David Allen Sibley

Read "ID Toolkit"

Artist David Allen Sibley is the author of The Sibley Guide to Trees and the bestselling Sibley Guide to Birds, Sibley's Birding Basics, and Sibley guides to birds of eastern and western North America. His first article for Birder's World (now BirdWatching), a profile of St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in Florida, appeared in our August 2006 issue. "Window pain," Sibley's article about preventing bird-window collisions, ran in December 2008. His column "ID Toolkit" appears in every issue of the magazine.

Sibley began drawing birds at age 7 and painting them in his teens. From 1980 to 1990, he spent much of his time in Cape May, New Jersey, studying birds, planning his field guide, and leading birding tours throughout North America for WINGS Birding Tours. After the publication of his famous guide in 2000, he received the 2002 Roger Tory Peterson Award from the American Birding Association for promoting the cause of birding and a 2004 recognition award from the National Wildlife Refuge System for his support of bird conservation through public education and the promotion of wildlife recreation.

Read our 2009 interview with Sibley about The Sibley Guide to Trees.

Read an interview with David from 2001.

Publications

The Sibley Guide to Birds of Eastern North America (Knopf, 2003). Read Paul Johnsgard's review.

The Sibley Guide to Birds of Western North America (Knopf, 2003). Read Paul Johnsgard's review.

The Wind Masters: The Lives of North American Birds of Prey, by Pete Dunne (Mariner Books, 2003)

Sibley's Birding Basics (Knopf, 2002). Read Jerry Jackson's review.

A Guide to Bird Finding in New Jersey, by William J. Boyle Jr. (Rutgers University Press, 2002)

The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior, edited with Chris Elphick and John B. Dunning Jr. (Knopf, 2001)

The Sibley Guide to Birds (Knopf, 2000)

Tales of a Low-Rent Birder, by Pete Dunne (University of Texas Press, 1994)

The Birds of Cape May (Cape May Bird Observatory, 1993)

Hawks in Flight: The Flight Identification of North American Migrant Raptors, by Pete Dunne and Clay Sutton (Houghton Mifflin, 1989)

The Atlas of Breeding Birds in New York State, edited by Robert F. Andrle and Janet R. Carroll (Cornell University Press, 1988)

Hawk Watch: A Guide for Beginners, by Debbie Keller, Pete Dunne, and Rene Kochenberger (Cape May Bird Observatory, 1984)

Online
A gallery of Sibley's art, his blog, and information on bird identification and conservation can be found on his Sibley Guides website.

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