Choosing a Butterfly Guide

Our most popular book for people getting started identifying butterflies, is the Kaufman Field Guide to Butterflies of North America.  If you can only buy one guide, read no further, this is it!.  If you are just starting, this is the one for you.  If you are well on your way to learning, you'll still like this.  It is the only butterfly guide with color tabs for the different butterfly groups.  What is helpful for me is that the first pages show you what the different butterfly groups (families) look like.  The groups are then bordered by the tab color. As a true beginner, this is my favorite all-round, US field guide, check it out!  List $19.95  Our price $17.96   More Info/Shop

With all of the good butterfly field guides available, the difficult question isn’t “Is this a good one?”, but “which one should I choose?”.  Before the advent of the Kaufman and Butterflies through Binoculars series, (East and West) the gold standards were National Audubon Society’s Butterflies, which covers North America (north of Mexico), including Hawaii, and Peterson’s Eastern and Western Butterflies books. 

 Audubon’s Butterflies was the first to rely exclusively on photographs, emphasized ‘live’ viewing rather than collecting, and organizes the butterflies by shape and color.  Audubon’s ‘chapters’ include: Eggs, Caterpillars, and Chrysalises; White Butterflies; Sulphurs; Folded-wing Skippers; Spread-winged Skippers; Swallowtails, Angled-winged Butterflies; Hairstreaks and Elfins; Blue Butterflies; Copper Butterflies; Metalmarks; Checkered Butterflies; Fritillaries and Orange Patterned Butterflies; Boldly Patterned Butterflies; and Eye-spot Patterned Butterflies.  List price is $19.00, it is flexibound with a vinyl cover, so is probably the sturdiest of all the guides.

 Peterson’s Guides are divided along the 100^th Meridian, which is essentially the western border of Manitoba, through the Dakotas (cutting them in half) and the eastern edge of the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles.  Reducing the number of butterflies covered allows for more room for text and other information on butterflies, butterfly studying, collecting, conservation and host plants.  The plates use illustrations, but the text contains photos.  This book is organized taxonomically, so it takes a little more study time to learn your way around the book.  Both Peterson’s and Audubon’s guides allow for keeping a life list, Audubon’s is combined with the index, Peterson’s is separate and therefore in taxonomic order.  The Peterson Guides are $20.00 (Eastern) and $24.00 (Western), the Western is also available in hardcover for $32.00 list.

 The newcomers are Butterflies through Binoculars.  They were much anticipated with their emphasis on butterfly watching.  The butterfly photographs are shown open and closed wing as needed.  The Eastern book, which includes only East Texas, and angles up to the 100^th Meridian at the Canadian border, has all of the color plates in the back of the book, grouped taxonomically basic identifying tips are on the facing page, details are in the species accounts.  The Western edition, which covers most of Texas, but only about 85% of the Rio Grande Valley, has the text, identifying characteristics and color photos on facing pages.  One of the several things that sets these books apart are the phenograms, which indicate changes of populations throughout the year.  Butterflies through Binoculars, East is $18.95 and West is $19.95.

 So, how do you choose?  If you are in the West, and are willing to learn the families, I recommend Butterflies through Binoculars (the butterfly association in California raves about this book).  In the East, it’s a toss up, if you like photographs and don’t want to net butterflies, go with Butterflies through Binoculars.  If you want a book that covers the entire country, and don’t mind sacrificing text, and want to start by using  color and shape first, you’ll like the Audubon series.

 If you are in the Houston area, you can also benefit from the Tveten’s Butterflies of Houston and Southeast Texas.  This book is also recommended by members of the Austin Butterfly Forum.  Great text, excellent photos, even some caterpillars.  There are a couple of choices  Texas' Rio Grande Valley.  Most of the locals carry Kaufman, the serious butterfliers supplement that with Ro Wauer's Butterflies of the Rio Grande Valley.  If you are just visiting or just getting started, we recommend Kaufman's, but also visiting any of the refuges and nature centers (especially Weslaco's Valley Nature Center) and picking up a copy of the the $2.00 full color brochure, Speciality Butterflies of the Rio Grande Valley.