Books for Christmas

Hopefully, you’ve gotten all of your Christmas shopping done by now. But just in case, here are some suggestions for any bird bibliophile in your life.

Field Guides

No birder will ever mind getting another field guide. I don’t think it’s even possible to have too many! Here are the latest for North America.

• National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of
  Eastern North America
  Western North America
  Jon L. Dunn and Jonathan Alderfer

  The venerable NatGeo field guide has now been split into eastern and western editions, a la The Sibley Guide. There are some added features in these new ones, making them worthwhile to most birders, especially anyone who does not have the full 5th edition.

• Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America
  Roger Tory Peterson

  The opposite of the NatGeo guides above, the previously separate Peterson guides have been combined into this volume. Peterson’s classic art has never looked better.
  Full Review

Fun Reading

Field guides, family monographs, and other such books are great, but every once in a while it’s good to relax with a light, fun book.

• Birdscapes: A Pop-Up Celebration of Bird Songs in Stereo Sound
  Miyoko Chu

  Yes, you read that right – a pop-up book. But this is unlike any pop-up book you had as a kid. It is amazingly elaborate, educational, and just plain fun.

• A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See It All
  Luke Dempsey

  An irreverent, and often hilarious, look at what happens when someone gets bitten hard by the birding bug.
  Full Review

• A Guide to the Birds of East Africa
  Nicholas Drayson

  No, this isn’t in the wrong section – this is actually a novel. I haven’t had the chance to read it yet (it’s high up in my pile, though), but from what I understand it is a delightful read.

Other Books

And all the rest…

• Albatross: Their World, Their Ways
  Tui De Roy, Mark Jones, and Julian Fritter

  This is an absolutely gorgeous, as well as informative, book. It is probably the best non-identification-related family book that I have seen. Anyone with even the slightest interest in these fascinating birds should love this book.

• The Owl and the Woodpecker: Encounters With North America’s Most Iconic Birds
  Paul Bannick

  Fantastic photography and a really interesting approach make this a great gift.
  Full Review

• The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature
  Jonathan Rosen

  This is a hard book to sum up in a sentence or two. It is part history of birdwatching, and part treatise on why one birds. But without a doubt it is the best birding book that I have read this year, and possibly ever.
  The paperback (shown here) will be available on December 23. The hardcover is available now.
  Full Review

Other Stuff

• Born Again Birdwatcher has a great list of gift suggestions
• Birdchick has a gift guide, and also posts about a birder gift site – Magnificent Frigatebird – that has some great tshirts and even underwear, among other things.

Posted by Grant McCreary on December 10th, 2008.