News

It’s always a great day when Princeton University Press releases its catalog of upcoming natural history books. Or even just offers a preview, like today. Here are some books to look forward to in the first half of next year:

• How to Be a Better Birder
  Derek Lovitch
  May, 2012

  This unique illustrated handbook provides all the essential tools you need to become a better birder. Here Derek Lovitch offers a more effective way to go about identification—he calls it the “Whole Bird and More” approach—that will enable you to identify more birds, more quickly, more of the time. He demonstrates how to use geography, an understanding of habitats, ecology, and even the weather to enrich your birding experience and find something out of the ordinary. Lovitch shows how to track nocturnal migrants using radar, collect data for bird conservation, discover exciting rarities, develop patch lists—and much more. This is the ideal resource for intermediate and advanced birders. Whether you want to build a bigger list or simply learn more about birds, How to Be a Better Birder will take your birding skills to the next level.

• Cotingas and Manakins
  Guy M. Kirwan and Graeme Green
  March, 2012

  Cotingas and Manakins is the definitive work on these jewels of the Neotropics, covering more than 130 species. These range from some of the rarest and most enigmatic birds in the world to some of the best studied of all tropical species. Many are breathtakingly colorful and ornate while some are plain and difficult to see. This stunning volume features 34 color plates by Eustace Barnes, who has observed many of these species in the field, as well as distribution maps and approximately 400 color photographs that cover all but a tiny handful of species. Complete with detailed species accounts describing key identification features, Cotingas and Manakins is the authoritative illustrated guide to these magnificent Neotropical birds.

• A Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand
  Julian Fitter and Don Merton
  January, 2012

  New Zealand is commonly described as “the land of birds.” Now, there is an easy-to-use guide for all those interested in this country’s remarkable bird population. A Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand contains over 600 stunning photographs of the more than 350 bird species likely to be seen in this area of the world. Comprehensive and compact, the book includes full descriptions of all native species and regular visitors, distribution maps and measurements, key information on national parks, and useful information on ongoing conservation efforts in the country. Filled with handy tips for nature enthusiasts wanting to make the most of their trip, this is the only bird guide that anyone exploring this region will need.

• Birds of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives: second edition
  Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp, and Tim Inskipp
  March, 2012

  The best field guide to the birds of the Indian subcontinent is now even better. Thoroughly revised, with 73 new plates and many others updated or repainted, the second edition of Birds of India now features all maps and text opposite the plates for quicker and easier reference. Newly identified species have been added, the text has been extensively revised, and all the maps are new. Comprehensive and definitive, this is the indispensable guide for anyone birding in this part of the world.

• Birds of Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan
  Raffael Ayé, Manuel Schweizer, and Tobias Roth
  March, 2012

  Central Asia—a vast and remote area of steppe, semi-desert, and mountains separating Europe from eastern Asia—is home to a diversity of birds. Birds of Central Asia is the first-ever field guide to the avian population for this fascinating part of the world. From ground jays, larks, and raptors, to warblers, nuthatches, and snowfinches, this comprehensive guide covers 627 species—including all residents, migrants, and vagrants—and 141 superb plates depict every species and many distinct plumages and races. The portable book contains important introductory sections on the land and its birds, and up-to-date color maps. The concise, authoritative text on facing pages highlights key identification features, such as status, voice, and habitat. Birds of Central Asia is indispensable for anyone interested in the birds of this remarkable and little-known region.

• Birds of Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire
  Bart de Boer, Eric Newton, and Robin Restall
  March, 2012

  Located in the southern Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela, the islands of Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire are home to a colorful diversity of bird species. Birds of Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire is the first comprehensive field guide to the birds of the region and the ideal companion for identifying the islands’ remarkable avian population. The compact and portable book contains close to 1,000 superb color illustrations on 71 color plates and detailed descriptions of every species. Concise text on facing pages highlights key identification features, including voice, habitat, behavior, and status. This field guide is essential for all birdwatchers and wildlife enthusiasts interested in this part of the world.

