Eastern Birds: A Guide to Field Identification, Revised and Updated (Golden Field Guide from St. Martin's Press)

James Coe, an artist, author, and naturalist with a degree in biology from Harvard, grew up in the suburbs of New York City. As a child he was fascinated by the egrets and herons he spotted in nearby tidal marshes, and he quickly learned to identify most of the birds he found around town. Jim began to paint when, with a friend, he set out to compile a field guide to the local bird life-- a goal that has finally been realized with the publication of this book.

Jim obtained a Master's degree in painting at the Parson's School of Design, in New York City, in 1984. Over the years, he has contributed illustrations to numerous other books, including the Macmillan field guide Birds of North America: Western Region, and Birds of New Guinea, and to Frank Gill's widely used college textbook, Ornithology. His paintings have been published on the covers of Bird Watcher's Digest, and twice he has been commissioned to illustrate bird species new to science for Auk, the professional journal of the American Ornithologists' Union. Jim's artwork has been exhibited at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, in Wausau, Wisconsin, the Bennington Center for the Arts, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and at the New York State Museum.

Jim lives with his wife and two children on the western rim of New York's Hudson Valley. It is an ideal setting for a wildlife artist. From his studio, perched on the second story of a recent addition to their 150-year-old farmhouse, Jim can look out on acres of woodlands, a wildflower meadow, and a small pond. He has spotted 141 species of birds on the property.