Book News

Terns of North America: A Photographic GuideTerns of North America: A Photographic Guide
by Cameron Cox

From Princeton University Press:

This is the essential identification guide to the terns, noddies, and skimmers of North America. Covering every species and featuring hundreds of high-quality color images, this book is the ideal companion for anyone interested in this charismatic but sometimes challenging group of seabirds. Detailed species accounts describe the size of each bird as it appears in the field along with structure, behavior, flight style, vocalizations, subspecies, and North American and worldwide ranges. An incisive introduction lays out a remarkably simple approach to identification that focuses on key elements and addresses how to avoid getting bogged down in the variability of appearance. This state-of-the-art guide also provides additional in-depth coverage of the two most challenging groups of terns, Sterna terns and crested terns, aiding field identification while also highlighting the beauty and elegance of these marvelous seabirds.

  • Features more than 325 stunning color photos, with side-by-side comparisons of similar species throughout
  • Includes detailed captions for each image that describe age and key identification traits
  • Covers 19 species found in North America, including the most frequent vagrants
  • Presents a unique, simplified approach to field identification
  • Explains the fundamentals of molts, plumages, and hybridization
  • Provides in-depth coverage of Sterna terns and crested terns

 

It’s been almost 30 years(!) since the last guide to North American terns was published. So this was a group due for a new treatment, and it is treated well in this guide. The plethora of photos are great, and everything is laid out very well. This is a nice addition (or upgrade) to your collection of family guides.

 

Terns of North America: A Photographic Guide
by Cameron Cox
Paperback; 208 pages
Princeton University Press; October 24, 2023
ISBN: 9780691161877
$27.95

The Birds That Saved Me
by J. P. Steed

From Ghow Press:

Jason Steed and his family were already struggling with some hard things in March 2020. Disease. Trauma. Depression. Death. Then the world shut down in response to the COVID pandemic. To cope with these hard things, Steed started going for walks to the creek that ran through his neighborhood. Then he discovered the birds. And the birds are what saved him.

Part memoir, part self-help guide, part introduction to birds and birding, The Birds That Saved Me is a richly layered meditation on life-a book about finding the good things that will help us to survive the hard things.

 

Steed, like many others, discovered birding during the pandemic. The short, very well-written chapters of this book walk us through this discovery while, at the same time, provide insights into the birds themselves as well as how to deal with the difficulties of life.

 

The Birds That Saved Me
by J. P. Steed
Paperback; 201 pages
Ghow Press; September 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781960554000
$16.95

Rare Air: Endangered Birds, Bats, Butterflies, & BeesRare Air: Endangered Birds, Bats, Butterflies, & Bees
by Sarah Kaizar and A. Scott Meiser

From Mountaineers Books:

Rare Air, the culmination of artist Sarah Kaizar’s dedication to illustrating endangered fauna, features 66 endangered species of flight–33 birds, 5 bats, 12 bees, and 16 butterflies–presented in her scientifically accurate and utterly engaging pen-and-ink style. Complementing the art are informative and story-driven natural histories of each species by writer A. Scott Meiser, as well as interviews with biologists who are working to sustain some of the same species. An introduction highlights how Kaizar developed this project, while the “How to Get Involved” appendix provides helpful tips on actions readers can take to help these creatures.

Kaizar’s work informs readers about the world around them in a way that is beautiful and engaging, while also examining the environmental conditions that put these species at risk. Rare Air broadens the conversation about environmental study and inspires readers across the country to care for our winged creatures.

  • Stunning collection of endangered winged animals in distinctive pen and ink style
  • Features 66 endangered North American species of flight
  • Full-color illustrations throughout

 

This book presents a cross-section of endangered flying creatures with striking art and concise text. Its clear conservation message is much appreciated, but would be worth getting for the artwork alone!

