National Audubon Society Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians: North America (National Audubon Society Field Guides)

I have been a fan of the Audubon Society field guides since I was a young child. The beautiful color photos are fascinating and very useful for identifying various species. I also love the organization of these guides, with the photo plates up front and easy to navigate, reserving the data entries for the back of the book. It makes the identification process a little easier up front, while still keeping additional information close at hand for later study. This reptiles and amphibians guide is no exception. All the characteristic quality of the other Audubon Society guides, with the same beautiful photo plates you've come to expect. Some more particular reviewers have noted that this edition that dates back to 1979 is now somewhat out of date, as some subspecies and common names have changed in recent years. Not sure if any of the taxonomy has changed, but certainly would warrant a new edition if it has. That said, the age of this guide has not diminished its overall quality, nor its handiness to the casual naturalist. I have already used this guide to positively ID a number of common species native to my area, and this book has become a cherished piece of reference material in my collection. I would certainly recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about the reptiles and amphibians in their corner of North America.

Great guides. Our young grandchildren love leafing through the pictures. They have found toads and frogs and love identifying them

Always great books

This book is perfect for my daughter to carry around and identify all the creatures around her. She loves it and I do too. Love that the cover is a leather-type material. Not cardboard or paper. Great resource.

I'm building a small library of field guides about nature and this is another great example of the best.

This book has lots of pictures and facts! It came late but as soon as I got it I started to read. It has a vast variety of reptiles and amphibians. There’s a lot that I have never heard about till this book. This book is a great way to learn your reptiles and amphibians.

Excellent, compréhensive, great pics. Organization is a bit confusing at first

After finding a very large snake in my garden, I needed to know what species it was but did not have a reference book so I ordered the National Audubon Society Field Guide. It's a great reference book and I will use it often.

i enjoy carrying these things with me when I am out hiking in the desert and desert mountains. they are small and colorful, easy to follow and well written/orgainzed. I recommed any of the field guides by the Autubon Society for the outdoor-types who like to know what they are seeing when out walking around and exploring.

This is a terrific guide to amphibians! Great for my kids to take with us outside as we explore all the various local lizards and frogs. Begins with anatomy drawings followed up by photos. Then a report of the description, breeding, habitat, and range of the animal with a map of where in the US it lives. Would highly recommend this book to friends who are naturalist enthusiasts.

I have been a fan of the Audubon Society field guides since I was a young child. The beautiful color photos are fascinating and very useful for identifying various species. I also love the organization of these guides, with the photo plates up front and easy to navigate, reserving the data entries for the back of the book. It makes the identification process a little easier up front, while still keeping additional information close at hand for later study. This reptiles and amphibians guide is no exception. All the characteristic quality of the other Audubon Society guides, with the same beautiful photo plates you've come to expect. Some more particular reviewers have noted that this edition that dates back to 1979 is now somewhat out of date, as some subspecies and common names have changed in recent years. Not sure if any of the taxonomy has changed, but certainly would warrant a new edition if it has. That said, the age of this guide has not diminished its overall quality, nor its handiness to the casual naturalist. I have already used this guide to positively ID a number of common species native to my area, and this book has become a cherished piece of reference material in my collection. I would certainly recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about the reptiles and amphibians in their corner of North America.

Great guides. Our young grandchildren love leafing through the pictures. They have found toads and frogs and love identifying them

Always great books

This book is perfect for my daughter to carry around and identify all the creatures around her. She loves it and I do too. Love that the cover is a leather-type material. Not cardboard or paper. Great resource.

I'm building a small library of field guides about nature and this is another great example of the best.

This book has lots of pictures and facts! It came late but as soon as I got it I started to read. It has a vast variety of reptiles and amphibians. There’s a lot that I have never heard about till this book. This book is a great way to learn your reptiles and amphibians.

Excellent, compréhensive, great pics. Organization is a bit confusing at first

After finding a very large snake in my garden, I needed to know what species it was but did not have a reference book so I ordered the National Audubon Society Field Guide. It's a great reference book and I will use it often.

i enjoy carrying these things with me when I am out hiking in the desert and desert mountains. they are small and colorful, easy to follow and well written/orgainzed. I recommed any of the field guides by the Autubon Society for the outdoor-types who like to know what they are seeing when out walking around and exploring.

This is a terrific guide to amphibians! Great for my kids to take with us outside as we explore all the various local lizards and frogs. Begins with anatomy drawings followed up by photos. Then a report of the description, breeding, habitat, and range of the animal with a map of where in the US it lives. Would highly recommend this book to friends who are naturalist enthusiasts.

