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.
by Pete Dunne
An excellent introduction to bird identification for beginners.
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by Spencer Schaffner
A critical look at field guides and what they do (or should do) beyond helping readers identify birds.
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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.
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
Field Guides
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Birds of the Masai Mara
Adam Scott Kennedy
October 28, 2012
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.
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Birds of Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan
Raffael Ayé, Manuel Schweizer, and Tobias Roth
October 28, 2012
This guide is obviously very good news for anyone heading to Central Asia.
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The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, Ninth edition
Graham Pizzey and Frank Knight
October 1, 2012
This venerable field guide has been updated and expanded.
Other Books
by Jon Young
Practical advice, cool stories, and detailed instruction on how to learn from birds make this book worth reading.
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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