Editing Field guide (section)

{{Short description|Book for identifying wildlife}}
{{about|informational books|people who lead others|Guide}}
[[File:Red Knot from The Crossley ID Guide Eastern Birds.jpg|thumb|A species plate from ''The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds'', illustrating different plumages of the [[red knot]]]]

A '''field guide''' is a [[book]] designed to help the reader identify [[wildlife]] ([[flora]] or [[fauna]] or [[funga]]) or other objects of [[list of natural phenomena|natural occurrence]] (e.g. [[Rock (geology)|rock]]s and [[mineral]]s). It is generally designed to be brought into the "[[field research|field]]" or local area where such objects exist to help distinguish between similar objects.<ref>[http://www.library.illinois.edu/bix/fieldguides/index.html The International Field Guides Database] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141226014723/http://www.library.illinois.edu/bix/fieldguides/index.html |date=2014-12-26 }}. Diane Schmidt. Accessed September 2, 2014.</ref> Field guides are often designed to help users distinguish animals and plants that may be similar in appearance but are not necessarily closely related.

It will typically include a description of the objects covered, together with paintings or photographs and an index. More serious and scientific field identification books, including those intended for students, will probably include [[identification key]]s to assist with identification, but the publicly accessible field guide is more often a browsable picture guide organized by family, colour, shape, location or other descriptors.