This could have been my easiest, shortest review yet:

Arctic Autumn is the latest book from Pete Dunne. You should read it.

I wouldn’t even have to read the book! But, while true, I suppose that wouldn’t be a very satisfactory book review. And I did really want to read it. So here’s a bit more…

Arctic Autumn: A Journey to Season’s Edge is the latest book in Pete Dunne’s exploration of the seasons and place. It follows Prairie Spring and Bayshore Summer, but these books can be read in any order.

The story opens on Bylot Island in Nunavut, Canada, on the summer solstice. Yes, as Dunne points out, that is technically the first day of summer, not autumn. But when you’re that far north (see for yourself), “autumn comes early and surrenders quickly”. The journey ends in November finding Dunne and his wife on a Polar Bear photography tour in Churchill, Manitoba.

In between, we join Dunne as he rafts through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, attempts to meet up with migrating Caribou, birds St. Lawrence Island, and hunts Caribou. Through these travels, Dunne provides vivid glimpses of the Alaskan and Canadian arctic and its wildlife. This includes birds, of course, but also the mammals that, perhaps even more so, characterize this special place.

But Arctic Autumn is more than “just” about arctic wildlife. It also presents other, mainly human, sides of the arctic and introduces us to people who live there along with their historical and cultural background. It’s sad that a book like this wouldn’t be complete without also looking at the human impact on this not-as-remote-as-it-seems environment. Dunne doesn’t shy away from this, discussing the controversial subjects of oil exploration and climate change. He does this in a remarkably even-handed and practical manner.

Until the last chapter, the book had been good, but something was missing: Dunne had yet to have his “conversation”. If you’ve read the first entries in this series you most certainly know what I’m referring to. Arguably, it works much better in this book, where it frames the perfect conclusion to this chapter in the series. I’d go into more detail, but I think it best if you experience it for yourself. I’ll just include one particular quote that spoke to me. It’s one of the main issues that Dunne seems to be taking on in these books:

Most of the members of my species are too distracted and estranged to recognize, much less care about, the natural endowment that supports them, and the interconnectedness that binds them. Polar bears in the Arctic are far less pertinent than getting the car through inspection, making the monthly mortgage payment, or deciding what color to paint the kitchen.

So how do we break free of our distractions? Explore. As Dunne exhorts: “break with the routine of your life and set off to explore the world beyond your own…” This book, and the series as a whole, makes me want to do just that.

Recommendation

Arctic Autumn may not be the best in this series (for me, it’s still Prairie Spring), but it will inform, entertain, and – hopefully and most importantly – open your eyes a little to the natural world and your role in it.

In other words: Arctic Autumn. Pete Dunne. Read it.

I’m sad to say that this book marks the end of the series; the concluding volume on winter will not be published. (At least from this publisher, although I hope that Dunne can eventually get it published somewhere.) The series, although sadly incomplete, is still very much worth reading. Dunne seeks to instill a passion for nature and an appreciation that we are inextricably connected to it. This is a vital ambition, and I believe that he has successfully done that in this series.

When A Field Guide to the Birds was published in 1934, I doubt that anyone, including the author, even considered that it would still be around over 75 years later. But even though it has gone through many changes, Roger Tory Peterson’s field guide is still here and still relevant. And now it has made the transition into the digital realm as the Peterson Birds of North America app.

Platform

Peterson Birds of North America is an app that runs on the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad devices. It is a “universal” app, meaning that it is designed specifically to run on the smaller iPhone/iPod as well as the larger iPad. No, no Android version yet.

For this review, I used the app on an iPhone 3GS.

Content

Most of this app’s content – including the art, range maps, and species text – is from Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America. The app contains just about the entire print guide, with the main exception being Peterson’s famous silhouettes. This review will not focus on the content itself, but rather its presentation, as I’ve discussed most of the content in other reviews. Please refer to my review of the Peterson field guide for more information on what you can expect here.

However, I do need to point out that the Peterson app also incorporates information from seven other books in the Peterson Field Guide series: the eastern and western guides to Birds’ Nests, Molt in North American Birds, Feeder Birds of Eastern North America, and family guides to Hawks, Hummingbirds, and Warblers. This is a very welcome, and useful, bonus.

Interface

When you start the app, you’re greeted with icons of various bird groups – Chickenlike Birds, Diurnal Birds of Prey, Warblers, etc – in taxonomic order. However, this home screen is customizable; you can move the icons around in any order you like, and even add your own searches and lists.

Home screen

Browse by group

Tapping the Browse button on the toolbar brings up more ways to find birds. Groups is the same groupings as on the home screen, but without icons and in alphabetical order. Quickfind is an alphabetic list of birds’ “last names” (i.e. Trogon, Veery, Violoet-ear), mimicking the so-called quickfind index included in many print guides. Taxonomy and Species lists all the included species in taxonomic or alphabetical order, respectively.

Quickfind

Browse by species

Search

Search screen

Plates and Species Accounts

The Peterson app uses the plates from the print guide as its main interface. You can enlarge the artwork as well as turn the pointers and labels on or off. In a neat effect, tapping on an individual bird will “focus” on it by making the rest of the plate appear out-of-focus, and double-tapping will do the same thing while zooming in on that bird. Swiping left or right will change plates, just as if you were flipping pages in the book.

