10,000 Birds

MAY 2, 2023

Flight Paths is a splendid but risky title for a book about bird migration. It could easily be mistaken for a book about aviation or space navigation or even a flight simulator game if you don’t read the long, adjective-filled subtitle: How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird Migration.

Science 185

Science Illinois Investigation 2006 185

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2024

Osborn, a passionate field biologist who participates to the core of her being three re-introduction projects aimed at saving three very different, endangered species: Peregrine Falcon, Hawaiian Crow (‘Alala)*, and California Condor. My only wish is that the book included photographs. This is the most intense, tragic section.

California Condor 175

California Condor Falcons California Coyotes 175

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2021

His second book on migration is a tale of many birds and many research studies all connected by the theme of migration and by his thoughtful narrative voice. The book is organized into ten chapters, framed by a Prologue and Epilogue focused on Weidensaul’s banding experience in Denali National Park.

Cyprus 249

Cyprus Slaughtered Slaughter Research 249

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2018

In a birding world that celebrates identification, there are surprisingly few articles and books on gull identification.** There’s been a lot of excitement about this book. Pete Dunne has written and co-written 21 books (by my count, Wikipedia needs to update its entry!) This is their second co-authored book.

North America 198

North America El Salvador America Nicaragua 198

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2020

The travels in his most recent book Natural Encounters: Biking, Hiking, and Birding Through the Seasons are more limited — to the eastern part of the United States, mostly Washington, D.C. Lately (in the last month or so) he’s been through the Dakotas, Montana, and Canada, up to the Northwest Territories.

New Hampshire 221

New Hampshire Washington Virginia Montana 221

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2020

Everyone is looking back on their best birds of 2019, so I thought it would be a good idea to look at a book that looks back a little further: Urban Ornithology: 150 Years of Birds in New York City , by P. Because, as this book demonstrates so well, it is sometimes important to look back in order to move forward. “Wait!”

New York City 148

New York City New York Birds Breeding 148

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2020

Fortunately, with a prescience that’s a little scary, David Allen Sibley has created a book perfect for beginning birders (and the rest of us): What It’s Like to Be a Bird: From Flying to Nesting, Eating to Singing–What Birds Are Doing, and Why. copyright @2020 by David A llen Sibley. copyright @2020 by David A llen Sibley.

2020 263

2020 Birds North America Sparrows 263

10,000 Birds

APRIL 7, 2020

The simple answer is monetary gain, there is a global black market for these items, regardless of the species’ vulnerability for extinction. 2019), and now this book. The book is structured cinematically. wrote a lengthy article in Outside magazine (Jan. Author Joshua Hammer. photo credit: Cordula Krämer).

Falcons 206

Falcons United Kingdom Zimbabwe Eggs 206

10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2024

I couldn’t describe it better than Willoughby Verner did in his book “ My Life Among the Wild Birds in Spain ” published in 1909: “ It is when the Egyptian Vulture or Neophron, as it is also styled, is seen close at hand that it is revealed in all its hideousness. The most recent estimates suggest that some 1,500 pairs breed in Spain.

2004 226

2004 Spain Italy Agenda 226

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2020

” The book in question is Birds of Bolivia: Field Guide , edited and written by Sebastian K. That’s pretty amazing–Bolivia has more bird species than India! The source of this ranking, BirdLife International, lists Bolivia as currently having 1,439 bird species, including 18 breeding endemics.

Bolivia 171

Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 171

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 4, 2022

Yes, sure, Rock Pigeons are not a vulnerable species, unless you count the number of times they have been mocked, scorned, and shooed away. They’re apparently not a sensitive species either, because this derision doesn’t seem to bother them at all!

2018 213

2018 New York City Abandon Abandoning 213

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 10, 2024

White-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus) Notwithstanding the fact that nearly all of the endemics and other native species are extinct the islands of St Helena and Ascension remain very popular for birdwatchers and especially photographers because they are both major breeding sites for seabirds.

