I thought that I would share a list of the books that I rely upon for identification and descriptors, including behavior, etc. This is my current list as of today, and includes identification and behavioral books only:

Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States, Vols I-III by Edward Howe Forbush.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Handbook of Bird Biology by Lovett and Fitzpatrick.

The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds by Richard Crossley.

Gulls Simplified: A Comparative Approach to Identification by Dunne and Karlson.

Peterson Reference Guide to Woodpeckers of North America by Stephen Shunk.

Shorebirds of North America, The Photographic Guide by Dennis Paulson.

Shorebirds: An Identification Guide by Hayman, Marchant, and Prater.

The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America by David Sibley.

The Warbler Guide by Stephenson and Whittle.

What It’s Like To Be A Bird by David Sibley.

I’m not going to comment on specifics of bird guides at this point, although I do eventually intend to provide reviews of books shortly. This list also does not include other birding-related books, such as Kenn Kaufman’s wonderful “A Season On The Wind.” What are some of your favorite birding guides?