Full plate view

Plate with overlay

You can view the plates with or without the control overlay. The button on the top-right will switch to the text descriptions of each bird on the plate (and from there you can access the family account from the Molt reference guide). The buttons along the bottom do the following (from left to right):

Range maps

• Sound – plays a sound recording (only if a bird is “selected”)
• Toggles on and off the pointers and captions
• Displays the range maps for the birds on the plate
• Record a sighting of the selected bird
• Check off the bird on one of your lists
• Go to the species account

The species account shows an enlarged illustration of the bird, with a swipable series of illustrations along the bottom to select from. Every illustration of the bird from the guide is included here, even when they are on different plates. As on the plate screen, the top-right button will bring up the text, but it is greatly expanded here. In addition to all the text from the Peterson field guide (description, voice, habitat, and similar species), you get the species’ text from the Feeder Birds and Birds’ Nests books. And for hawks, hummingbirds, and warblers, you will find the text accounts from those Peterson guides as well.

Species detail screen

Species text

The buttons along the bottom of the species screen are slightly different (from left to right):

• Sound – tapping toggles the sound on/off
• Illustrations
• Range map
• Photo of the bird’s nest, if available (from Birds’ Nests)
• Quick Facts
• Similar species

Due to all of the sources used, this app includes a large amount of information, more than most similar apps. However, the Peterson app is very lacking when it comes to sounds. Tapping the speaker button will start playback, and the app will play through the recording for the species and then stop. It does not display any information, such as the length of the recording. Even more importantly, the sound selection is extremely limited. For instance, the distinctive calls of Eastern Towhee and Scarlet Tanager are not included, just their songs. A more extensive selection of sounds – including calls and vocalizations from different regions – is needed, along with a graphical interface displaying information about the sound being played.

The art, especially the entire plates, looks great on the screen. However, it did take me a while to get used to the interface and where to find particular information. I also found the overlay on the plates to be annoying. When present, it partially covers the plate. But when it disappears (which it does after a couple seconds), you have no way of going back to the home screen or accessing the other screens without bringing it back. It adds up to a lot of extra tapping.

Lists

To me, this is the best feature of the Peterson app. Like most other bird guide apps, Peterson will allow you to record sightings and keep a life list. But these are very rudimentary, you would be much better off using a dedicated app for listing. No, the real power is being able to create and import your own lists.

User-created list

County list with eBird abundance data

A list in this app is like a playlist for mp3’s – a shortcut to the birds you’ve selected. This would be extremely useful when birding in a new location. Simply create a list of the new birds you might find and you now have a quick, handy reference. You can also share these lists with other Peterson app users. Field trip leaders, for example, can create a list of expected birds and share it with participants.

You can also import some ready-made lists from the Peterson app’s Bird Finder site. They have lists for every county in the U.S. and Canada, as well as all the eBird hotspots. These lists also include abundance information in the form of bar graphs, with the data pulled from eBird.

Extras

Under the Extras button on the home screen you can find help on using the app, as well as material from the introductions of various Peterson guides. The entire introduction from the Peterson field guide is contained here, as well as topics from the Feeder Birds book. The most surprising inclusion is the entire text from Molt in North American Birds, which is a highly recommended reference on the subject.

However, with few exceptions, only the text from Molt and the other books is included, not any photographs or other illustrations. This means that, while it’s nice to have the information here, this app will not fully obviate the need to have these other books. The only exceptions are the photos of birds’ nests and the Warbler Undertail Patterns plate from the Warbler guide. I’m very glad to see the latter included, as it is one of the best features of that guide.

Issues

Here are a few issues with this app that have been reported or that I encountered:

• When viewing the plates in landscape mode, you can’t scroll smoothly, making it hard to view some illustrations
• Some range maps of common species are missing (i.e. Swainson’s Hawk, Red-headed Woodpecker)
• The text for some plates omits the very first species heading, making it a little confusing
• The sections from the Molt book are presented in alphabetical order instead of their order in the book, making it much more confusing if you want to read through the book.

All apps have issues like these, and none are serious. The most important thing is not how problem-free an app is, but how quickly the developers fix them. So far, I’ve found Appweaver very responsive, and would not be surprised if many of these things are corrected in short order (and maybe by the time that you’re reading this).

Free Feeder Birds Version

It’s hard to convey in words, or even pictures, the feel of using an app. Honestly, the best way to decide if an app is for you or not is to use it. Thankfully, you can do that with the Peterson app, even before you buy it. Peterson Feeder Birds of North America is a free, “lite” version of this app. It focuses on backyard and feeder birds, and thus contains 162 species (as opposed to 810 in the full app). But other than the species selection, it is identical to the full-featured one, even including support for lists and the full complement of “extras”.

Recommendation

The Peterson Birds of North America app does a good job of presenting the Peterson field guide, as well as many other sources from the Peterson guide series, in a digital format. If Peterson is your primary guide, then this app is a great way to carry it with you wherever you go. It would also be a good choice for beginners, as the Peterson print guide has always been beginner-friendly, and the ability to see entire plates at once is great.

Otherwise, I would not especially recommend this app for the iPhone over the other apps available. The iPad, however, is a different story. I have not personally used it on the iPad, but from what I’ve seen the larger screen really allows the app to breath and the artwork to be better appreciated. If you have an iPad, you should strongly consider this app, especially if you don’t have the latest print version of the Peterson field guide. And at the current (perhaps limited time) price of $14.99, it’s a no-brainer considering all the extra features that you get.

I can’t believe it’s been five years since the publication of the fifth edition of the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America! But it has, which apparently means it is time for the sixth edition. This venerable guide, first published in 1983, has long been considered one of this continent’s best field guides. Does this latest one continue that trend, or is it a superfluous update?