• Birds of Melanesia: Bismarcks, Solomons, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia
  Guy Dutson
  March, 2012

  Melanesia harbors an amazing range of endemic bird species and subspecies, many of which are poorly known. Birds of Melanesia is the first comprehensive field guide to all 501 species found in the Bismarck Archipelago, Bougainville, the Solomons, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia. This beautifully illustrated guide features 86 color plates that depict almost every species—including many endemic subspecies—and many of the plates are arranged by island group for easy reference. Detailed species accounts describe key identification features and distribution, as well as key features for all subspecies. Distribution bars are also given for all species except extreme vagrants.

Until September 5, 2011, the Audubon Birds mobile app for iPhone, Android, and Palm will be on sale for $4.99 (normally $14.99).

iTunes App Store
Android Marketplace
HP webOS

Appweavers has produced a nice app version of the Peterson field guide – Peterson Birds of North America app (a review is coming eventually). But I missed the fact that there is also a free edition – Peterson Feeder Birds of North America.

And now this free app provides even more value. Appweavers just announced:

Initially released in April of this year, Peterson Feeder Birds of North America, a comprehensive guide to 160 North American backyard birds, passed 100,000 downloads from the iTunes App Store. To celebrate, the company is extending its innovative Bird Finder service, previously available only to users of the company’s paid app, Peterson Birds of North America, to users of the free backyard birds app.

I haven’t had a chance to use Bird Finder yet, but it looks interesting. And now you can check it out for free!

Thanks to The Birdbooker Report for the heads-up.

The Art of Bird Finding: Before You ID Them, You Have to See Them
by Pete Dunne
Stackpole Books; Paperback; $14.95

From the publisher:

Filling a gap in the vast literature on birding, Pete Dunne explains in his distinctive style how to find birds – the often-ignored first step in identifying, observing, and listing bird species.

• The best strategies for locating birds in any season and in every kind of weather
• Techniques and expert advice applicable to species in habitats and environments throughout North America
• For beginning bird-watchers or experienced birders who want to improve their chances for success

I tried to resist, but had to jump right into this book. It’s Pete Dunne, after all! I’m not quite half-way through this short (96 pages) book, but have to say that it should prove a godsend for newer birders. I haven’t reached the more advanced stuff, but I bet there will be something here for any birder (besides Dunne’s fantastic writing).

Binocular Vision: The Politics of Representation in Birdwatching Field Guides
by Spencer Schaffner

From the publisher (University of Massachusetts Press):

From meadows to marshlands, seashores to suburbs, field guides help us identify many of the things we find outdoors: plants, insects, mammals, birds. In these texts, nature is typically represented, both in words and images, as ordered, clean, and untouched by human technology and development. This preoccupation with species identification, however, has produced an increasingly narrow view of nature, a “binocular vision,” that separates the study of individual elements from a range of larger, interconnected environmental issues. In this book, Spencer Schaffner reconsiders this approach to nature study by focusing on how birds are presented in field guides.

Starting with popular books from the late nineteenth century and moving ultimately to the electronic guides of the current day, Binocular Vision contextualizes birdwatching field guides historically, culturally, and in terms of a wide range of important environmental issues. Schaffner questions the assumptions found in field guides to tease out their ideological workings. He argues that the sanitized world represented in these guides misleads readers by omitting industrial landscapes and so-called nuisance birds, leaving users of the guides disconnected from environmental degradation and its impact on bird populations.

By putting field guides into direct conversation with concerns about species conservation, environmental management, the human alteration of the environment, and the problem of toxic pollution, Binocular Vision is a field guide to field guides that takes a novel perspective on how we think about and interact with the world around us.

I’m not sure I’m going to buy some of the author’s conclusions, but I suppose I should withhold judgment until I read more than the first chapter! Regardless, I have the feeling that I’ll never look at a field guide in the same way after I finish this book.

Kenn Kaufman’s Advanced Birding has long been a required book for anyone wanting to come to grips with gulls, flycatchers, and other difficult-to-identify groups of North American birds. New this month is a new, updated edition – Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding.