 

Rare Air: Endangered Birds, Bats, Butterflies, & Bees
by Sarah Kaizar and A. Scott Meiser
Hardcover; 152 pages
Mountaineers Books; September 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781680515510
$21.95

Birds of Costa RicaBirds of Costa Rica
by Dale Dyer and Steve N. G. Howell

From Princeton University Press:

Costa Rica is among the most popular birding destinations in the world, with a breathtaking diversity of neotropical birdlife and stunningly beautiful habitats ranging from shady mangrove swamps to mist-enshrouded mountaintops and verdant rainforest. Birds of Costa Rica is the essential illustrated pocket guide to this biologically rich country. It covers all regularly occurring bird species found in the region and features facing-page plates and text that make field identification easy. Concise species accounts describe everything from size and distribution to voice, habitat, and status. This compact guide also features progressive taxonomy and a wealth of color range maps.

  • Covers more than 800 species of birds found in Costa Rica
  • Includes more than 200 superb color plates
  • Features concise species accounts, facing-page plates and text, and up-to-date range maps
  • Its compact size and field-friendly layout make it the ideal travel companion for any birder

 

Birds of Belize Birds of Belize
by Steve N. G. Howell and Dale Dyer

From Princeton University Press:

Belize is one of the world’s premier birding destinations, home to a marvelous array of tropical birds and beautiful habitats ranging from verdant rain forests and extensive wetlands to rolling pine savannas and the country’s famed barrier reef. Birds of Belize is the essential illustrated pocket guide to this birder’s paradise. It covers all regularly occurring bird species found in the region and features facing-page plates and text that make field identification easy. Concise species accounts describe everything from size and distribution to voice, habitat, and status. This compact guide also features progressive taxonomy and a wealth of color range maps.

  • Covers more than 500 species of birds found in Belize
  • Includes 116 superb color plates
  • Features concise species accounts, facing-page plates and text, and up-to-date range maps
  • Its compact size and field-friendly layout make it the ideal travel companion for any birder

 

The illustrations in these field guides have been pulled from Dyer’s work in Birds of Central America. I like that older guide, but it’s a bit big to carry around. These new guides are smaller and more field-friendly. I have multiple field guides to both of these countries, but these new Princeton guides will be my go-to guides going forward.

 

Birds of Costa Rica
by Dale Dyer and Steve N. G. Howell
Flexi-binding; 456 pages
Princeton University Press; May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9780691203355
$29.95

Birds of Belize
by Steve N. G. Howell and Dale Dyer
Flexi-binding; 304 pages
Princeton University Press; April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9780691220727
$35.00

A Connecticut Yankee Goes to Washington: Senator George P. McLean, Birdman of the SenatevA Connecticut Yankee Goes to Washington: Senator George P. McLean, Birdman of the Senate
by Will McLean Greeley

From RIT Press:

Senator George P. McLean’s crowning achievement was overseeing passage of one of the country’s first and most important wildlife conservation laws, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. The MBTA, which is still in effect today, has saved billions of birds from senseless killing and likely prevented the extinction of entire bird species. A Connecticut Yankee Goes to Washington: George P. McLean, Birdman of the Senate puts McLean’s victory for birds in the context of his distinguished forty-five-year career marked by many acts of reform during a time of widespread corruption and political instability. Author Will McLean Greeley traces McLean’s rise from obscurity as a Connecticut farm boy to national prominence when he advised five US presidents and helped lead change and shape events as a US senator from 1911 to 1929. One reviewer writes: “And there’s a bonus: This book is also a love song to a distant relative. We need more historians who truly care about the people they’re writing about, and Greeley does just that.”

 

A political biography on this website? (Well, about someone other than Theodore Roosevelt.) But this is one politician that birders should be interested in, as he is a very important, but little-known, figure in conservation.

 

A Connecticut Yankee Goes to Washington: Senator George P. McLean, Birdman of the Senate
by Will McLean Greeley
Paperback; 350 pages
RIT Press; February 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781939125996
$34.95

The (Big) Year that Flew ByThe (Big) Year that Flew By: Twelve Months, Six Continents, and the Ultimate Birding Record
by Arjan Dwarshuis

From Chelsea Green Publishing:

An epic tale of one passionate birder’s record-breaking adventure through 40 countries over 6 continents―in just one year―to see 6,852 bird species, rare and common, before many go extinct.