This review will start with an overview of the guide, its structure, and features. In this regard, it does not differ greatly from its predecessors. So if you’re already familiar with this guide’s previous incarnations, you may want to first check out this list of changes from the 5th edition, and then skim ahead to the evaluation.

Plates

The NatGeo guide follows the now-usual plan of illustrations on the right-hand page, with text and range map on the facing page. The plates consist of paintings from 21(!) artists. With that many contributors, you expect a mishmash of styles. That is the case here, both between pages and even within the same plate. Thankfully, most plates, despite the varying styles, are of very high quality. Many of the illustrations are updated or completely redone with each new edition, and those redone for this sixth edition are a clear improvement. Most of the problematic plates from before are now among the best in the guide (i.e. the Spizella sparrows). There are still some plates that need work (like the vireos), but I suppose they have to leave something for the inevitable seventh edition!

A good amount of variation within species is illustrated, including sex, age, seasonal, and regional differences, as appropriate. Each is clearly labeled, including subspecies names, which is very welcome. Additionally, the illustrations are annotated with field marks, a la the Sibley and Collins guides. I love this feature, as it clearly draws attention to the most important characteristics to look for on a bird, and is a great use of space.

Species Accounts

• Name – English and scientific
• Size – length for all species and wingspan for some; in inches and centimeters
• Notes – identification information, including plumage descriptions and behavior
• Voice – description of song and calls
• Range – habitat, abundance, and other information that can’t be shown on a map

The identification information is extensive, but not exhaustive, as the authors focus on the most important characteristics. The descriptions are largely the same as in the prior edition, but the voice and range sections have, on average, been expanded. Many non-passerines, such as shorebirds and gulls, have a voice description for the first time.

Range Maps

All but a few introduced or rarely occurring birds have a range map, including many that did not in the fifth edition. They are large (for a field guide) and zoomed in appropriately for limited ranges. Many also continue well south into Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, showing much more of the bird’s entire range than most other field guides. Distinct colors illustrate permanent, breeding, winter, and migration ranges, with dotted lines showing the extent of irregular occurrence. All of this is good, but it is two features unique among current North American field guides that make these maps stand out: distinct colors for spring, fall, and both-way migration, and subspecies names and boundaries.

The extra detail on migration is very helpful, but it is the subspecies information that excites me the most. The maps of 59 birds with multiple subspecies are marked to show the ranges of the constituent subspecies. And if this weren’t enough, there is a separate section in the back of the book with larger and even more detailed maps for 37 additional species.

In most cases, if I were to say that the range maps are the best thing about a field guide, it would be a sign that I was struggling to find something good to say about it. Well, I have no shortage of good things to say about this edition of the National Geographic guide, and the range maps just may be the best thing about it. In fact, it may be worth buying for the maps alone!

Other Features

National Geographic includes all the birds that have been recorded in North America north of Mexico – 990 in all. 92 of these are found in an illustrated list of accidental and extinct species at the end of the book. Along with a single illustration, details of the species’ occurrence and a brief description of appearance is included.

An eight-page introduction describes the plan of the book, gives some tips for better birding, and presents diagrams illustrating the parts of a bird, among other things.

The navigation options have been expanded and improved. The seven thumbtabs for major families have been retained from the previous volume. A “quick find index” on the inside-front cover flap lists birds’ “last name” in alphabetical order. Additionally, a visual index to bird families is printed on the inside of the front and back covers.

Issues

The only issue I have with this guide is not specific to this particular guide, but rather with field guides as a whole – slavery to taxonomic order. Most North American field guides follow the species order prescribed by the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) rather closely, at least to the level of family and genus. NatGeo6 is no exception, incorporating the latest changes from the AOU at the time of publication. Most of these changes are to a species’ scientific name, which of course should be kept up-to-date in field guides. But some groups have been moved around. If you want to check out a longspur, for example, you would no longer look after the sparrows (their usual place in field guides since before I’ve been birding), but before the warblers. How does this help birders, especially new ones? More and more, I think field guides should stick to a standard sequence designed to help birders identify birds.

But this review is not the place for such a discussion. And if this is my main issue, that can only be a good thing!

Changes

The sixth edition of the National Geographic guide is not a mere cosmetic change. Dunne and Alderfer have done much more than incorporate the latest AOU updates, add a new species or two, and slightly change the cover. Again, here is a detailed list of changes. This guide is clearly an improvement over the previous edition, even more so than the fifth was better than the fourth.

Recommendation

National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Sixth Edition is a great guide. In my review of the fifth edition I qualified my recommendation, especially for owners of a prior edition. Not so with the sixth – it belongs in every birder’s library! From beginner to expert, it will be useful to any birder. And for those interested in geographic variation, it is a must.

Birding is all about finding and identifying birds. Plenty has been written about the last part of that equation, the identification step. But what about finding the birds? Sure, there are bird-finding guides that tell you where and when to go and what birds you can expect there. But what happens when you get there? You can’t simply drive up to a birding hotspot, pull out the site’s checklist, and add all the birds found thereon to your life list. No, you still have to find the birds that are supposedly there. In The Art of Bird Finding, Pete Dunne explains just how to do that.

He starts with our innate bird-detecting skills. The good news is that even the most bumbling and oblivious among us is still a “bird-finding machine”. We just need to be aware of this built-in ability, hone it, and intentionally bring it to bear on our surroundings.

Next up are some fundamental principles. Dunne covers everything from how to look to how to walk to what to wear. Some of these are (or should be) common sense, and you may have read some elsewhere (i.e. don’t wear white). But others will likely be new to you, such as some great tips on how to approach birds more closely. Most of the things covered are general in nature, but a few are quite specific, such as how to see a Sprague’s Pipit.

