The publishers of the new book Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America contacted Trailspotting to ask if we might be interested in taking a closer look at their book. Since we're trying to be more appreciative of the things around us on our trails (like our recent wildflower fixation) we thought we'd check it out.

Turns out it's pretty good and judging by the 5-star reviews on Amazon.com the birders agree too. Weighing in at over 2lb it's a little on the hefty side to lug around on a long hike and might work better as a home-reference guide.

More appealing to the gadget-minded hiker is the DVD which accompanies the book. Loaded with 900MB of mp3 samples - 587 birdsong samples representing 138 birds to be exact - and each file embedded with an image. It's a breeze to load these onto an iPod or iPhone for identification in the field, but we were disappointed that it wasn't possible to include descriptions or a fully indexed guide, instead we only get an alphabetical list. Maybe that would work out great as an iPhone app?

Listen to birdsong samples along with other reader's reviews over at Amazon.com ...