If you want to photographic wildlife, you need to find wildlife. These books are the best guides to finding wildlife. For more information about these books, read How To Find Wildlife, The Best Books.
Guide to the National Wildlife Refuges by Laura and William Riley. Covers all of the U.S. national wildlife refuges and points out the best of the best.
National Geographic’s Guide to Wildlife Watching by Glen Martin. Covers 100 of the best wildlife locations in the United States. Every state has at least one location, most states have 2 or 3, and a few states have as many as 4 or 5 locations.
Nature Photography Hotspots by Tim Fitzharris. Covers 30 of the best wildlife hotspots around the world. 16 are in the U.S., 5 in Canada, 4 in Mexico, 2 in Central America, and 3 in Africa.
The “Watchable Wildlife Series” also called the “Wildlife Viewing Guide” series. Unless indicated otherwise below, all of these books are from the original, excellent series published by Falcon Press in cooperation with state and federal wildlife agencies. They all have the binoculars logo on the cover. Most of these books are out of print and some of them are getting hard to find. Buy the guides for states and provinces you want at the links below while you can still find them.
Three of the books below (Wyoming, Michigan, and Oklahoma) were published by state wildlife agencies. The Kansas book is published by the University Press of Kansas and was written by two Kansas wildlife experts. It has the same general style and format of the Falcon Press books.
Adventure Publications published a few guides (Idaho, Arizona, New York, and New Jersey) with the same format as the old Falcon Press series. If both the Falcon Press and Adventure Publications versions are available, I provide links to both.
In addition to the original Falcon Press guide for Alaska listed below, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game published four guides to different areas of the state.
The books for the Canadian provinces are published by Lone Pine Publishing with a format somewhat similar to the Falcon Press series.
Canadian provinces are listed first, then U.S. states from Alaska to Florida, going from west to east and north to south).
British Columbia – Lone Pine Publishing
Alberta – Lone Pine Publishing
Alaska – This book is part of the original Watchable Wildlife series by Falcon Press
Alaska by area. The following four books are by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Alaska – Inside Passage – Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Alaska – Kenai Peninsula – Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Alaska – South Coastal – Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Alaska – Nome Area – Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Washington
Oregon
California
Nevada
Idaho
Idaho Wildlife Viewing Guide (Watchable Wildlife Series) – original series by Falcon Press
Idaho Wildlife Viewing Guide – new series by Adventure Publications with the same format as the old series by Falcon Press
Montana
Utah
Arizona
Arizona Wildlife Viewing Guide – original series by Falcon Press
Arizona Wildlife Viewing Guide – new series by Adventure Publications with the same format as the old series by Falcon Press
Wyoming
Wyoming Wildlife Viewing Tour Guide – published by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. The format is different from the Falcon Press series, but the content is still excellent.
Colorado
New Mexico
North Dakota
Nebraska
Kansas
Watching Kansas Wildlife: A Guide to 101 Sites – by Bob Gress and George Potts, University Press of Kansas. This is not part of the original Falcon Press series but it is comparable to the Falcon Press series in format and quality of coverage.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Watchable Wildlife Viewing Guide – published by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. Location coverage is brief with an average of three locations covered on each page. In comparison the Falcon Press series usually devotes a full page to each location.
Texas
Iowa
Wisconsin
Michigan
Michigan Wildlife Viewing Guide – published by Michigan State University in cooperation with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. This guide follows the same format as the Falcon Press series and is equal to the Falcon Press series in quality of coverage.
Indiana
Ohio
Kentucky
Tennessee
Vermont
New Hampshire
Massachusetts
New York
New York Wildlife Viewing Guide (Wildlife Viewing Guides Series) – original series by Falcon Press
New York Wildlife Viewing Guide: Where to Watch Wildlife – new series by Adventure Publications with the same format as the old series by Falcon Press
New Jersey – new series by Adventure Publications with the same format as the old series by Falcon Press
West Virginia
Virginia
North Carolina
Florida
Page created November 6, 2017. Updated May 4, 2018.