Of course, no book about finding birds would be complete without a discussion of seasonality and weather systems, so Dunne dutifully covers these things as well, especially how they impact migration (fallout!). Finally, the author gives a brief introduction to finding birds on new horizons: hawkwatching and pelagic trips. I particularly appreciate the latter, where Dunne tells how to look for seabirds and even where to position yourself on the boat.

The Art of Bird Finding is a small book, but contains just about everything you could want to know on the subject. The only thing I thought was missing was a more detailed explanation of how to forecast migration and interpret weather maps (similar to this). Oh, and an index would have been nice.

Some parts of this book may be familiar to long-time readers of Dunne, as they are based upon topics he has covered in previous articles and books, especially Pete Dunne on Bird Watching. Actually, this (as well as The Art of Pishing) feels like a supplement to that wonderful birding instructional guide. But that’s not a bad thing.

With Dunne penning it, there is no danger of this book being dull or dry. His trademark wit makes this a fun, as well as informative, read.

Recommendation

The Art of Bird Finding admirably fills a gapping hole in the birding literature. While even experts will likely learn a thing or two from Dunne, this is highly recommended to beginner and intermediate birders. Well, only if they want to find more birds.

When I first saw the description of The Birding Life: A Passion for Birds at Home and Afield, I was intrigued. The author describes it as “an effort to capture not just the experience of bird watching in all its insouciance, diversity, and surprise, but also to show how devotees of the species reveal the depths of their passion in their homes and haunts”. Wait…”in their homes and haunts”? Is this going to be a birder’s Better Homes and Gardens? Causing further concern is the fact that this is the latest in a series of similar books from this authorial team (the others are about dogs, hunting and fishing, angling, and gardening). They may be well practiced at this kind of book, but will (presumably) non-birders be able to capture the experience of birding?

The Birding Life starts strongly with a prologue that jumps right into the midst of the birding scene, recounting the author’s experiences on a field trip during the Potholes and Prairie Birding Festival in North Dakota (one I’ve got to get to someday!). I must admit that Sheehan (the writer of the book’s text), even though we come to confirm that he is not a birder, does a good job capturing the excitement and “looniness” (his term, obviously chosen for the play on words, honestly isn’t that far off) of birding.

Similarly, interspersed throughout the book are “field trips” to Central Park, High Island, and Magee Marsh. These are short tours through the location that describe what birds you may see and why they are so important to birds (and birders). This pains me to admit, but I’ve never been to any of these hotspots (I’ve driven through High Island in early April, before all the migrants arrived, but that doesn’t count). Even so, I didn’t learn much from these field trips, but, like the prologue, I still enjoyed reading them.

The majority of The Birding Life, however, does not deal directly with birds and birding. Rather, it focuses on people. Part one – “Birders in Birdland” – starts with an introduction to a few “iconic figures” of bird watching. Included, naturally, are Alexander Wilson, Audubon, and Roger Tory Peterson, along with two of the most well-known modern birders: Kenn Kaufman and David Allen Sibley. From there we go on to visit Maine’s Hog Island, along with the homes of birders you may know, like Bill Thompson III and Julie Zickefoose, and those you may not, such as a thirteen-year-old Manhattan birder who has quite an impressive bird-book-filled bookshelf. The chapters are on the brief side, offering just a quick introduction or tour.

How many teenagers have a field guide to Borneo?

I found this first section to be very interesting and the people featured easy to relate to, as they seemed to interact with birds in the same way that I do, namely by finding, identifying, and learning more about them.

The remaining two-thirds of the book brings us into the homes and workplaces of bird-lovers. I use that term deliberately as, contrary to the first part, most of the people profiled here do not seem to be birders (in the normal sense of the word). They are all interested in birds, some perhaps even passionately, others more influenced by birds, such as the artist who creates sculptures using real bird nests. Apparently, the main way they express that interest is by collecting, and decorating their homes with, avian-themed art and objects, from paintings to sculpture, pillows to wallpaper.

Clearly, the manner in which these people choose to express their interest in birds is no less valid than that of a hardcore birder. Still, this section was not nearly as interesting to me as the first. Some of the art on display, especially the more true-to-life representations and the waterfowl and shorebird decoys, were appealing to me. But most of it wasn’t. There were still some bright spots, though. The look inside Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History was enlightening. Charlie Harper, one of my favorite bird artists, was featured. And the chapter on the man who builds tree houses designed like bird nests was absolutely fascinating.

An example from the first part of the book. You can't see them well in this picture, but I love those carvings.

From the second part. Not my style.

You can tell when a non-birder writes about birds and birding. That is the case here, although it is not as egregious as many instances. I feel Sheehan does justice to birding, although he just scratches the surface of what birding can entail. His unfamiliarity with his target audience does reveal itself from time to time, especially when the topics of parrot ownership and nest collecting are broached without any mention of the moral, environmental, and legal implications. But overall, I found the writing to be pleasantly engaging; even the parts that did not interest me didn’t feel like a slog to get through.

One thing’s for sure – this large, coffee-table book looks great. It is attractively designed and brimming with photographs, many of which fill an entire page. There are some great shots of birds, but most pictures show birders birding, or the interior of homes.

Recommendation

The Birding Life: A Passion for Birds at Home and Afield explores some of the ways in which people appreciate and relate to birds. It is an attractive, well-written book, and what it does, it does very well. However, I don’t think it will appeal to everyone interested in birds. If, like me, the first part of this book sounds more relevant to you, I would recommend checking it out if you are also interested in bird-centric art and other objects. Instead, if the second part is more your cup of tea, or if you’re curious about the various ways people express their passion about birds, I would unreservedly recommend The Birding Life.

