Field guide

A field guide is a book designed to help the reader identify wildlife (plants or animals) or other objects of natural occurrence (e.g. minerals). It is generally designed to be brought into the 'field' or local area where such objects exist to help distinguish between similar objects.

How do Field Guides work?

The main point of field guides are to definitively identify a bird, plant, rock, butterfly or other natural object down to the popular naming level. To this end field guides may employ a few simple keys, scanning illustrations for a match and comparison of similar-looking things by their differences. They are designed to help people limit their search to a section of the book where choices are few. Plant field guides such as Newcombs frequently have an abbreviated key that helps limit the search. Insect guides tend to limit identification to Order or Family levels rather than individual species due to their diversity.

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