Madagascar 205

Madagascar ALA 2000 Birds 205

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2023

The official Ontario bird checklist, produced by Ontario Field Ornithologists , June 2022 listed 506 bird species**, putting it in the top tier of U.S. Small Species Accounts: Each species is allotted one page (with certain exceptions) offering basics–bird names and size, one or two photographs, and a one-paragraph description.

North America 207

North America Birds Owls Canada 207

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Two books, two authors, two countries bursting with neotropical avian diversity. Since the books share authors and a creation process, I thought I would review them together. An associated issue is that the Belize and Costa Rica guides share many of the same descriptions of species, written by Howell. Why are these issues?

Costa Rica 210

Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 210

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 18, 2021

Every now and then you read a book which you believe should be read by everyone on the planet. Nature’s Best Hope by American entomologist and conservationist, Doug Tallamy, is such a book. Insects and a host of other invertebrate life have evolved with these plant species, and thus depend on them.

North America 263

North America Wildlife Mammals Breeding 263

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 27, 2020

Because this book is nothing short of spectacular. Birders normally care about species and make species lists, how do families fit into those? Adding more species brings a lot of excitement, as long as you bird your own country or a continent. 11,000 species require lots of money and a good portion of one’s life.

Family 292

Family Birds South America Breeding 292

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2013

A breeding bird atlas is a special kind of book. For birders, it’s the extremely large book, shelved in a place where it can’t crush the field guides, used to research the history of a bird in their area. The resulting book, 616 pages in length, 6.4 The resulting book, 616 pages in length, 6.4

Pennsylvania 226

Pennsylvania Breeding Sparrows Birds 226

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2015

Producing a book about birds and nesting is a dangerous business. Some people love books like that. Third, observing and photographing breeding birds and their young have become acts of ethical confusion as birders, photographers, and organizational representatives debate the impact of our human presence on the nesting process.

Eggs 263

Eggs 2006 Family New York 263

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 2, 2021

But when I felt familiar with perhaps half of the species around my town, I started to feel that my field guide is now too bulky and too hefty to carry, and that was the era before smartphones and phone apps. The book covers all the world’s birds. The book ends with English and scientific name indexes.

Botswana 243

Botswana Africa Ecuador Birds 243

10,000 Birds

MAY 5, 2022

And a highly recommendable book it is, there is no doubt about it. The only issue is, checking the photos of it at the Princeton Nature website obscures the fact that this is rather thick and hefty book, not something one would consider a field guide (true, the publisher calls it an “identification” and not a “field” guide).

Europe 249

Europe Colombia Birds Ducks 249

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2023

The book ends with further reading suggestions, list of useful websites, and the index of both English and scientific names. Seychelles’ small landmass combined with geographic isolation results in few species. That antiquity produces a high level of endemism, e.g. 19% of 62 breeding birds are endemic to the islands!

Seychelles 230

Seychelles Wildlife Tortoises Reptiles 230

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2019

But, sometimes an appreciation of birds and birding requires more than a reference book with images of birds and facts about their identifying field marks. There are large avian handbooks and small ‘how-to bird’ guides, and quite a few excellent books of both types have been published.

North America 115

North America Birds Prairie Dogs Barn Owls 115

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 5, 2016

And so, I turn to Better Birding: Tips, Tools & Concepts for the Field , the new book by George L. This is a very different book from what I expected, less of a handbook and more of a comprehensive identification text on 24 groups of birds, presented in words and photographs. It is an intriguing choice of species.

Birds 190

Birds Groups 2015 North America 190

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2016

This book is a field guide treat for traveling birders and birders who love to fantasize about travel, answering that age-old question, “I’m going on a trip to [fill in the blank—Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras], what field guide should I use?”. A lot of attention is given to differentiating amongst similar looking species.

El Salvador 231

El Salvador America Costa Rica Honduras 231

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

Later in the day, several difficult species decided to be less difficult. There were six species of wild ducks, along with the usual few released domestic ducks. (One One of my ornithologist friends commented, “I hope they stay to breed there.” Any shot of a Great Egret that has caught a big fish is good in my book.