Drab, skulking, secretive – sparrows are usually described thusly. But you’d never know it by viewing Watching Sparrows. If you think of sparrows as Little Brown Jobs, this video guide will shatter that perception.

This Watching Sparrows DVD is brought to you by Michael Male and Judy Fieth, the same team that produced the wonderful Watching Warblers. The plan is roughly the same: to present a short, but informative, account for each of the sparrows found in the United States and Canada. 46 species of sparrows, towhees, juncos, and longspurs (though now not thought to be related to sparrows, they will always be “honorary” sparrows to me) are included, from the Five-striped Sparrow that barely makes it into the U.S. as a breeding bird to the ubiquitous Song Sparrow.

The highlight of the program is, undoubtedly, the video of these birds carrying on with their daily lives. Filmed over the course of three breeding seasons, most of the birds shown are singing males. This shouldn’t be a surprise, as such birds are much easier to find and, especially, film. Plus, this way we get to hear the birds as well. However, this does mean that few female, immature, and non-breeding birds are shown. But it’s hard to be too disappointed when the video that is here is just so good.

The sparrows are presented in taxonomic order, with Male and Fieth alternating as narrators. The feature clocks in at one and a half hours, and each species gets a little less than two minutes of attention. That’s not a lot of time, but the authors manage to work in a surprising amount of information about the bird and its life history, including habitat, breeding biology, habits, and other interesting information. Some identification tips are given, but please take note that this is not intended to be a video field guide. As in the warbler videos, impressive video graphics are used to show the range and migratory movements of these birds.

I was pleased to find that each of the four Fox Sparrow groups are shown, discussed, and mapped. Likewise, the various Dark-eyed Juncos are mentioned and their ranges plotted on the map, although not all the forms are shown.

Picture and Sound Quality

The version of Watching Sparrows reviewed here is the second edition, updated and released in 2010. As a part of the upgrade, the video was re-mastered from the original film footage. Wow! I can’t believe how good it looks. Presented in anamorphic 16:9/widescreen format (the same resolution as the latest Hollywood blockbuster on DVD), the video is clear and sharp. You will be hard-pressed to see sparrows this well in real life.

The audio is presented in two-channel stereo and sounds perfectly fine.

Extras

Watching Sparrows comes with a few extra features:

• You can choose to watch the main program without narration, which might be a good option if you want it to be playing in the background.
• Chorus (4:09) is simply a shortcut to the end of the main program where each bird is shown singing for a couple of seconds each.
• Fun with Songs (9:16) again shows 18 of the sparrows singing. But after playing the song in real time, it then replays it slowed down to 50% and/or 20% of normal. This reveals intricacies and beauty that our limited sense of hearing can’t normally notice, including birds using both sides of their syrinx simultaneously.
• Two sparrow-related episodes of the filmmaker’s Little Nature Show are included. Fox Fun (7:06) goes into further detail about Fox Sparrows. From the Moon to Montana (7:57) is a behind-the-scenes look at filming longspurs in Montana and a preview of the McCown’s Longspur account from this DVD.
• Sharp-tailed Sparrows (9:41) is a fascinating look at filming Saltmarsh and Nelson’s Sparrows (these were called Sharp-tailed Sparrows when this was created for the first edition of this video), as well as insight into their breeding habits.

Recommendation

It’s easy to love warblers and other colorful bird families, but I’ve been a converted sparrow aficionado for some time now. This group has birds that are as boldly patterned and fascinating as any other. And, speaking from personal experience, even those you may not expect, like Sage and Henslow’s Sparrows, have a subtle beauty of their own that can blow you away just as much as any warbler or tanager. Even if I wasn’t already a sparrow convert, I would be after Watching Sparrows. It’s absolutely recommended to anyone interested in birds.

You can order this, and other similar DVDs, from Birdfilms.

Birds of North America and Greenland is the latest entry in the Princeton Illustrated Checklists series. (It was also published in the UK as Collins Field Guides: Birds of North America.) You may be wondering what they mean by illustrated checklist. Though this book is little, it is more than a mere list of birds found in this region accompanied by illustrations. But it is also not a full-fledged field guide. Think of it as a “lite” field guide.

This guide includes nearly every species recorded in the lower 48 states, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland – over 900 birds. Some recent additions to the region – whether vagrants or “splits” (discussed below) – are missing. The standard field guide format is followed, with the illustration plates on the right and species accounts on the facing page.

Illustrations

Birds of North America and Greenland is illustrated with the author’s own paintings. As I mentioned in my review of Birds of the West Indies, also by Norman Arlott, I find his work to be very attractive. The illustrations are labeled as male/female and breeding/non-breeding where appropriate. Annoyingly, instead of the species’ names, numbers are used to identify the birds on the plates.

The concise format means that not all plumages were included. Most male/female and breeding/non-breeding plumages are displayed, with warblers being the most glaring exception (all having at most two birds illustrated, with the exception of Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers). Some geographic variation is illustrated, but not any immature or juvenile birds, which could cause some identification headaches. The only birds shown in flight are seabirds (only in flight), pelicans, raptors, jaegers, swifts (only in flight), and swallows. Oddly, the gulls and terns are only shown perched, even though the former were also shown in flight in the West Indies guide.

