(under construction, links will be added/replaced as these titles are entered in our new online store)

Naturally Curious about Texas?

These national guides will help.

See Statewide Books

See Texas Regional Guides

See our recommendations for plants, butterflies, odonates, reptiles & amphibians, birds, mammals

Bird Guides:  Are you wondering which national bird guide works best in Texas?  The newer the guide, the better your chances that more of the Mexican vagrants will be included.   The national guides you'll see most people carrying are National Geographic's Birds of North America, Kaufman Focus Guide-Birds of North America, and Sibley Guide to Birds of North America.  We also recommend All the Birds of North America and the Golden Guide to Birds.  Please see the Lower Rio Grande Valley page if you live there, or that will be the focus for your trip.  See our choosing a field guide for birds for more help picking a guide.

East/West Guides, How they Divide Texas  (see our 'Snapshot' of Guides for more info)

Butterfly Guides:  The most popular butterfly guides are the Kaufman Focus Guide to Butterflies of North America,  Butterflies through Binoculars, West and East (the East works best if you are staying in the Pineywoods/Houston area) by Glassberg and the Peterson FG to Butterflies, both East and West.  See How to Choose a  Butterfly Field Guide for details. 

Dragonflies:  If you want a dragonfly guide that will work everywhere in the United States,  your best bet is Dragonflies through Binoculars by Dunkle.  If you live in or near Texas,  Dragonflies and Damselflies of Texas and South-Central US is a great resource.  A great primer to help you feel confident in learning the families of dragonflies and damselflies is the Stokes Beginning Guide to Dragonflies.  If you aren't interested in checking out the genitalia in order to identify a dragon or damselfly to species, you may like Dazzle of Dragonflies.  This has some taxonomy, but has more information on the fun stuff, like gardening, photographing, scanning and just reveling in their beauty.

Reptiles & Amphibians:  Any national guide that you are already comfortable with will work in Texas.  We like them all, if you like photographs, the Audubon guide is good, I used the Peterson East/Central as the lab text in school, the Golden Guide to Reptiles doesn't have the same depth, but it's very appealing.  There is currently no good Texas guide that we are aware of, although we are looking forward to seeing a new guide to Texas Snakes in November 05.

Mammals  There are two new and  good guides to choose from, Kaufman Focus Guide to Mammals (digital pictures); Princeton Field Guide to Mammals (paintings).  The other mammal guides are good, too (Peterson, Audubon, Golden).

Plants:  If plants are your main interest, there are several  state and local guides available, and they are of course your best bet.  The only wildflower guide we're familiar with that is not Texas specific, but works for Texas, is the Peterson FG to Southwestern Wildflowers (it may have Texas in the title).  You can't go wrong with either of the two Texas wildflower guides (Texas Wildflowers by Agilvsi and Wildflowers of Texas by Loughmiller).  If trees are your main interest, again, we have several state guides to choose from that we recommend for the seriously tree-minded. 

See State Guides

(more links to come as I get the pages built in our online store)