Field Guides and Literature

Selected guides and resources for learning more about California wildlife.

Recommended Field Guides:

Alden, Peter, Heath, Fred. National Audubon Society Field Guide to California.

Bauer, Nancy. California Wildlife Habitat Garden: How to Attract Bees, Butterflies, Birds and Other Animals.

Clark, Jeanne L. California Wildlife Viewing Guide. FalconGuides. 1996.

Elbroch, Mark and Michael Raymond Kresky. Field Guide to Animal Tracks and Scat of California. 2012.

Fenimore, Bill. Backyard Birds of California. Gibbs Smith. 2008.

Jameson Jr., E.W., Peeters, Hans J. Mammals of California. University of California Press. 2004.

Kaufman, Obi. The California Field Atlas. Heyday. 2017.

Kavanagh, James. The Nature of California. Waterford Press. 2005.

Kavanagh and Leung, California Wildlife: A Folding Pocket Guide to Familiar Animals. Waterford Press. 2016.

Palmer, Tina. Field Guide to California Rivers.

Stienstra, Tom. Foghorn Outdoors: California Wildlife. Rick Steves. 2000.

Tekiela, Stan. Birds of California. Adventure Publications. 2003.

California Native Plant Society publications

California Natural History Guides publications

Recommended Links:

Audubon Society: www.audubon.org

California Natural History Guides: UC Press

California Native Plant Society: https://www.cnps.org/

Additional Literature

This list includes scientists and artists, activists and educators who have contributed, among many others, to the establishment and development of environment and ecology movements, and our expanding understanding both of the complex relationships in nature and of the interaction between nature and human nature. Their perspectives, discoveries and creativity reveal why “the wild” and “wildlife” survival is fundamentally necessary to survival of life on earth and crucial to the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of all life’s creatures.

Austin, Mary: The Land of Little Rain.

Berthoin, Paola F., Bayless, Laura, Dotson, John et al. Passion for Place: Community Reflections on the Carmel River Watershed. 2012.

California Wildlife Conservation Challenges: California's Wildlife Action Plan. California Department of Fish and Wildlife. 2005.

Carson, Rachel: Silent Spring.

Cunningham, Laura. A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California

Fenimore Cooper, Susan. Rural Hours.

Kramer, Gary. California Wildlife Impressions. Farcountry Press. 2006.

Kobert, Elizabeth. The Sixth Extinction

Marianchild, Kate. Secrets of the Oak Woodlands: Plants and Animals Among California's Oaks. 2014.

Muir, John. My First Summer in the Sierras

Muir, John. The Mountains of California.

Muir, John. The Yosemite.

Owings, Margaret W. Voice of the Sea: Reflections on Wildlife and Wilderness.

Shepard, Paul: Man and the Landscape

Snyder, Gary. Turtle Island

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden

Waldo Emerson, Ralph. Nature and Other Selected Essays

Wilson, E.O. The Diversity of Life

Wilson, E.O. The Creation: An Appeal to Save the Earth