News

Autumn: A Season For the Birds
Bridget Kinsella -- 10/16/00
Look, up in the sky! Two new guides help nature enthusiasts name that bird


Battle of the birders?
Sibley, left, and Kaufman, top.
Officially, this is the Year of the Dragon but two lead titles might make this fall a season for the birds. For "birders," as bird enthusiasts are called, the release of two new guides--National Audubon Society's The Sibley Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley (Knopf) and Birds of North America by Kenn Kaufman (Houghton Mifflin)--within weeks of each other is a landmark occasion.
"This is what birders talk about when they meet," said John Bianchi, spokesperson for the National Audubon Society. And there are lots of birders. According to the most recent studies, Bianchi said, more than 54 million Americans name bird watching as a favored activity, which translates into a huge potential audience for both titles. "These are widely anticipated because they introduce new systems and are not revised editions," he said.

Aside from the price and size differential--the Kaufman volume is smaller, paperback and priced at $20, Sibley is larger, with flexible binding, and sells for $35--the greatest difference is in technique favored by each ornithologist. Both men have spent a better part of their lives studying birds. For Sibley, it started in second grade. Kaufman quit high school at 16 to go on the road to chronicle bird life. But they differ in presentation: Sibley painted species upon subspecies of birds, while Kaufman uses a combination of digitally enhanced photographs and illustrations in his guide. This photo vs. painting preference is a central issue among bird enthusiasts.

"There will always be debate among bird geeks," said Langdon Cook, an editor at Amazon.com who interviewed both experts about their books and is an avid birder himself. "It is an interesting paradox. Beginning birders tend to want photographic guides and more advanced birders want paintings." Lighting is an issue with photography. Also, pictures do not show the same amount of detail that is possible with paintings.

Birding field guides are not new areas of publishing for either house, as shown in their back-lists, with Houghton's Peterson's Guides and Knopf's Audubon Guides both considered staples in the category. But according to several expert sources, with each new guide, the study advances, and Sibley and Kaufman take ornithological observation further than ever. Although both authors were disciples of Roger Tory Peterson, it is Sibley whom the New York Times has already hailed as the successor to both Peterson and John James Audubon, the grand old men of bird field guides, and that's just what Knopf hoped will happen.

"We are establishing Sibley as a brand, as the next birding authority," said Paul Bogaards, executive director of publicity at Knopf. "That is not something we take lightly."
An example of Sibley's
paintings (field maps missing).
If Sibley, with his meticulous paintings, is seen as the more scholarly authority on birds, then Kaufman, with his photos and illustrations, is perceived as the authority to bring birds to the masses. "Ken is extremely enthusiastic and passionate talking to people about birding and to bring birding to the people," said Nancy Grant, v-p, director of marketing for Houghton's guidebooks and reference division.
Both publishers have high expectations for the fall and beyond. Since the book's release last month, Houghton reports there are 150,000 Kaufman guides in print. And just days after the Sibley release early this month, Knopf went back for another 50,000 copies to augment its initial 125,000. "We're taking what is going to be a long-term backlist profit center and publishing it as a frontlist bestseller," explained Bogaards.

Promotion for both titles isn't birdseed. Both houses took their respective authors on promotional bird walks--Houghton invited a few booksellers along at BEA in Chicago, and Knopf held an event this spring in New York City's Central Park, which inspired Calvin Tomkins to write about it in the June issue of the New Yorker. Sibley and Kaufman have each started extensive tours that will continue well into next season, often following each other at bookstores and bird centers in their migration. As PW went to press, both authors were at a professional conference in Florida, where Kaufman was the keynote speaker, and will soon be attending a conference in New Jersey, where Sibley is the scheduled keynote speaker. "They often overlap," said Deborah DeLosa, Houghton's associate director of publicity.

While the merits of paintings versus photographs rages on, anticipation for these titles is clearly not a point of debate. "To have a new field guide with authority in the bird world is big enough," said Cook. "To have two of them just d sn't happen."

At Northshire Books in Manchester Center, Vt., co-owner Barbara Morrow said there has been a lot of pre-pub buzz, particularly for the Sibley book. After less than one week in the store, she told PW, she has ordered another 50 copies of Sibley. "I think it is going to be one of our star books this Christmas," she added. "We didn't have to do a thing for this--book people came into the store and started asking for it. That's really great."
A page from the
Kaufman field guide.
Morrow told PW she expects the Kaufman guide to be "sadly" overshadowed by the more extensive Sibley book. But Amazon's Cook thinks birders will want to own both. "Kaufman d sn't have the wealth of information Sibley has, but his guide is very portable and good for beginners and intermediate birders," said Cook. "You can look at them as competition, but I think customers are buying both. They have been running neck and neck in the sales ranking." The week Sibley came out, it was #7 on Amazon, while Kaufman was #46. "These are huge," said Cook. "Birders are in heaven right now."
Can a combined 300,000-plus copies of bird books sell? Cook seems to think so; "I told our buyer to buy more than she needed of both. They are going to be big holiday books, and beyond that, they will keep selling and selling."

Birders like to claim that their passion is the most popular hobby in the country, and that's no exaggeration. The Audubon Society's Bianchi said that from 1983 to 1996, the period between U.S. Fish and Wildlife Studies, the number of people who listed wildlife watching as an activity increased by 155%. "That's an astounding number," he told PW. "Other outdoor activities don't have near the increases." In fact, the next highest ranked activities were hiking, up 93%, and backpacking, up 72%. Some activities on the decline included tennis, down 30%, and hunting, down 12%. "The numbers paint a picture here of people hanging their guns up and buying cameras," Bianchi added.

Susan Rolston, Sibley's editor, told PW that Knopf is "very keenly aware that the number of bird watchers in this country is astounding." Knopf has a contract for three more Sibley guides. She noted that bird watchers are a lot like cookbook customers: "people who've got to have everything."

This fall they will have a couple of titles to add to their shelves. "We sell tons and tons of field guides," said Morrow. "It is getting to be a crowded field."