Extraordinary Month for Bird Books

April 2016, along with the last bit of March, has been probably the best month for bird books that I can recall. There’s a set of highly anticipated field guides, a family guide, and books with gorgeous illustrations, all from some of the best writers around. Just the ones that I’ve received so far are:

• Baby Birds: An Artist Looks into the Nest, by Julie Zickefoose
• Feathers: Displays of Brilliant Plumage, by Robert Clark
• The Genius of Birds, by Jennifer Ackerman
• The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird’s Egg, by Tim Birkhead
• One Wild Bird at a Time: Portraits of Individual Lives, by Bernd Heinrich
• Peterson Reference Guide to Woodpeckers of North America, by Stephan A. Shunk
• The second editions of The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Western North America, by David Allen Sibley

That’s enough reading to keep one occupied for quite some time, but that’s not all! There are even more coming…

• Audubon: America’s Greatest Naturalist and His Voyage of Discovery to Labrador, by Peter B. Logan
• Birds in Trouble, by Lynn E. Barber
• Feather Brained: My Bumbling Quest to Become a Birder and Find a Rare Bird on My Own, by Bob Tarte
• Listening to a Continent Sing: Birdsong by Bicycle from the Atlantic to the Pacific, by Donald Kroodsma

I need help prioritizing which to review first, so if there’s one you’re particularly interested in please let me know in the comments.

Posted by Grant McCreary on April 25th, 2016.