We love this book and it has helped us identify many species native to our area. Our reptile/amphibian population is diverse and it's fun to try and identify them.

These field guides are excellent. Pretty thorough despite being post-sized.

Wonderful guide with colorful photos and very useful information.

Excellent book for identifying critters

I love my Audobon Guides. I always stash them in my bag when I go for a hike and they look great next to one another on the shelf. This reptile guide isn't as useful as say, an insect guide or bird guide, but I do crack it open every now and then.

I love these field guides. They are compact, full of information, contain high quality photos of each entry to make identification unmistakable, and contain every reptile I have ever needed to look up. These may be the best field guides out there.

Nice book, defiantly has lots of information and pictures.

Bought a few of these books as a gift for my husband. He loved them. I really like the colored leather covers, I actually have them up on display.

Also another great book.. Great information and pictures for the Reptiles and Amphibians in the book.

This was a purchase for my husband. We had seen a large snake and we were trying to identify it. Wonderful photographs which he enjoyed.

Great book for anyone interested in reptiles and amphibians. All National Audubon books are great!

My son, who is very much into biology and science, and an excellent reader, loved this book at age nine. Reading level is more aimed at an adult audience. Pictures are clear and interesting, well illustrating text.

Bought two of these for grandsons for xmas, they are very into all the creepy crawly things. They were very surprised and delighted to get their own books since they had been using my copy for years. Best field guides, in my opinion.

This book is wonderful for people learning about reptiles and amphibians. It's extremely informative, although, I'm not seeing any pythons included. Other than that, the pictures are very clear and the text is easy to read for all ages. It is well organized and I definitely recommend buying one :D

Perfect condition. Very happy.

Amazing

Easy to use. Very informative reference guide for any outdoors person, whether a novice or an expert. Very handy size with protective vinyl cover.

Book arrived in great shape!

Extremely useful in the field.

bought this to id good and bad reptiles in our area. very good photos and descriptions, nice size, good feel. AND I don't have to log-in anywhere to use it!

Can't go wrong with this series. We are working on building our collection of Audubon books!

Bought this to ID critters in our yard. Easy to use!

I was looking for a field guide in a smaller format size. This one is great and covers alot of species.

Received very quickly. Perfect!

Great field guide , lots of info for the budding entomologist . Many nice photos of living specimens.

very good

This was purchased as a Christmas gift for a nephew. He had asked for this on his wishlist and was happy to receive it.

A great guide for those of us who are exposed to creatures of nature here in Florida.

Had this book a long time ago & glad I got it again. It has the best pictures & decent maps.

my grandson loves it.

easy to use

Love it, easy to use and a great reference guide. Small enough to keep in my truck and great pictures.

These books have wonderful color pictures to help you identify what your looking for. Grouped by color, shape, etc. Also nice detailed descriptions. I own several of the National Audubon Society Field Guides and love them all.

can't go wrong with the national audubon society

I like the whole package. Great production quality. Love the pocket size.

Great reference for identification of snakes and other reptiles. Handy size, good pictures in color, salient facts. Just what I needed.

This is a book that I needed and I am very grateful to you for having it available to purchase at an affordable price.

Being used by a home schooler and she loves it.

Perfect.

Love these books

This book was a gift for my grandson. He is an interesting little boy who enjoys learning all about nature, Kudos!

Good

As advertised

This is the 4th Audobon guide we've bought. The photographs are definitive, the written material is exhaustive, the information is invaluable, as we live in the country and come across snakes all the time -- and we don't want to kill anything that won't kill us, so we needed a manual. I recommend this book (and the series). Includes turtles, lizards, frogs, etc.

Great reference book !

great THIS WAS A PRESENT

Audubon helps me see how our world is endlessly fascinating--and beautiful. All ages will find this book fascinating. It's a treasure.

Excellent reference book!

As described--fast delivery!!

Great book.

Kids love this game

knew what we were buying. very useful reference

Awesome book for any turtle enthusiast or herpotologist

Great guide, very useful!

Just as described!! Would order from vendor again.

Great reference book for ID'ing birds.

As Advertized!

As a college student studying zoology this field guide is beyond perfect. Very informative.

Great compact book!

Great reference for reptiles, perfect for teaching kids.

good book

Awesome.

Just like it was described, in brand new condition

Still Reading.

Perfect

I needed an updated version of my current guide . Very thorough . Excellent plates . Durable cover . Very pleased with my purchase .

all of the audubon field manuals are excellent. this book is very helpful in identifying reptiles and amphibians. it is perfect.

