Field Guides

Birdwatchers can never have enough field guides (to the delight of publishers everywhere). I’m not going too far out on a limb when I say that the only way either of these wouldn’t be a hit is if the recipient already has a copy.

• National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Sixth Edition
  Jon L. Dunn and Jonathan Alderfer

  The National Geographic guide has long been considered one of the best North American field guides, and with this new sixth edition is updated and improved. It’s perfect for any birder, from beginner to expert.

• The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds
  Richard Crossley

  The Crossley guide is one of the most beautiful and innovative guides to come along in a while. The only problem is that it’s been out almost a year now, so many may already have it. But if they don’t, it’s worth having for anyone interested in North American birds.

For Children

• For the Birds: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson
  Peggy Thomas (Author) and Laura Jacques (Illustrator)

  This book is worth sharing just for the gorgeous illustrations. But it also tells the story of Roger Tory Peterson’s life, while encouraging children to pay attention to nature and the birds around them. That makes this the perfect gift for kids ages eight and up.

For more suggestions for kids, please see this list of Children’s Bird Books.

Other Books

• Avian Architecture: How Birds Design, Engineer, and Build
  Peter Goodfellow

  One of my favorite books this year, Avian Architecture not only shows the various kinds of nests birds make, but how they make them. Just take a look at all the cool stuff it includes!

• The Birds of America
  John James Audubon

  No birder’s library is complete without a copy of Audubon’s masterpiece. At the current price ($42.01 as I’m writing this), this is a bargain, and recommended for those who don’t have the room (on shelf or in the budget) for the larger, more expensive baby elephant folio edition.

• The Atlas of Birds: Diversity, Behavior, and Conservation
  Mike Unwin

  This attractive, well-designed book presents a LOT of information about all the kinds of birds, how and where they live, and their conservation. While any birder can learn from it, it is perfect for someone just getting into birds.

• Arctic Autumn: A Journey to Season’s Edge
  Pete Dunne

  One of birding’s best authors takes us to the northern edge of the continent. Although not all (or even mostly) about birds, it’s still a very good read that any birdwatcher will likely enjoy.

Want a copy for free? Then join the American Birding Association (or renew if you’re already a member). The first person to forward me proof of joining gets the book. Just email me the confirmation email from the ABA (with any payment information removed, of course). For it to count, you need to join/renew after this is posted on my site.

Why the ABA? I’ve been a member for a while now, and feel strongly that they have something to offer any North American birder – beginner to expert. Right now, that’s mostly in the form of their wonderful publications. But I also believe they have a strong potential to advocate for birders. For them to do that, though, they need members. The organization has been in a rough patch recently, but they seem to be headed in the right direction now under the leadership of a new president.

A tip of the hat to the Birdchick podcast for planting the idea for this in my head.

The Birder’s Library has another copy of The Great Penguin Rescue to give away.

To enter this time, go to the North American Birding Forum and reply to this thread. The contest ends Saturday, December 18th, at midnight eastern.

Good luck!

Thanks to Little, Brown and Company and Free Press, respectively, I have copies of The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America and The Great Penguin Rescue to give away.

How to win: Simply “Like” the Birder’s Library page on Facebook. Make sure you do so by Sunday, December 5. On Sunday evening I’ll choose one of the page’s fans at random to win a copy of BOTH books, and a second one to get The Great Penguin Rescue.

If you don’t have a Facebook account, never fear, there will be another way to win. Keep watch for more details.

If someone from outside the US or Canada wins, you may have to help out on the shipping, depending on how much it costs. (Sorry)

Good luck!!

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.

• 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.

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.

• 

  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

• 

  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.