Reading Now - Category Archive

Several good bird books have been published lately, of which here are a few. I’m planning to do full reviews for all of these, but thought I’d go ahead and present some brief thoughts (especially since I don’t write nearly as fast as I wish I did).

• The Private Lives of Birds: A Scientist Reveals the Intricacies of Avian Social Life
  Bridget Stutchbury

  This book provides birders a glimpse into the ornithologist’s world. The author investigates the habits of birds in regard to mating, parenting, territoriality, migration, and more. But she does more than just present the facts; she explains the studies that were done to discover those facts. This is a great introduction to the lives of birds. Even experienced birders will learn something new.

• Peterson Reference Guide to Molt in North American Birds
  Steve N.G. Howell

  Molt is an intimidating topic, but one that is important for birders to understand. Howell first gives an extensive introduction to molt, and then describes the molting patterns for each family of North American birds. Honestly, I was surprised to find that all of the family accounts were worth reading; you never know what fascinating tidbits you may uncover, like the possibility that Bullock’s X Baltimore Oriole hybrids are selected against because they could be molting twice in the fall instead of just once. Personally, I understand molt much better now, and can see myself referring back to this guide often. Highly recommended to intermediate-to-advanced birders.

• Birds of Cape May
  Kevin T. Karlson

  Essentially a large-format photo album, this book showcases the birds of Cape May, New Jersey season by season. Karlson, an excellent photographer, provides most of the photos along with short captions. Recommended to those who’d like a good souvenir or reminder of a trip to this birding hotspot, or to any fan of bird photography in general.

• Nightjars, Potoos, Frogmouths, Oilbird, and Owlet-nightjars of the World
  Nigel Cleere

  This large, lavish book is a photographic guide to an intriguing group of birds. Just the fact that this book includes photos of every known member of this nocturnal and secretive group is amazing enough (though some, by necessity, are of museum specimens), but they’re also of very high quality and huge! Most birds are shown perched or roosting, there are few in-flight shots, unfortunately. A range map and terse text covering the species’ identification and natural history round out each account. This certainly won’t appeal to everyone, but caprimulgid fans should love it.

• Birds of the West Indies (Princeton Illustrated Checklists)
  Norman Arlott

  The guides in this “illustrated checklists” series are more than merely bound checklists with illustrations, yet less than a full field-guide. Still, a good bit of information is included in this portable book. With painted plates on the right-hand pages and text on the left, the design is certainly typical for field guides. It does include range maps, but unfortunately, they are all gathered together in the back. I haven’t yet extensively compared this to the identically named field guide by Herbert Raffaele. From my cursory examinations, I can’t unilaterally recommend one over the other right now.

• Birds of Australia: Eighth Edition
  Ken Simpson and Nicolas Day

  I don’t have any other Australian field guides to compare this against (except the prior edition of this guide!), nor have I ever been anywhere near Down Under. So I’m no authority here, but this is one good-looking field guide! Maybe it’s all the exotic-looking birds, but the plates (again on the right-hand page) are gorgeous. Text accounts, small black-and-white drawings, and very informative range maps accompany the paintings. For a field guide covering an avifauna about the same size as the US and Canada’s, this is a fairly compact book, making it possible to carry in the field. Take this with a grain of salt, given my lack of experience with this region, but if you’re looking for an Australian field guide, this is a legitimate choice.

I had intended to regularly post about what I’m reading and reviewing, but I just noticed that I haven’t done so since last July. Where has the time gone? I guess that’s what happens when you have a newborn around. Convenient excuse? Yes. But the cutest, most adorable excuse I can imagine

Here’s what I’m currently reading and/or reviewing:

• The Breeding Bird Atlas of Georgia
  Todd M. Schneider, Giff Beaton, Timothy S. Keyes, and Nathan A. Klaus

  Finally, my home state has its own Breeding Bird Atlas. It was worth the wait. Anyone who birds extensively in Georgia should get a copy.

• Afield: Forty Years of Birding the American West
  Alan Contreras

  Part memoir, but mostly just good writing about birding.

• Birding the Great Lakes Seaway Trail

  A guide to birding spots found along the Great Lakes Seaway Trail, which runs along the shorelines of the Great Lakes in Pennsylvania and New York.

• Petrels Night and Day
  Magnus Robb, Killian Mullarney, and The Sound Approach

  A guide to the tubenoses of the Northeast Atlantic. All the reviews that I’ve read have been glowing in their praise for this book, and I can see why. It has a little of everything – cutting edge investigation of species limits, travelogue, identification plates, and, naturally, sounds.

I hate that I haven’t done many reviews lately, but between work and other things it’s been pretty busy lately. Of course, since one of those “other things” is our first child that will be arriving in September, I’m not sure when I’ll get any more time!

But to help fill in the gaps, I’m going to start regularly posting about the book(s) that I’m currently reading. These will be what I will be reviewing next, so it’s kind of like a preview. Here’s what I’m currently working on:

• Birdsong by the Seasons: A Year of Listening to Birds
  Donald Kroodsma

  The author’s previous book, The Singing Life of Birds, is probably the best birdsong for birders book out there. This new one is more of a supplement – instead of teaching about the science of birdsong, it extols the wonder of it. If you enjoy listening to birds, then you will love this book.

• The Prairie Keepers: Secrets of the Zumwalt
  Marcy Houle

  I loved the author’s prior work, Wings for My Flight: The Peregrine Falcons of Chimney Rock, so I was looking forward to reading this as well. So far, it is not disappointing me. I’m blazing through this account of the author’s time spent uncovering the secrets of one of the last (relatively) unspoiled prairies in North America.

• Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds
  Trevor Herriot

  I’ve actually just finished this one. This is an interesting, and extremely well-written, look at one of our most threatened ecosystems – grasslands. Anyone interested in prairie birds and/or conservation should read this. For a unique visual look at the book’s various subjects, check out Trevor Herriot’s blog.