The book has really come in handy, I have killed several snakes in my pool all though I have 2 fish ponds near me.

Thank you! - I'm very pleased with my purchase. :)

Was very helpful and educational. Pictures were great quality and information was very detailed.

its a good book

This was a gift for Christmas and the person is enjoying the book. It has the information she was looking for on the reptiles. The pictures are very nice.

Nice reference book

Great book.. Shipped promptly, great condition!! Has everything my grandchildren and I need to know about snakes... I will be ordering more reference books soon!!

The book was in almost new condition and arrived in timely fashion. I am sure we will find the information in it very useful in identifying reptiles and amphibians we see on our hikes. Margaret

Clear, concise and easy to use. Amazing the number of critters that look similiar. Great guide for us begginers.

Very good resource

Excellent book for adults and students.

The best way to find out habitat, breeding seasons and diet of any Reptiles or Amphibians you find.

This product was labeled as in good used condition but given the price wasn’t much cheaper than my new ones, I was surprised. Definitely will stick to buying new from now on. I have bought used before but they definitely were written on or were better labeled. The pic that was posted was misleading. Lesson learned. Posted a pic of all the other ones i purchased from a different location.

Great book. Received just as ad

Great condition

I love it. my little grandson loves it too.

Product is as described.

Alot of useful info. Thanks

EXCELLENT!

I enjoy the National Audubon Society collection . This particular book gave me all kinds of information I needed. The photos are exceptional and the descriptive writing is also easily understood. I will have a greater knowledge of the different species of reptiles and Amphibians and continue to use as a reference to any further questions I may have. I also will enjoy sharing this book with my family and friends in the future.

Absolutely thrilled with my purchase. The book I ordered was used/in new condition and arrived exactly as described. It was in pristine condition. The book was wrapped carefully, mailed immediately, and arrived quickly. It was a gift for my nephew, and both of us could not be more pleased!

Useful field guide, jam-packed with information to allow you to identify those frogs and snakes and such you find while outside.

Love this book. Full color pictures, updated information. For reptile enthusiasts, this is a book you have to have

I love this it’ll teach me so much this product is amazing it is great

Good reference

Love it!

Unless I’m losing my memory, Hollywood juniper and Italian cypress are no longer in this guide. It makes me think, have they removed other iconic trees from Southern California? I know they were listed once but they are not listed in this 2005 edition. Trees should be planted and watered, not cut down despite being alive and well.

Very nice color pictures and great descriptions. The only thing is you have to flip 100's of pages away to get the description to match the picture. Very difficult to use in my opinion. Great for sitting and reading through when bored, but not that great for field use. I am used to guides that have images on one page and the description either on the same page or next page so there is no fumbling around.

Love the books just wish they had a newer copy write.

Necessary to have when you live out of town in a rural area. Great illustrations and descriptions. Recommend it for anyone.

Accidentally took one from my middle school library, then never took it back. It helped me learn that I wanted to be a herpetologist

I purchased this to replace my Peterson's field guide, which I could not find. I like the Peterson Guide better. It is easier to find what you want in the Peterson Guide. The NAS guide is good reference material on reptiles. It may grow on me. I did find my Peterson's guide and will still got to it first.

This guide is rather confusing at times. I like that the authors use general symbols for quick identification but it certainly doesn't do morphs or anuran calls justice. I would recommend learning your anurans using material created by Lang Elliot. Not sure what to do on the rest. Maybe just muscle through this bad boy. Good luck!

This is a great field guide. I have found with field guides that it is always good to have more than one because they all miss some information, but this is definitely a great one to have.

A nice addition to my library. The information is old and much new information is available in numerous guides but I do use this in the field.

Very few of the amphibian guide books include snakes. This one does and gives a good photo representation of all the critters examined. For anyone in the outdoors it will give hours of enjoyment even in your backyard.

Great book , but it arrived with the paper cover smeared all over with what smells like shampoo. Not cool at all.

This book uses pictures that aren't often indicative of the animals it's reprensenting. They are using odd color morphs and not the more commonly seen animals, making things difficult. The range maps are nearly useless. The descriptions of the animals are far too vague to make this book useful. The Peterson guide is far superior for the same price. Other than that nearly every state has it's own regional guides if you need an even better resource for your area. I'm an avid fieldherper and abandoned this guide many years ago in favor of the myriad guides that surpass this one's usefulness. Bottom line get the Peterson's guide or a regional guide over this confusing mess.

A good field guide. Not the best, but gets the job done

Audubon yet again delivered a detailed and well organized guide to the living world

I grabbed this book for class and, although I didn't use it a whole lot, it was a useful book for the class.

great book for reference

My spouse loves this resource.

