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Earlier today, Corey of 10,000 Birds posed some interesting questions about bird books. You should head over there and read the entire thing, but it basically boils down to: why do we birders have so many books about birds?

Besides the obvious answer that it allows crazy, obsessive types the excuse to create entire websites devoted to them, it’s a good question. Of course, you have to start with field guides. We legitimately need them for identification, and since birders tend to travel all over the place the field guides can really pile up. But even then, we aren’t satisfied with just one field guide. We need a guide that utilizes paintings as well as one that uses photographs, a larger guide that encompasses the entire continent and smaller regional guides, all-encompassing guides and family-specific ones.

But even so, field guides make up a relatively small portion of my birding library. So why have all the rest? Corey postulates two reasons, and both apply in my case. The first is that I want to learn all I can about birds. That includes how to identify them, obviously. But I also want to know about their biology and behavior. Birds are endlessly fascinating; you can read all you want but you’ll never know it all. Three of the books I’ve read recently have dealt with this, and I learned many interesting things from each one (National Geographic Bird Coloration, The Private Lives of Birds, and Molt in North American Birds).

The other reason Corey gives why birders may be such bibliophiles is that we tend to be a bit obsessive. We have lists for everything else, why not books we’ve read? This is definitely me. I’ve always been a collector. As a kid, it was Star Wars and Batman toys, baseball cards, and comic books. Now it’s bird books (as well as movie, comic, and baseball memorabilia – I don’t think I’ll ever grow up). I’ve wondered if my collector’s mentality is one of the things that attracted me to birding in the first place. Listing is, after all, just another word for collecting.

The final reason that I think I have so many bird books is that I simply enjoy reading about birds and birding, beyond reading for knowledge. I love big year-type accounts and other birding narratives. You’d think that reading about someone else birding would be the most boring thing in the world, but I devour it. I’d wager that the appeal of the numerous bird-art books is readily apparent. And then there’s anything written by Pete Dunne…you get the point.

I don’t think I ever stood a chance. My predisposition to collect, life-long love of reading, and the fact that a bird book got me into birding all conspired to make me a bird book lover. I’m glad that I’m not the only one.

I feel bad for not having posted much lately, everything’s just been so busy. But at least there are a couple of guys out there working hard to bring you news and information on some books….

• Jack Holloway has been feverishly updating his Avian Books site. He has been going through his extensive listings, updating them with scans and excerpts from the book, and adding brief notes. He has a TON of books listed. If you’re looking for books on a particular geographic region or subject, check out his site and you’ll likely find what you’re looking for.
• Ian Paulsen summarizes new and upcoming natural history titles in his The Birdbooker Report. This is a good place to go to see what’s new.

… 20 pages of bird book review-ey goodness! That’s right, the latest issue of Birding, the magazine of the American Birding Association (ABA), contains reviews of 12 books, covering a total of 20 pages.

And I wish I could write reviews as well as these people do.

Of course, this issue is an aberration; apparently, there was a backlog of reviews to be published and the editor decided to make this a special issue. Most issues usually review “just” 2-4 books.

In addition to all of these reviews, you also get in-depth looks at Harlan’s and Krider’s Red-tailed Hawks, a great article by Donald Kroodsma (author of The Singing Life of Birds and Birdsong by the Seasons), and more.

I subscribe to ten or so bird-related publications. Birding is the one I look forward to the most. If you are not a member of the ABA, I would urge you to join. I consider it worthwhile just to receive Birding, but you’ll also get the Winging It newsletter (also a great publication), while also supporting conservation programs.

The Birder’s Library is proud to team up with the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club to give away two great books – Falcons of North America and Prairie Spring: A Journey Into the Heart of a Season.

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  Falcons, by Kate Davis, is an overview of the biology and ecology of these charismatic birds, focusing on the six North American species. Accompanying the text is a ton of incredible photos, some of which are just unbelievable. Full Review

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  Prairie Spring is another great read from Pete Dunne. Dunne takes the reader along on a tour of the North American prairie in spring. Dunne is one of my favorite authors, and does not disappoint here. Full Review. Note: this is an advance reading copy paperback.

So how can you win them?

1. Be a member of the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club
2. Follow the instructions here

Membership in the Conservation Club costs $25 per year. Back in December, I wrote about the benefits of joining the Club. This is a great way for birders to do something to help birds in trouble. Plus, you get to enter great contests like this one! They’ve already given away over a dozen prizes, and have even more contests open right now. If you win just one contest, you’ll get your money’s worth. And even if not, you’ll be supporting a very innovative approach to help out worthy causes, namely the birds that we all love.

