The Sierra Nevada’s varied habitats of forest, chaparral, and alpine meadows, combined with its splendid mountainous scenery, have made this range a favored destination for tourists and bird watchers. For over a century, professional ornithologists and amateur field naturalists have studied the rich avifauna of this region, but until now a comprehensive guide to the full expanse of the Sierra Nevada did not exist. In 1977, David Gaines wrote the Birds of the Yosemite Sierra: A Distributional Survey, which covered both the western and eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada but was limited to the area around Yosemite—it was updated in 1988 as Birds of Yosemite and the East Slope. Published in 1985, Discovering Sierra Birds, by Edward Beedy and Stephen Granholm, covered the western slope only and focused on Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia national parks. The need for a book covering the entire Sierra Nevada, with additional information on natural history, population status, and conservation, was expressed by the late Steve Medley, former president of the Yosemite Association, in 1998. And now, after 15 years of devoted labor, the Birds of the Sierra Nevada: Their Natural History, Status, and Distribution has been completed. It includes many passages from Discovering Sierra Birds, but with so much additional information and entirely new illustrations, it is much more than just an update.