David Allen Sibley (born 1962, New York) is an American ornithologist. He is the author and illustrator of The Sibley Guide to Birds, considered by many to be the most comprehensive guide for North American field identification.
Life and Work
The son of Yale University ornithologist Fred Sibley, David Sibley began birding in childhood. A largely self-taught bird illustrator, he was inspired to pursue creating his own illustrated field guide after leading tours in the 1980s and 1990s and finding that existing field guides did not generally illustrate or describe alternate or juvenile plumages of birds, citing European wildlife artist Lars Jonsson as a great influence on his own work. He is married, with two sons, and currently lives in Concord, Massachusetts. He is not related to ornithologist Charles Sibley.
Publications
The following is a list of publications which Sibley has written or illustrated
- The Birds of Cape May
- Sibley's Birding Basics
- The Sibley Guide to Birds
- The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior
- The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America
- The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America