When Arjan Dwarshuis first heard of the “Big Year”―the legendary record for birdwatching―he was twenty years old, it was midnight, and he was sitting on the roof of a truck in the Andean Mountains. In that moment he promised himself that, someday, somehow, he would become a world-record-holding birder.

Ten years later, he embarked on an incredible, arduous, and perilous journey that took him around the globe; over uninhabited islands, through dense unforgiving rainforests, across snowy mountain peaks and unrelenting deserts―in just a single year. Would he survive? Would he be able to break the “Big Year” record, navigating through a world filled with shifting climate and geopolitical challenges?

The (Big) Year that Flew By is an unforgettable, personal exploration of the limits of human potential when engaging with the natural world. It is a book about birds and birding and Arjan’s attempts to raise awareness for critically endangered species, but it is also a book about overcoming mental challenges, extreme physical danger, and human competition and fully realizing your passions through nature, adventure, and conservation.

 

If you enjoy big year tales, then you’ll want to read this one.

 

The (Big) Year that Flew By: Twelve Months, Six Continents, and the Ultimate Birding Record
by Arjan Dwarshuis
Paperback; 256 pages
Chelsea Green Publishing; May 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781645021919
$22.95

Field Guide to North American Flycatchers: Empidonax and PeweesField Guide to North American Flycatchers: Empidonax and Pewees
by Cin-Ty Lee; Illustrated by Andrew Birch

From Princeton University Press:

The identification of Empidonax flycatchers and pewees can be a daunting challenge for even the most seasoned birder. Field Guide to North American Flycatchers takes bird identification to an entirely new level by training readers to observe subtle differences in structure, color patterns, and vocalizations before delving into the finer details of a particular species. Because the plumages of flycatchers are so similar, this one-of-a-kind guide uses illustrations that highlight slight variances among species that photos often miss. One of the last frontiers of bird identification is now accessible to everyone―once one knows what to look for.

  • Uses a holistic approach that makes flycatcher identification possible even for beginners
  • Features a wealth of beautiful illustrations that depict every species in North America
  • Shows how to observe subtle differences in structure, plumage contrasts, and vocalizations, which together create a distinctive overall impression of the bird
  • Includes detailed audio spectrograms and seasonal distribution maps for each species
  • Shares invaluable tips for successful identification in all kinds of field settings
  • Its compact size and field-friendly layout make it the ideal travel companion for any birder

 

This is exactly the sort of detailed guide to empids and pewees that I’ve been hoping for since…well, basically since I started birding. Simply put, every North American birder should have this.

 

Field Guide to North American Flycatchers: Empidonax and Pewees
by Cin-Ty Lee; Illustrated by Andrew Birch
Flexi-binding; 168 pages
Princeton University Press; April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9780691240626
$19.95

Pocket Guide to Birds of AustraliaPocket Guide to Birds of Australia
by Jeff Davies, Peter Menkhorst, Danny Rogers, Rohan Clarke, Peter Marsack, and Kim Franklin

From Princeton University Press:

This book is an easy-to-use and beautifully illustrated quick identification guide to all regularly occurring bird species in Australia. Carefully designed to provide key information at your fingertips to enable rapid identification, it covers more than 700 bird species that are resident or regular visitors to the Australian mainland, Tasmania, and surrounding waters accessible in a day trip by boat. Based on the award-winning Australian Bird Guide, this convenient pocket guide features stunning images, up-to-date species descriptions, distribution maps, and quick guide comparison pages for all major groups.

