At last, a guide that successfully organizes birds by field-recognizable features for quick identification. For lack of a better method, bird guides have traditionally placed birds in evolutionary sequence, resulting in birding's classic Catch-22 -- you must recognize an unknown bird and know its place in the sequence before you can took it up!

All the Birds arranges species by their feeding adaptations -- features that are easily observed. How a bird feeds largely determines its form. It's nature's way of organizing species to fit ecological niches. The powerful bills and tree-climbing habits of woodpeckers, for instance, are prominent feeding adaptations. Recognizing birds' adaptations for feeding is the natural, no-nonsense way to identify; learn, and understand them.