Review Roundup

• The Drinking Bird
• A DC Birding Blog
• Sandpiper’s Place

Birder’s World

• The Young Birder’s Guide to Birds of Eastern North America, by Bill Thompson III
  “Disguises education as fun”. Recommended
• A Birder’s Guide to Southern California, by Brad Schram
  An essential guide to the region. All chapters have been updated from previous editions, and new spots added.
• Birdscaping in the Midwest: A Guide to Gardening with Native Plants to Attract Birds, by Mariette Nowak
  A “treat” for those in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

Birding

• Silence of the Songbirds: How We Are Losing the World’s Songbirds and What We Can Do to Save Them, by Bridget Stutchbury
  “A well-written and comprehensive assessment of conservation issues.”
• Birder’s Conservation Handbook: 100 North American Birds at Risk, by Jeffrey V. Wells
  A great idea, only wishes that it could have been expanded to include more species.
• Albatrosses, Petrels and Shearwaters of the World, by Derek Onley and Paul Scofield
  A “well-crafted and useful field guide” for those in North America, and a must for anyone in the central Pacific and Southern Ocean.
• Birding Oregon, by John Rakestraw
  Useful, but not comprehensive and could be better.

• Birding For Everyone: Encouraging People of Color to Become Birdwatchers – Birdfreak: The Bird Conservation Blog
• Rare Birds Yearbook 2008 – Birdfreak: The Bird Conservation Blog
• How and Why Species Multiply: The Radiation of Darwin’s Finches – Living the Scientific Life

• The Young Birder’s Guide to Birds of Eastern North America (Peterson Field Guides) – Born Again Bird Watcher, 10,000 Birds
• Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America – 10,000 Birds

Bird Watcher’s Digest

• The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide, by Richard Garrigues
  Recommended as “an excellent modern supplement to Stiles and Skutch“.
• Bird: The Definitive Visual Guide, by David Burnie
  An “extremely attractive” coffee table book that the reviewer happily recommends.
• Roger Tory Peterson: A Biography, by Douglas Carlson
  Get to know the man behind the field guide.
• Winged Wonders: A Celebration of Birds in Human History, by Peter Watkins and Jonathan Stockland
  A miscellany that is educational and very enjoyable.
• The Audubon Society Guide to Attracting Birds: Creating Natural Habitats for Properties Large and Small, by Stephen W. Kress
  Highly recommended to everyone who wants to attract birds.

WildBird

• Flights Against the Sunset: Stories that Reunited a Mother and Son, by Kenn Kaufman
  The “great birding stories and a personal touch will appeal to many readers”.
• Finding Your Wings: A Workbook for Beginning Bird Watchers, by Burton S. Guttman
  A great idea, but ultimately disappointing and a missed opportunity.
• Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens, by Douglas W. Tallamy
  This excellent book explains why it is important to include native species on your property.

Winging It

• Marshes: The Disappearing Edens, by William Burt
  A book of “visual poetry and advocacy prose, all evoking the great spectacle and the close-up beauty of a still-threatened habitat”.
• Built by Animals: The Natural History of Animal Architecture, by Mike Hansell
  “A concise and informative introduction to a big subject.”
• Oology and Ralph’s Talking Eggs: Bird Conservation Comes Out of Its Shell, by Carrol L. Henderson

• Flights Against the Sunset: Stories that Reunited a Mother and Son – Hawk Owl’s Nest, 10,000 Birds
• The Young Birder’s Guide to Birds of Eastern North America (Peterson Field Guides) – The Chenango Bird Club, The House & other Arctic musings
• Owls of the United States and Canada: A Complete Guide to Their Biology and Behavior – birdingnet
• Falcon Fever: A Falconer in the Twenty-first Century – Birdchick

Birder’s World

• Finding Your Wings: A Workbook for Beginning Bird Watchers (Peterson Field Guides), by Burton S. Guttman
  Indicates that it should be useful
• Field Guide to Owls of California and the West, by Hans J. Peeters
  “exceptionally useful…especially in the western states” (from what I understand from elsewhere it should in fact be useful to anyone in North America since it does cover all NA owls)
• Rare Birds Yearbook 2008, edited by Erik Hirschfeld

Birding

• The Carolina Parakeet, by Noel F. R. Snyder
  A qualified recommendation
• Parrots: A Guide to Parrots of the World, by Tony Juniper and Mike Parr
  Has much to offer, but would recommend the following over this one
• Parrots of the World: An Identification Guide, by Joseph M. Forshaw
  Not perfect, but “is still the best book ever published on the world’s psittacids (parrots)”
• Birds, Beasts and Bureaucrats, by Herbert, A Raffaele
  Sounds like an interesting book detailing the author’s experiences in Puerto Rico
• Roger Tory Peterson: A Biography, by Douglas Carlson
  “worth a serious read if you want insight into Peterson the man, his times, and his influence”

• Good Birders Don’t Wear White – Birdfreak: The Bird Conservation Blog
• Finding Your Wings – The House and other Arctic Musings
• The Life of the Skies – 10,000 Birds

• The Big Twitch – The Hawk Owl’s Nest
• Birds of Peru – birdingnet
• Finding Your Wings: A Workbook for Beginning Bird Watchers – Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
• The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature – Birdfreak: The Bird Conservation Blog

Bird Watcher’s Digest

• National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Birds of North America, by Edward S. Brinkley
  Highly recommended by the reviewer. I happen to agree – it is worth having as a supplemental photographic field guide.
• Whose Bird? Common Bird Names and the People They Commemorate, by Bo Beolens
  “A delightful reference, and a great way to learn about ornithological history”
• Wingscapes BirdCam
  An enthusiastic review of this inventive device. It’s getting rave reviews around the internet, and has me intrigued.

Living Bird

• Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding, by Scott Weidensaul
  The Life of the Skies, by Jonathan Rosen
  The reviewer sees these as complementary, as both deal with the history of birding, and recommends them both.
  Both reviews are currently available in full online at the Living Bird website: Of a Feather; The Life of the Skies
• Wingscapes BirdCam
  And another thumbs-up for this product.

WildBird

• National Geographic Birding Essentials, by Jonathan Alderfer and Jon L. Dunn
  This “great introduction to the fundamentals of birding” gets a good recommendation.
• Fifty Places to Go Birding Before You Die: Birding Experts Share The World’s Greatest Destinations, by Chris Santella
  “A fun account of a number of the world’s premier birding destinations.”
• Oology and Ralph’s Talking Eggs: Bird Conservation Comes Out of Its Shell, by Carrol L. Henderson
  Deals with oology (egg collecting), and its connection with conservation. Would be of interest to those interested in birding’s history, but the text is “interesting but a bit laborious”.