Pictures and descriptions were in different sections. A bit odd.

Great photos and descriptions. Our son loves looking through this book. If you have a child that loves learning about animals, especially reptiles, this is a perfect book.

I like these books

The books arrived in time for our field trip and gave us a good guide to identify some of our NC salamaders. Great, thanks.

These guides (I bought 5 different ones) are jam packed with great info, but...they are way to big and heavy to be considered a field guide in my opinion. It's more of a field encyclopedia. We will keep these at home as reference and keep searching for more light weight field guides to take on our nature walks.

Because the pictures in this book are as close as you're likely to get to seeing most of the amphibians and many of the reptiles described herein. The Painted Ensatina? The California Tiger Salamander? The Pacific Giant Salamander? The Yosemite Toad? Even the once-ubiquitous Pacific Treefrog? Gilbert's Skink? The California Legless Lizard? The Coast Horned Lizard? These are species I used to expect to see in California, where I've done a large share of my hiking over my 67 years. Thirty years ago, I could have taken you out to find any of them, with a near certainty of success. Now, looking for any herptile except the blue-bellied fence lizard is like fishing in a swimming pool. Habitat destruction and pollution, especially from pesticides, would be enough to explain the precipitous decline in population of most herptile species, but anyone who studies these creatures, who knows their historical ranges, will tell you point-blank that climate change is hastening their decimation. Want to talk to an expert? Contact Tree Frog Treks in San Francisco, and speak to Chris! If you're an ideological denier of "global warming", you'll get an earful. I like these little critters. Over the years, it's given me a lot of pleasure to spot them in nature, to know their names and their family connections, to understand a bit about their habits. Frankly, I'd rather see all the SUVs of America compacted into rust, and all the 42-inch TV screens go black, than see even a single sub-species of garter snake go extinct.

This is an excellent field guide for beginning herpers. The photos are excellent and it even has pictures for the different color variations of certain species. The herps are organized into groups such as striped, venomous, lungless, treefrogs, etc. and then they seem to be ordered by color. I have used this book to learn about what I should expect to find in places I've traveled to, where to be careful of venomous snakes, how where and when to find herps, identification and more. I even used this book last November when I went to Dominican Republic and it helped me in indentifying some lizards. I highly recommend this book for beginners in field herping. In my opinion the price is worth it just for the wonderful pictures this guide has.

The pictures are excellent, similar looking species are placed next to eachother so it is easier to tell them apart, the descriptions of every organism tell you everything there is to know about physical appearance, where they breed, what their voice sounds like (for frogs), their size range, and their eating habits. There is also usually a fact or two about the organism also ("this frog is often hunted in the south for its legs" "this frog is not as wary of humans as most other species" "biggest turtle species in the united states" "often hunted to be made into soup" etc. I've had this guide for three years, and it has helped me dozens of times to identify organisms that i have captured. The best of its kind.

This field guide is really interesting!!! It shows all reptiles and amphibians of North America! The photos are in full color and I've identified several herps with this guide without any difficulties!!! Although this field guide was made a while ago, it still looks it's been made in these days! It's good as national audubon society field guide to birds of western region, which is one of my favorites. I've had this book for nearly 2 years, and it still looks new as ever. The informations are very interesting if you read them. It's easy use, colorful and interesting. So if you're interested in American herps, get this guide right now.

This has been my #1 reference since about 1981..its the only book you'll need.

As with all the Audubon field guides, the strong enduring points are the quality of the photos; the durable binding and leatherette cover; and the index that is organized and cross-referenced to the photos. The descriptions are pretty staight forward; but, the summaries are woefully inadequate, even when this book was current. The anatomy, life cycle, and habitats are discussed for each species, albeit vaguely. In the eventuality that there is an update . . . the details need to be fleshed out more; the range and distribution maps made more concise; and the descriptions of new species discovered plus expanded summations of each species would correct the deficiencies. This field guide still has its place in the naturalists library, if only for the quality of the photos. For better information, however, you may want to look at the Peterson's guide. Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts The Cloud Reckoner