Ducks 227

Ducks Fish Breeding Species 227

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2018

It’s not often that we have the opportunity to glimpse the home life of albatrosses, nor of any seabird species. We didn’t know much about migration routes, foraging away from the breeding colony, and feeding during migration, in the water and in the air. Technology to the rescue! What about incubation shifts?

Albatross 114

Albatross Penguins Research Breeding 114

10,000 Birds

MAY 24, 2024

In my younger days I was very keen on what is generally known as Big Day Birding, or trying to see as many species of birds as possible in one day. In 1983 I co-wrote a book about a one-day, 24-hour competitive birdwatch that I took part in. My team scored a mind-blowing 292 species on the first day, and finished 24 hours later on 442.

Kenya 132

Kenya Birds Barn Owls Owls 132

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2015

Every bird book seems to be about the west coast this month!) I was not planning to do either, but I was going to Catalina Island with my daughter, Sarah, and her boyfriend, Todd, and the hour-long boat ride there and back sounded like an excellent opportunity to try this book out in the field. This is a small book, 56 pages long.

Dolphins 162

Dolphins Porpoises Whales Whaling 162

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 6, 2015

Here are some things I’ve learned from the Peterson Reference Guide to Owls of North America and the Caribbean by Scott Weidensaul: The Burrowing Owl is the only North American owl species where the male is larger than the female, albeit, only slightly larger. And the term is ‘non-reversed size dimorphism.’).

North America 219

North America Owls America Dominican Republic 219

10,000 Birds

JULY 16, 2012

Jake’s favorite before-bedtime book when he was just a bit younger was Owl Babies by Martin Waddell, a picture book I had picked up at a nature center. By the middle of the book, Jake and his younger brother Zach would be chiming in, “I want my mommy,” and when Mama Owl finally return, they would rejoice along with the owlets.

Switzerland 210

Switzerland Birds Owls Lions 210

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2014

The second edition of the National Geographic Complete Birds of North America, 2nd Edition has one of the longest book names in bird bookdom: National Geographic Complete Birds of North America, 2nd Edition: Now Covering More Than 1,000 Species With the Most-Detailed Information Found in a Single Volume. This volume is no exception.

North America 177

North America America Family Falcons 177

10,000 Birds

APRIL 29, 2024

The species is listed as Vulnerable – the estimated number of individuals is 4600-5100 (HBW), of which about 2000 winter on Hokkaido. There is a book on the species, but it is out of print and seems impossible to find even in online secondhand bookstores. Where is the movie about his life then? Back to the eagle.

Eagles 130

Eagles Sea Lions Russia Bears 130

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 2, 2014

So, when Redgannet asked me if I was interested in reviewing Phillipps’ Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo: Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and Kalimantan, Third Edition , by Quentin Phillipps and Karen Phillipps, a book he had acquired at Birdfair, I hesitated. Did I dare dip my toe into this catalog of tantalizing species?

Brunei 174

Brunei Asia Birds China 174

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2021

Pough “with illustrations in color of every species” by Don Eckelberry, Doubleday, 1946. The New York Times obituary cited the series (and Steiner’s other books, but it was the series that made money) as reshaping the publishing industry in the United States.**. This is a fairly large book: 907 pages; 7.38

North America 278

North America America California Condor Birds 278

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 26, 2021

When was the last time you chose a book by its covers? And apart from local people, primate researchers sometimes spot it, but it is a species seen by fewer than ten living birders. And apart from local people, primate researchers sometimes spot it, but it is a species seen by fewer than ten living birders.

Congo 264

Congo Africa Madagascar Kenya 264

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 2, 2018

He brings to this book an academic background in biology and horticulture and, more importantly, decades of experience developing strategies for the best backyard bird feeding practices. The book is focused on suburban living, with little attention given to the unique challenges of urban bird feeding.

New York City 171

New York City Birds Squirrels Woodpeckers 171

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 25, 2022

For species with more than one subspecies in the region, the separate resident/breeding ranges of the distinct subspecies are indicated on the map. As a rule of thumb, all books that I reviewed were of noticeably high quality. The final novelty and a very successful one, is the positioning of range maps. Most (possibly all?)

Thailand 147

Thailand Colombia 2018 Groups 147