Species Accounts

The text accounts include:

• Size – length in centimeters
• Field Notes – brief notes on behavior, identification, and subspecies
• Voice
• Habitat
• Distribution

The “Field Notes” impart some useful information, but not nearly enough to differentiate between similar species, leaving you to decipher that yourself from the plates (which don’t show all possible plumages!). For example, the author mentions that some Philadelphia Vireos are drabber than the one shown and look much like Warbling Vireos. But nothing is mentioned of how you can differentiate such birds.

Range Maps

Breeding, winter, and permanent ranges are shown on maps with country, but no state or provincial, boundaries. These maps are extremely small and tucked into the inside margin – to the right of the text – where they are hard to see. Perhaps a better placement would have been on the outside of the page, to the left of the text. They give a rough idea of where the bird occurs, but nothing more.

Issues

Even a cursory reading of this guide revealed errors like incorrect alternate names, labels, and sizes. Rick Wright noted the same in his review, including the use of the wrong illustrations for European Starling. No field guide is going to be error free, but the amount of them here is more egregious than most.

Taxonomy is always in flux, but this guide seems especially out of date. The latest AOU updates are not incorporated, but that is not a surprise or issue. However, neither Winter Wren nor Whip-poor-will has been split (based on the 2010 AOU update); although in each case the text mentions the possibility of one.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning that since Birds of North America and Greenland was originally published for a European audience, Arlott has chosen to use some names that may be unfamiliar to North American users (with other names given in parentheses). Here are a few examples:

• Great Northern Diver (Great Northern or Common Loon) – “Diver” being the European preference
• Snipe (Common or Wilson’s Snipe) – Considers Common and Wilson’s as races of the same species
• Chuck-wills-widow (Carolina Chuck-will) – I’ve never heard that alternate name before
• Blackbird (Eurasian Blackbird) – Many birds also (or primarily) found in Europe are listed as just a single name
• Grey Catbird – uses the English word forms, such as “grey”, even for birds that are indigenous to the Americas

I’m disappointed that Princeton didn’t change these to make this book more user-friendly to their North American audience.

Recommendation

The appeal of Birds of North America and Greenland is that it illustrates all of the birds of North America (minus Mexico, of course, and the latest splits) with very nice paintings for a low price. I was able to reliably use the Illustrated Checklist for the West Indies in the field, but would not be able to do the same with this one. The number of possible birds is too great, and the lack of variation depicted and identification information in the text will too greatly handicap efforts at identification. Because of this and the various issues (especially the fact that it is not user-friendly to birders within this region), I cannot recommend this guide to anyone here in North America. It could, however, be of use to visiting ecotourists and general wildlife enthusiasts, or those who may never visit but want to know what our birds look like.

If you want to take a closer look at some plates and text, there are more examples at Princeton University Press.

If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? My shortlist of answers to this question isn’t all that short and constantly changes. But Antarctica is always on it. Antarctica? It is cold (I hate cold) and doesn’t have all that many birds (I want to see lots of birds). But what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up in quality (penguins – ‘nuff said). So it was with great excitement, and not a little trepidation, that I received Antarctic Wildlife: A Visitor’s Guide, by James Lowen.

Antarctic Wildlife is one of the most unique field guides I’ve come across. It’s not just the photographs, layout, or any one particular thing. Rather, it is the overall approach taken by the author. Lowen intended this to be a guide to the wildlife – marine mammals, birds, and a few plants – one might see on a typical cruise from Argentina or Chile to the Antarctic Peninsula. Everything about the book serves this purpose in an extremely user-friendly manner.

This starts with the extensive introduction. In addition to the standard descriptions of the book and how to use it, the author has included an overview of the environments you will pass through, the Antarctic cruise experience, and the wildlife. Actually, it is much more than a mere overview, especially regarding the wildlife. Lowen introduces each of the families included, from seals to skuas (and one page on plants), gives identification tips, and tells where to look for these animals during the different segments of your cruise. There are even tables listing the species you are likely to see in different parts of the Antarctic Peninsula, so that you can better prepare based on your particular ship’s itinerary. This introductory material is excellent; the author seems to have included everything you might need in order to make the best of your trip.

Antarctic Wildlife limits its geographic scope to just the areas routinely traversed by Antarctic cruises. The species accounts are even divided based on the cruise’s three distinct sectors: the Beagle Channel; the Drake Passage; and the Antarctic Peninsula. Normally, I despise such “gimmicky” organizations in field guides. But it works here, for the most part, mainly due to the relatively small number of species covered. Species are only included in one section, even if they are possible in others. But if you don’t find a likely match for a creature seen in one, it’s quick and easy to look through the other two as well. But attempting the same organization for almost anywhere else – say, a trip down the Manu – would be utterly insane. However, this scheme does make it more difficult to directly compare related species.

Species Accounts

The accounts follow the standard plan, with photographic plates on the right-hand page and text on the left. One to five species are included on any given two-page spread, though most have just one or two. Each account includes:

• Name – English, Scientific, German, and Spanish
• Threat Status – according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature
• Status – color-coded bars giving abundance in each of the three sectors
• Measurements – length and wingspan in centimeters; comparison to other species, as appropriate
• Talking Point – interesting tidbits
• Main text – description and identification tips
• Where to Look – where exactly to look in each sector

The few number of species per page means that the text is pretty extensive – and often very interesting. I particularly enjoy the “talking points” and various sidebars scattered throughout the guide. The whale accounts also include a helpful diagram showing what it looks like when surfacing.

