If you're out in the park and you notice from 100 feet away a tree with unusual flowers or an odd leaf shape or interesting bark, these books require you to walk up to the tree, take a twig in your hand and go through a series of steps. It's at least five minutes until you come up with an answer. And immediately you lose sight of the whole tree and you lose sight of what attracted your attention in the first place. Taking a step back and looking at the whole tree, then looking at a few more trees and flipping through the pages of my book, you quickly start to see that all the maples have similarly shaped leaves and fruit and that all the oaks have acorns.
- David Allen Sibley
Useful link:
www.sibleyguides.com
Just like gem identification. Really.
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