  • Covers more than 700 species, including regular visitors
  • Features a wealth of breathtaking color images by leading Australian artists
  • Provides incisive species descriptions that make identification easy
  • Includes quick guide comparison pages and the most up-to-date distribution maps
  • Its compact size makes it the perfect travel companion

 

The Australian Bird Guide is, arguably, the best identification guide for that continent. But it’s a bit…unwieldy. This new pocket guide is a concise version of that larger guide, now allowing you to take it with you in the field. I would not recommend this pocket edition be the only field guide you use in Australia, unless you are already very familiar with the birds or are just doing some incidental birding. But if you’d like to have a good field guide with you, one that will actually fit in your pocket, this is a great choice.

 

Pocket Guide to Birds of Australia
by Jeff Davies, Peter Menkhorst, Danny Rogers, Rohan Clarke, Peter Marsack, and Kim Franklin
Flexibound; 256 pages
Princeton University Press; February 7, 2023
ISBN: 9780691245492
$27.95

Birds of Southern AfricaBirds of Southern Africa (Fifth Revised Edition)
by Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey, Warwick Tarboton, Niall Perrins, Dominic Rollinson, and Peter Ryan

From Princeton University Press:

A substantially revised and expanded new edition of the bestselling standard field guide for southern Africa, now with a dedicated app providing access to vocalizations

Now in its fifth edition, Birds of Southern Africa has been brought fully up to date by its expert authors and greatly enhanced with a wide range of new information and features. Providing comprehensive coverage of the bird life of South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and southern Mozambique, this comprehensive book is sure to maintain its place as one of Africa’s most trusted field guides.

This fifth edition offers:

  • New “bird-call” feature―access calls by scanning QR codes in the guide with a free downloadable app
  • More than 800 new illustrations, including all-new plates for raptors and seabirds
  • Comprehensive coverage of southern Africa’s birds, including the latest species records
  • Redesigned plates noting identification features
  • Calendar bars depicting species’ occurrence and breeding periods
  • Fully updated species accounts and distribution maps
  • Fresh contributions from new authors and illustrators
  • Alphabetical and illustrated quick references to bird groups

 

This is the latest edition of my favorite field guide to the region. It is newly published in the U.S. as part of the Princeton field guide series, though it was first published in Africa in 2020 (as SASOL Birds of Southern Africa). It seems to have mostly incremental improvements (such as the new plates for raptors and seabirds, which are definitely improved), with the biggest change being the addition of an app to play bird sounds. This revision will be my go-to guide when I return to southern Africa.

 

Birds of Southern Africa (Fifth Revised Edition)
by Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey, Warwick Tarboton, Niall Perrins, Dominic Rollinson, and Peter Ryan
Paperback; 488 pages
Princeton University Press; February 14, 2023
ISBN: 9780691248493
$39.95

Birds: Poetry in the SkyBirds: Poetry in the Sky
by Christian Spencer

From ACC Art Books:

The fascination birds evoke in us continues unabated. Australian artist and photographer Christian Spencer, living in the vicinity of the Brazilian rainforest since 2001, has surrendered to it as well.

“The camera is my brush,” is how he describes his style. His photographs truly capture the poetry of nature, letting its beauty speak for itself — which is why he forgoes any image editing. He was the first to capture the breathtakingly fast beating of hummingbirds’ wings in the sunlight, which forms a rainbow in the air.

The world of birds unfolds before his lens in all its colourful glory and elegance: in reflections on the water, between blossoms and trees, and high above the treetops.

  • Nature as a work of art: birds in their habitat, spectacularly presented in their natural surroundings
  • The award-winning Winged Prism photo series in a coffee table book for the first time
  • For bird lovers and all those looking for an illustrated book that ventures beyond photojournalism and stylised studio shots

Text in English and German.

 

Wow. It’s not often you see something new in bird photography books, but Spencer has given us just that. There are some more standard, though beautiful and well-executed, subjects such as birds in flight and portraits. But the standouts here are a series of backlit hummingbird photos, such as the one that graces the cover. I dare say this book would be worth getting just for those. Highly recommended to anyone who appreciates bird photography.

 

Birds: Poetry in the Sky
by Christian Spencer
Hardcover; 224 pages
ACC Art Books; September, 2022
ISBN: 9783961713882
£39.95