Building on the foundation of birding -- species identification -- definitively established by The Sibley Guide to Birds, this book provides everything else birders of all levels will want and need to know: comprehensive information about the life cycles and behavior of the 80 bird families of North America. Knowledge of the migration and nesting patterns, courtship behavior, feeding habits, and other aspects of the avian life cycle, added to the identification information offered by the first book, will enrich the experience of birding. This will become the standard reference book for such information, just as The Sibley Guide to Birds has instantly become the standard identification guide.

David Sibley made 330 new paintings for this book, showing habitats, nests, eggs, courtship behavior, and more. 300 other images are reproduced from The Sibley Guide to Birds. Sibley wrote all the captions and some of the text.

80 illustrated chapters, arranged taxonomically, cover all the bird families of N. America. 47 scientists and expert birders give detailed information about behavior, taxonomy, food and foraging, breeding, migration, movement, and conservation of the families that are their specialties.

Each chapter includes a sidebar box providing at-a-glance facts about related groups of birds in N. America and around the world.

4-color printed endpapers give diagrams of bird topography, egg shapes, and a map of N. America.

Glossary of terms and index complete the book.