…I’ll finally be able to post my review of Birding from the Hip. I’d hoped to have done so last week, but computer problems keep popping up. If it weren’t for computers I wouldn’t have my job, but still, they can aggravate me to no end. In the meantime, just wanted to mention that I really enjoyed the book, and think it’s well worth a read.

Another thing that’s well worthwhile are the Watching Warblers and Watching Warblers WEST DVDs from Birdfilms. The video footage is just amazing; it blew me away. A full review is forthcoming. That is, if I can thwart my computer’s evil plans.

Huh? That would have been my reaction a couple years ago to the concept of birding and social media. Sure, I used some listservs and forums to get birding news, but the idea that Facebook could be useful for birders would have been laughable.

Not anymore. Social media – Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and the like – has been extremely useful for other industries and groups, and birding is no different.

If you’d like to find out what this social media thing is all about, and how it can be helpful to you as a birder, then you’re in luck. Gunnar Engblom has long been championing its use to birders, and he has now put together a 31 day Social Media workshop for birders.

The workshop is free, and will take the form of posts on his blog. I’m really looking forward to this, I’ve been needing a push to get off my butt and sign up on Twitter!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and that this new year will be full of new birds!

I had intended to use my time off work to finish some reviews, but between the holidays, out of town trips, and computer problems, that hasn’t really worked out. The computer issues especially may keep me from doing much until next week. Well, at least I can keep reading (and keep getting even further behind!).

I don’t normally post about things unrelated to bird books and other media. But sometimes an occasion or opportunity pops up that I just have to mention (like the recently created 10,000 Birds Conservation Club). This is such opportunity – after all, what birder wouldn’t want a free trip to Peru?

Gunnar Engblom of Kolibri Expeditions is indeed giving away multiple free birding trips to Peru. One of the reasons is obvious, he wants to generate publicity so that his trips fill up. But it goes much beyond that. The two itineraries included in this promotion (one to Manu, universally regarded as one of the best birding spots on the planet) were designed to bring eco-tourism to the native communities. Thus, the group stays in locally run lodges to promote a sustainable alternative to logging, mining, and oil exploitation. So, not only will you be seeing some fantastic birds, you will be helping to preserve their habitat at the same time.

So what do you need to do? Easy:

1. Sign up for the Kolibri Expeditions email newsletter.
2. Tell people about the contest. Blog about it (like I’m doing here), tweet it, post it on facebook, digg it, email your birding buddies, anything.

That’s basically it. But check out Gunnar’s post to get all the details:

Free Birding Trips to Peru

And even if you don’t participate (and why wouldn’t you?), check out Gunnar’s excellent blog. But then again, maybe you shouldn’t. Seeing all of those wonderful Peruvian birds is bound to change your mind and make you want to get to Peru as soon as possible!

If you’re reading this, I assume that you enjoy reading about birds. I certainly do, it’s why I started this site. But underlying that is a basic enjoyment of birds themselves. They bring alot of joy into my life. But the sad fact is that they’re in trouble. If we want to have birds around for ourselves and our children, then we need to actually do something.

But what can I do, you may be asking? There are specific things you can do, as well as great organizations you can join. And everyone who loves birds should do those things. But it can be hard to see how personal actions like recycling, and joining large conservation groups actually helps. It would be great if there was something we could do that has a tangible, demonstrative benefit for birds that really need our help.

The guys at the 10,000 Birds blog have created just such a thing – the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club. It costs $25 US (or the equivalent in another currency) per year, and that entire amount (minus necessary expenses – the founders aren’t keeping a dime for themselves) goes toward the conservation of threatened birds. The members can even help direct where the money is spent!

And if that wasn’t enough, they have also lined up some great giveaways available only to Conservation Club members. The first such giveaway is a set of all three Sound Approach books. All three are fantastic books that any birder would love. Honestly, if I didn’t already have them, I would have joined just to enter this contest!

And there will be more giveaways throughout the year. But it’s worth joining just for the fact that you know that your money is going directly to help threatened species, and that you will have a voice in how it is actually spent. I’ve already joined, and if you enjoy having birds around, you should consider it as well.

Some of you may have seen a cryptic post earlier today titled “Books for Beginning Birders”, but containing only some text saying “coming soon…”. Sorry about that, I was trying to get a shell of a page up quickly, and, well…it’s been a long day.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that it has been updated, and should be correct now. So, if you haven’t seen it, here are some Books for Beginning Birders.