There are times where I've used upto three Guides with on of them being a photo Guide to help confirm an ID. There are also some very good Online Guides or (bird) Family Specific Sites that are very useful.
This Forum can be very good at providing help and confirmation but it is more satisfying and builds experience to do as much "leg-work" on your own. After a while of using a Guide, you quickly learn to be able to flip to the Family in your Guide of almost any bird you see. You also learn which ones will present the most challenges to ID and try to find the key indentifying marks that separate it from look-alike.
Anything that looks like a Sparrow gives me a hard time usually because they don't give you a very long look before they are gone. Requires experience at quickly finding the key marks.
Note: There is a lot of Sharing on this Forum of accomplishments and adventures in birding also.
http://whatbird.com/forums/photos/birdman/
