The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies Vinyl Bound – Unabridged, July 12, 1981

I own both this guide and the Kaufman Field Guide to Butterflies of North America. The Kaufman guide is a much superior book. I am experienced field biologist with lots of bird, reptile, mammal, etc. field guides. I bought the Kaufman Butterfly guide first because it looked easier to use. But there are some species that are tough to ID using the Kaufman guide, so I ordered this field guide to help with clarifying those tricky groups. This Audubon Guide is a waste of money. I am very disappointed in the layout of this guide.While having similar looking butterfly photos all in one section of the book may seem appealing for a beginner, you waste a huge amount of time because most of these look-alike species won't occur in your area. But you have to go to a different region of the book to find that out! And when you get there, there are no maps, just a verbal description of the approximate range. The Kaufman guide, for comparison, has clear maps opposite the butterfly images so it only takes a quick scan to eliminate species that don't occur in your area and focus on those that do.Also, this guide has the text descriptions are in a different area of the book than the pictures. So you are constantly having to flip back and forth between the different pages. In the Kauffman guide, they are on the opposing page so you can see it all at once.I am just starting out on my adventure in butterfly identification. But I have been birding for 40 years and a reptile and amphibian "watcher" for over 50 years. I have been through a lot of field guides for a lot of creatures from all over the world. If you are like me and just starting out with butterflies, this Audubon Society Field Guide to Butterflies will only frustrate your attempts to learn and ID butterflies. Save your money, get a good field guide to start with. (I have the Swift Guide on order and will update my comparison with that one when it arrives).

Great pictures and wonderful size to take with you when you go look for butterflies.

A bit complex to find the butterflies and the look for separate descriptions, like in all Audubon guides. But haven’t found anything better yet. Glad I got it used, because it’s quite pricey.

This is a wonderful book for butterfly lovers,very well written and good information and great pictures !

These books are great

This is a great book! I keep it in our FL room so I can quickly grab it when I see one that I don’t know. It helps to have a lot of plants in your yard that butterflies get nectar from. We always have them because of this!

Photographs actually make ID a little harder than drawings. I think I would buy a different book for that reason.However, there are lots of full color pictures, including caterpillars, etc., that help identification at all stages of life. Lots of information about migration as well.

This is a very nice guide including eggs, caterpillars and chrysalises as well as mature butterflies with crisp macro photographs, each being well cropped to concentrate on the creature full frame. Excellent field notes for each species. Easy to use index. Nice size to tote on a field trip; however, I use mine at home to identify the butterflies I photograph. Would really like to find equally excellent guides to butterflies in other parts of the world... Also would like a similar book on Moths...

wonderful book. Lots of information and pictures

Mother's Day gift

Very informative for the nature lover. Lots of beautiful detailed pictures and information

Good quality made and nice photos

Amazing how many butterflies there are in North America.