Waterfowl of Eastern North America

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Field guides to birds use either drawings or photos as illustrations.
Earley’s guides—of which this is the 4th—feature photos. The
advantage of photos are the realism and accuracy of the images and the
true-to-life impression the bird makes in its natural setting. These
have to be balanced against the incompleteness of the image (e.g., when
a duck is photographed on water, its feet are not visible) and the
distraction of backgrounds.

For this book, “waterfowl” includes ducks, swans, geese, loons,
grebes, cormorants, pelicans, coots, and moorhens. It does not include
gulls, terns, shorebirds, waders, herons, pelegics, and other species
associated with water.

For each species, there’s a large picture of a male in breeding
plumage, one to four smaller pictures illustrating female or eclipse
plumage, and a close-up detailed shot or one of a group. Earley has
added an identification feature not found in other guides—a graphic
representation of the adult male’s upper-wing pattern. Experienced
birders will welcome this feature. Notes for each species include
descriptions of plumage, calls, and a list of similar birds to check for
comparison. A range map is given for each species. Separate tables use
colour photos to compare adult male plumage, some female plumage, and
specific species within groups, such as scaups, eiders, scoters,
mergansers, loons, grebes, etc. There are also photo charts for
comparison of birds in flight by type (swans, geese, dabblers, and
divers). An unusual feature is a section illustrating 17 waterfowl
species from outside the area that are spotted occasionally on the
eastern seaboard.

The guide follows AOU order and includes recent name changes, plus a
graph of seasonal status for waterfowl in Point Pelee National Park.

While it cannot replace a complete field guide, the book is a nice
supplementary work and will be valued by birders with a strong interest
in ducks.