This book appeared in 1979, and was a value because it covered all the reptiles and amphibians of the U.S. and Canada. The other common alternative was to purchase TWO of the Roger Tory Peterson field guides, each covering just half the region of the Audubon book. Even so, it lacked many good features of the Peterson books; and while those have been revised periodically, not so for Audubon, and 35 years is a long time to go unrevised for a science book. What I didn't like even in 1979 was the small photos of animals on natural backgrounds. For photos so small the background noise often rendered the animal's likeness indistinct or unrecognizable, not a good feature in a field guide. Most good guides use photos of specimens on neutral backgrounds. The Audubon maps are so tiny that they became more and more difficult to see over the years, and the distribution markings so small as to be of little more use than to have just written, say, "the south," or "Texas." The scientific names for many species have changed since 1979, distribution records have greatly increased or diminished, and the references are now far more numerous. Buy this as a picture book for the kids? Why, when there are so many better choices? If you want really good field guide resources for the reptiles and amphibians of North America, I strongly suggest you obtain the most recent editions of "A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians" and "A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians: Eastern and Central North America," the two Peterson Field Guides I mentioned. Let the Audubon take its place among the out-dated but once useful literature of herpetology, not your book shelf.

I bought this book for my 7 year old son last Christmas and it has been by his side ever since (he even sleeps with it). The great pictures for each reptile and amphibian listed help him determine which one he has caught in our back yard. The neighborhood kids consider my son "the expert" on reptiles and amphibians and seek him out whenever they catch one. The biographies are very good and have US maps shaded in telling where the animal can be found. A definate purchase.

I bought my first copy of this book when I was 11. It has been an invaluable guide to help me learn about the reptiles and amphibians of North America! I love the pictures and the descriptions included. If you are just starting off I feel that this is the best guide to get! However, if you are an experienced herper this guide may not be as useful as others for species identification. .. and some of the information does appear to be outdated. Overall, I really like it and think that it's a valuable addition to any US reptile and amphibian field-guide collection.

An excellent guide with plenty of illustrations for identification of reptiles and amphibians you may run across. Using it takes a little getting use to but contains lots of helpful info.

The contemporary edition of the Audubon Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians is decades old. Though it covers many species of snakes, salamanders, newts, etc., it is underrated because of the lack of updating. Some species names are known to be out of date, or invalid. However, even this cannot override the true quality of all the Audubon guides, including this book. Even though a newly revised and updated edition is way overdue, it still presents spectacular photographs of various species. The system is the same, with the description in the back of the book. The Audubon Guide to Weather has been revised and updated over the years and hopefully, this one will be also.

Though I agree with others a revision is long overdue, and there have been a few new species discovered over the years; namely salamanders. I still find it quite helpful though, in identifying the lizard that just ran across the trail, or for that possible snake sighting. And as bad as my eyes are (Keratoconus), yes the maps could be larger, but I don't find them particularly hard to read. Except for certain species that have very small and restricted ranges. Then finding the little dot can be near impossible. Beautiful photographs. Gives one a better appreciation of these animals; that, along with years of watching the "Crocodile Hunter" God rest his soul.

Wonderful book. I have been looking for it for over 15 years for my daughter. I finally found it & she loves it.

This book was written in 1979. The text and photographs were excellent, although the range maps were so small as to be useless, and the common names were the awkwardly academic types used in the first half of the last century. Supposedly, this book was updated in 1997. The text is still good, as are the photographs, but the common names still have not been corrected, the range maps are still too small, and over 70 new species that are now recognized from North America are missing from this book. This Audubon Guide is out-dated. Time to write a new one, with standard common names, modern taxonomy (drop the subspecies), and maybe some new photographs. Not recommended. Get the Peterson Guide. It may be a decade old, but its newer than this book.

This guide is the best to use for identification, for nearly half the book is made up of bright, clear pictures that enables precise identification. The guide also has sufficient taxonomy, although it is slightly outdated. If one desires range maps, I highly suggest the Peterson guide. The Audubon maps only show the basic region.

This photographic guide features excellent images of probably almost all North-American reptiles and amphibians, including many subspecies and some introduced species. However, these photographs are often arranged confusingly, and only labelled with the common, not the scientific names. This reduces the uselfulness of this book as a field guide in my view considerably, together with the separate position of the range maps. The species accounts are quite short, but contain usually information about (1) the outer appearance, (2) the voice, (3) breeding, (4) habitat, (5) range, (6) behaviour/interesting details. However, often there is information lacking or given only in very comprised form, which could be expected to be presented in more detail (cf. breeding biology of Aneides aeneus). The species accounts are table-like and therefore very clear. In the range maps, the subspecies are not discriminated. The binding of the eight printing (1989) was quite good, hard-back like but with plastic soft-cover. The index appears somewhat confusing to me, but this may be only a first impression. Missing are in my view also sections about the general biology of herps, including their anatomy and systematics, about herpetology and the handling of these animals, and a list with useful addresses.