The plates of most mammals and some birds are partitioned traditionally. However, those for most birds feature photographs edited onto a common background, similar in style to The Crossley ID Guide, although not nearly as complex as Crossley’s scenes. Each image is labeled with a number and, when applicable, a code denoting sex, age, and breeding/non-breeding. The photos are good to great, and the plates very attractive overall. The relatively few number of species per plate accords the space to include multiple images of each bird. The variation depicted should be sufficient to identify most birds. Some seabirds, however, are extremely difficult to identify. I would recommend serious birders also carry along a more detailed guide for them.

The cetacean accounts only include photos of the animal at the surface. This makes sense, as that is all that you are going to see in the field. However, if you’d like to see what the animal as a whole looks like, there is a wonderful two-page plate in the introduction that illustrates these whales and dolphins “in all their unconcealed glory”. Thoughtful inclusions like this really set this guide apart.

Another nice touch is that some species, such as Wandering Albatross, and Humpback and Killer Whales, have supplementary pages of photographs in order to show a greater variety of appearance and behaviors. There are also an additional 22 pages of incredible (and useful) photographs of penguin behavior.

One final nice thing about this guide is that a portion of the proceeds will go to support the Save the Albatross campaign.

Recommendation

Earlier in this review I mentioned receiving this book with a measure of trepidation. This was not borne out of any misgivings about the book’s quality, but rather its anticipated effect on me. I was right to be wary; thanks to this book, I now want to go to Antarctica more than ever! And if (hopefully, when) I go, it will not be without this book. Antarctic Wildlife: A Visitor’s Guide should be required for any cruise-based visitor to the great white continent. And if you want to risk being compelled to pay big bucks to go on such a cruise, I’d also recommend it to anyone even slightly interested in the wildlife of Antarctica.

For those traveling to Antarctica outside of the area covered by this book, as well as serious birders and those wanting to know even more about the wildlife they may encounter, I would also recommend the more extensive (and larger and heavier) The Complete Guide to Antarctic Wildlife, by Hadoram Shirihai.

It wasn’t that long ago, when thinking about all the birds that could be close by but that I’ll never know were there, that I wished for some sort of device that could tell me all the birds in the immediate vicinity. That’s just wishful thinking, of course, since such a device is impossible. But then again, I didn’t foresee that a day would be coming soon when a device could not only tell me what birds others were seeing but could also guide me to them, much less that the device would be my own cell phone! That day has arrived thanks to BirdsEye.

BirdsEye is an application, or app, that runs on iPhones and related devices (iPad and iPod Touch). Basically, it is a mobile portal into the incredible wealth of bird distribution data that is eBird. Within the United States (minus Hawaii) and Canada, BirdsEye can be used to either find particular birds or birding hotspots.

The main screen offers a multitude of options. Each of the main functions will be walked through, but I need to mention a couple things first. You will want to select your birding location first, as most of the app’s features key off of that. You can have it use your current location, or a given country/state/city combination.

One of the first things I noticed about BirdsEye was that it had a life list function. My initial thought was why would I want to enter my life list into yet another application? But then I realized that this is not intended to keep track of the birds that you have seen as much as those you have not seen. One of the best features of this app is that it highlights birds not on your life list. This makes it incredibly easy to filter results based on birds that you need.

Find Nearby Birds

This first option brings up a list of birds, in taxonomic order, that have been seen near your chosen location. The buttons on top can be used to filter the list:

• All – birds seen in the last three years
• Recent – birds seen in the last 30 days
• Star – “notable” birds and those not on your life list

Tapping on a bird will bring up its species account, from which you can see where it has been seen, as described below.

Find Nearby Birds

Notable Sightings and Rare Birds

Notable Sightings and Rare Birds

This gives you a list of notable or rare birds (toggled via buttons at the top of the screen) reported within a specified distance from your location. “Notable” birds are those that are reported in unexpected places or times. They could be legitimate vagrants or early/late in the year. “Rare” birds are those that are truly rare on a continental level. The settings button in the top-left corner (looks like a gear) allows you to customize the distance BirdsEye will look for birds in each of these categories – 50 miles, 100, 250, 500, 1000, or all of North America.

Locate a Bird

Here you will find the entire list of species included in the app. Again, tapping on a bird will bring up the…

Locate a Bird

Species Account

Species Accounts

BirdsEye includes 857 species (in version 1.3) that have been found in North America. The taxonomy is a little out-of-date, with neither Winter Wren nor Whip-poor-will having been split yet. The default screen presents a thumbnail picture of the bird, text, and some buttons along the bottom.

Tapping the photo enlarges it to full-screen, and many have one or two additional pictures accessed by a swipe. Overall, the photos are great – interesting and of high-quality. They give a good idea of what the bird looks like, usually at least showing male and female, but this should not be confused with a real field guide.

Most species have one or more sounds, played using a simple, but effective, interface via the speaker button. The selection of sounds is good, but not as extensive as field guide apps. But if you don’t have a more extensive collection, you could easily use this app to study or confirm vocalizations, or as playback in the field (responsibly, of course).

The screenful of text (by Kenn Kaufman!) summarizes the species’ habitat and habits. It gives a nice bit of flavor, but again, the focus isn’t identification. I consider these features to be, essentially, a nice bonus since they are not central to BirdsEye’s main purpose. Although they are not robust enough to serve as a true field guide, it is nice to have them available within the app so the user doesn’t have to switch to other resources to lookup basic information.

What will probably be the most-used portion of the species pages are accessed with the buttons on the bottom-right. The icon with the bird on a pin brings up the familiar Google map overlaid with sightings of the given species. The list-looking icon gives the locations in scrollable list form, from nearest to farthest. From either option, you can access the list of birds seen at that location and get directions.

