Check out this Spring 2013 Preview from Princeton University Press.
Of particular interest is a new entry in the Crossley ID Guide series on raptors, as well as The Warbler Guide. From the description, it appears that the latter’s title is intentionally evocative of the groundbreaking The Shorebird Guide, as it “Includes field exercises, flight shots, general identification strategies, and quizzes”. Sounds intriguing.
October 14, 2012
by Pete Dunne
An excellent introduction to bird identification for beginners.
October 10, 2012
by Spencer Schaffner
A critical look at field guides and what they do (or should do) beyond helping readers identify birds.
October 4, 2012
Kaufman Field Guide to Nature of New England
by Kenn Kaufman and Kimberly Kaufman
From Houghton Mifflin Harcourt:
Whether you’re walking in the woods or along the beach, camping, hiking, canoeing, or just enjoying your own backyard, this book will help identify all your nature discoveries. With authoritative and broad coverage, using nontechnical and lively language and more than 2,000 color photographs, this guide is an essential reference for nature lovers living in or visiting New England.
If you’ve ever used one of the other Kaufman field guides, then you know about what to expect here. In other words, an excellent field guide. I can only hope they’ll eventually do one for the Southeast!
Kaufman Field Guide to Nature of New England
by Kenn Kaufman and Kimberly Kaufman
Vinyl Bound; 416 pages
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; October 16, 2012
ISBN 13: 978-0618456970
$20.00
Steve N.G. Howell is posting a series on how to write a bird book. Lots here for anyone who loves bird books, not just prospective authors. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the series.
I love the smell of bird book reviews in the morning.
October 2012 is going to be an amazing month for bird books. I mean, we’re getting not one, but two books on…
Birds of Paradise: Revealing the World’s Most Extraordinary Birds
Eight years. Eighteen expeditions. Fifty-one field sites. Thirty-nine unique species of birds-of-paradise, all photographed in the wild for the first time in history.
If that’s not enough to interest you in this book from National Geographic, click through to the Amazon page and take a look at some photographs. Wow.
Drawn from Paradise: The Discovery, Art and Natural History of the Birds of Paradise
Instead of photos, this book showcases “more than two-hundred hand-painted images and sketches”. It looks like the perfect compliment to the above book.
Birds of the Masai Mara
A photography-based field guide to the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. And if you’re planning on going, also make sure you get the companion guide Animals of the Masai Mara
Birds of Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan
This guide is obviously very good news for anyone heading to Central Asia.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, Ninth edition
This venerable field guide has been updated and expanded.
Audubon’s Aviary: The Original Watercolors for The Birds of America
This is probably my most-looked-forward-to book of the month. I was fortunate to have been given the Audubon Baby Elephant book a long time ago. I haven’t seen the need to get any further Audubon collection. Until now. I’m anxious to see how much of a difference there is between the original watercolors and the engravings. And, since I’m a sucker for such things, I’m very tempted by the fancy and oh-so-expensive limited edition
National Geographic Bird-watcher’s Bible: A Complete Treasury
I’m curious how this will compare to other birding miscellanies. Be on the lookout for an initial review sometime soon.
Rare Birds: The Extraordinary Tale of the Bermuda Petrel and the Man Who Brought It Back from Extinction
I really enjoy books about endangered species, especially those that chronicle birds brought back from oblivion’s edge.
September 22, 2012
by Jon Young
Practical advice, cool stories, and detailed instruction on how to learn from birds make this book worth reading.
The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds
by John Muir Laws
From Heyday:
Renowned artist and naturalist John Muir Laws, author of the Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada and Sierra Birds: A Hiker’s Guide, brings us this full-color how-to guide to drawing birds. Laws’s book, with an illuminating foreword by David Sibley, is devoted not only to art but also to the lives, forms, and postures of the birds themselves. It intertwines artistic technique and the exquisite details of natural history, and drawing becomes the vehicle for seeing.
As Laws writes, “To draw feathers, you must understand how feathers grow, overlap, and insert into the body. To create the body, you must have an understanding of the bird’s skeletal structure. To pose this skeleton, you must be able to perceive the energy, intention, and life of the bird.”
This inspiring guide will enhance the skills of serious artists but also, perhaps more importantly, it will provide help for those who insist they can’t draw. Leading the mind and hand through a series of detailed exercises, Laws delivers what he promises: “drawing birds opens you to the beauty of the world.”
This book looks like it would be helpful for everyone from those like me who can’t draw (yet), to those artistically talented folks who want some pointers for drawing birds. For sure, it is well-produced and well-illustrated. And maybe just what you need if you want to learn how to draw birds.
The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds
by John Muir Laws
Paperback; 128 pages
Heyday; September 1, 2012
ISBN 13: 978-1597141956
$24.95