Any book by Kaufman is worth reading, especially one on bird identification. I’m in the process of going through it now, but in the meantime, you can get a look into it at Avian Review and The Birdbooker Report. There’s also a fantastic interview with Kaufman on the BirdWatching magazine blog.

Want a sneek preview of The Crossley ID Guide? Or maybe the chance to ask the author a question? If so, register today for the Crossley ID Guide webinar.

When

February 22, 2011, 12 PM-1 PM EST
February 22, 2011, 2 PM – 3 PM EST

You can bet that I’ll be there!

2011 has the makings of a great year for bird books. It’s just the end of January and there are already several that I’m anxiously awaiting. Here’s a little of what we have to look forward to.

• I always look forward to getting the latest field guide. I like to see what new features and innovations the authors have incorporated. In that regard, this year’s new North American field guide – The Crossley ID Guide – will be a doozy. Crossley’s digitally created plates, incorporating photos of birds from many different angles and distances, are groundbreaking. Hopefully they will be useful as well.
  February 21, 2011; Princeton University Press
• I generally enjoy “big year” books, so Extreme Birder: One Woman’s Big Year caught my eye. The author, Lynn Barber, is an ABA board member, and contributor to their blog.
  March 19, 2011; TAMU Press
• Hawks at a Distance: Identification of Migrant Raptors is Jerry Liguori’s followup to his excellent Hawks from Every Angle. According to the book’s description, this will be “the first volume to focus on distant raptors as they are truly seen in the field”. Sounds like a must-have for any hawk watcher.
  March 30, 2011; Princeton University Press
• Kenn Kaufman’s Advanced Birding has long been a required book for anyone wanting to come to grips with gulls, flycatchers, and other difficult-to-identify groups of North American birds. I’m sure his updated Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding will be just as indispensable.
  April 19, 2011; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• After the Crossley guide, Peter Goodfellow’s Avian Architecture: How Birds Design, Engineer, and Build is probably the book I’m most looking forward to this year. How birds are able to build such marvelous structures has always been a mystery to me. I’ve been waiting a long time for a book that could explain and demonstrate the process. Hopefully that wait will be over shortly.
  May 26, 2011; Princeton University Press

•  

  Just today I ran across this title – Binocular Vision: The Politics of Representation in Birdwatching Field Guides. The title piqued my curiosity; I had to find out what this was about. The publisher’s catalog says:
  

  By putting field guides into direct conversation with concerns about species conservation, environmental management, the human alteration of the environment, and the problem of toxic pollution, Binocular Vision is a field guide to field guides that takes a novel perspective on how we think about and interact with the world around us.

  
  As someone who loves bird books and books about bird books, this sounds interesting to me.
  July 31, 2011; University of Massachusetts Press
• Arctic Autumn: A Journey to Season’s Edge is the third book in Pete Dunne’s series on season and place. The first two were great, but I’d be excited regardless because it’s Pete freakin’ Dunne!
  September 21, 2011; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Last, but certainly not least, is the final volume in the landmark series – Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 16. This will be “the first work to verbally and visually portray each member of an entire Class of the Animal Kingdom”. I’m especially excited due to the families covered: Tanagers, Cardinals, Buntings and New World Sparrows, and New World Blackbirds.
  October, 2011; Lynx Edicions

Here are a few book giveaways that started recently:

• The Princeton Encyclopedia of Birds – enter by “liking” the Princeton University Press Facebook page. Contest ends January 14
• Birdology: Adventures with a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur – enter by commenting on The Zen Birdfeeder’s review. Ends January 31
• Flyaway: How a Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found Her Wings – enter by commenting on this Magnificent Frigatebird post. Ends 11:59pm EST on Thursday, January 13th

Good luck everyone!

Last month, the American Bird Conservancy held a webinar presentation about their new book, the American Bird Conservancy Guide to Bird Conservation. The recording of this event is now online.

This is a great book, and the 30 minute presentation does a good job of explaining (and showing) what it is all about.