National Audubon Society Regional Guide to the Southwestern States: Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah (National Audubon Society Field Guides)

This is the second of the series I have bought for an American visit. They are first rate for a general overview of most flora and fauna. Easy to use as well

Very extensive, covering Flora and Fauna, Minerals and bugs. The pictures are quite detailed, and easily identified. I have had my book. For well over 20 years. It stayed in the car and my kids used it whenever we stopped to identify plants, bugs, what have you! It became a tradition, and a bunch of good memories for both of my, now adult, kids.I was going to pass it on to my young friend, but the book was so ratty (well loved) that I felt the need to gift them a new one. Very pleased that it is still available.

We spend winters in Az and this is a great resourse

Keep one of these in both cars, and toss into the backpack when hiking. Great compilation of info.

This is an awesome field guide, but some of the sections (the insect/spider one comes to mind right now) seems to mainly only include the very common insects you'll run into (i.e., black widow, tarantula, funnel web spider) but doesn't even mention brown recluse which surprised me.Because this is a broad field guide (contains everything from minerals to mammals across 4 states) it may not be as detailed in certain sections as you'd like (for example, the pictures for most of the plants focuses on the flowers, with some not really showing the leaves while other entries have good photos of both the entire plant as well as the flowers) so just keep this in mind.Overall, this is a wonderful guide if you're interested in your surroundings, and provides a great basis to look up the different plants and animals you see while out and about! I've used it multiple times after I get back from a hike to look up a plant I didn't recognize.

I like that this book covers animals and plants as well as birds. Unfortunately, I started using the book AFTER I downloaded a bird identifying app for my phone. The app is easier than hunting through pages looking for the bird I saw. Still, it's a great reference and has information about the National Parks in the Southwest. I've been to some of the National Parks reviewed in the book, and the reviews are accurate and informative.