.com, the second edition (2014) is essentially an entirely new book, created by revising every element of the first edition, adding some new material, and assembling the updated parts into a new guide. Over 100 new species have been added, and over 600 new images.