Bird Location Map View

Bird Location List View

Birding Hotspots

View Birding Hotspots

If you’re looking for a good place to bird, this function will give you all the nearby eBird “hotspots” by way of map or list. Hotspots are public birding locations designated by users of eBird. Again, you can check out the birds seen at each location and get directions.

Issues

I haven’t encountered any problems using BirdsEye, but there are a few things that should be pointed out:

• BirdsEye does not upload data to eBird. I believe that feature is being worked on, but for now you will need to use a separate listing app for that. Obviously, it would be nice if this feature could be incorporated seamlessly, but this is still an amazing app without it.
• The use of eBird for data is a limitation. The app’s usefulness, in large part, depends upon birders submitting checklists to eBird. Thankfully, many birders are now doing that. But this does mean that BirdsEye will not completely replace books and internet resources for finding birds.
• It would be nice if locations could be saved or bookmarked for future use.
• There is a BirdsEye Lite version that includes most of the same features, but only 135 birds. The limited number of birds effectively cripples it, but it should give a good idea of how the app operates. That is exactly what limited versions of apps are supposed to do. The problem is that it costs $1.99. It really should be free, like most other lite apps. The only reason I can think of to get BirdsEye Lite is if you only want to use it to find birding hotspots.
• The price, $19.99, is high relative to most apps. But that’s about the price of a single bird-finding book, making this not such a bad deal.

Recommendation

BirdsEye is an amazing tool for the traveling birder, making it much easier to find birds and birding locations. I can’t imagine going anywhere unfamiliar without it.

Accounts of “big years” (trying to find as many birds as possible within set geographic boundaries in a single calendar year) are prominent in birding literature. Wild America, written by Roger Tory Peterson and James Fisher in the ‘50s, changed how many looked at birding. Kenn Kaufman’s Kingbird Highway, though written much more recently, is no less of a classic. The Big Year, Mark Obmasick’s account of three birders’ big years, has been adapted as a Major Motion Picture. And now we have Extreme Birder: One Woman’s Big Year.

In this book, Lynn Barber tells the story of her 2008 ABA big year (a big year confined by the boundaries and rules of the American Birding Association). Even though her results, as judged by number of bird species seen, can be found right on the book’s flap and even in the product description on book-selling websites, I’m not going to reveal them here. Suffice it to say that it was much more successful than Barber was expecting (and it’s hard to conceive that in five months she had seen more birds in the ABA area than I have in eight years of birding). From the Everglades of Florida to Gambell, Alaska, it was quite a journey, and one filled with great birds.

But it wasn’t easy. The birds didn’t always cooperate, of course, but the hardest thing seemed to be the grind of it all. An entire year of birding all over the continent sounds like a dream-come-true, but it is physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially draining. I applaud Barber for not glossing over this aspect of a big year. Toward the end she came close to sounding whiny, especially in the poems (poems? Yes, I’ll get into that in a minute), but she was honest. Her portrayal of a big year’s toll may be more helpful to prospective big year birders than anything else in the book. I was also pleased to find that she mentions, but does not dwell on or beat herself up over, the carbon footprint necessary in her undertaking.

The appeal of books such as this is being able to bird vicariously through the author, in most cases in a manner that the reader isn’t able to do in real life. Most birders will never have the time, money, and/or inclination to attempt an ABA big year, but we can still experience it through the accounts of those who have. Barber makes this especially easy as she presents her year in a day-by-day, diary-style manner. This structure differentiates Extreme Birder from similar books and makes Barber’s progress easier to track. This should also make it easier to use this book to prepare for your own big year.

However, this format is not without drawbacks. The day-by-day accounting makes it very hard for the author to avoid the trip-report feel of “I went here and saw such-and-such” repeated over and over again. As far as trip reports go, this is a well-written and interesting one, but it still hindered my engagement with the story. Instead of a single, unified narrative, at times it felt like reading a series of blog posts.

Contributing to the blog-like feel (in a good way) of Extreme Birder are the many extra touches that the author includes, such as photographs, a few paintings, and even poems – all by Barber. The photos depict some of the locations and birds the author saw during the year. Many of these pictures are nice, but not art-book worthy. Others are out of focus, partially obscured, or excessively grainy. However, I don’t see that as a shortcoming; I prefer these documentary shots, as these are the actual birds the author saw during her big year. The paintings are great; I only wish there were more of them! I even enjoyed the poems for a bit of levity and, especially, the insight they provide into the author’s frame of mind.

While most birders seem to enjoy the big-year subgenera, it’s not something that many non-birders can get into. The Big Year, along with select others, has risen above this, but I don’t think Extreme Birder has joined them. The main reason is that there is very little in the way of context. For instance, I turned a page to see one of the many photographs and thought, “Wow, Aztec Thrush!” In the text, Barber describes waking up and immediately hiking to the spot where it had been reported, where she finds a couple of other birders who have the bird. She reveals that it was a lifer for her, but otherwise does not explain what is so special about the bird (other than the fact that it’s one more for her year list, of course).

Recommendation

Anyone planning, or even (especially?) considering, an ABA big year should study Extreme Birder: One Woman’s Big Year. Barber provides many tips and resources, in addition to what can be gleaned from the narrative, that should prove extremely helpful in planning a big year. But for those of us not undertaking such an endeavor I’m more cautious in my recommendation. Personally, I greatly enjoy birding vicariously through others’ big year tales. Extreme Birder is no exception, although I didn’t find it as entertaining or engrossing as the other books mentioned at the beginning of this review. Try one of them first if you don’t already know if you like such books. But if you tend to find birding travelogues to be insufferable, this one will likely prove no different.