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It was a pleasure to make these observations at the same time I was reading The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think , Jennifer Ackerman’s new book about the diversity and complexity of bird behavior. Yet, the research projects are never the whole story. It’s fascinating stuff.
It’s a big subject that has been embraced by biologists Barbara Ballentine and Jeremy Hyman in Bird Talk: An Exploration of Avian Communication, a largish, book recently published by Comstock Publishing Associates, an imprint of Cornell University Press. I do wish there was more about research on female bird song.
Schulman [not from the book!]. ” are the big questions at the heart of Vagrancy in Birds by Alexander Lees and James Gilroy, an impressive, fascinating book about what ornithologists and wildlife biologists have found out about avian vagrancy so far and their theories explaining this phenomenon. “How did that bird get here?”
The subtitle of Jackie Higgins’ book Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Human Senses , aptly sets forth her thesis – though the “wonder” it refers to could equally well be used to describe animal (not just human) senses, as she shows in fascinating detail. Atria Books, New York, $28 (U.S.); $37 (Canada).
It’s a decidedly different direction for the author of Kingbird Highway (1997), Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America (2005), and A Season on the Wind: Inside the World of Spring Migration (2019), to cite just three of his books, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed, underlined with energy, and am still thinking about.
I wish I had read this book. The book was originally published in 2006 as Galápagos: A Natural History with John Kricher as the sole author. Kricher is well-known in naturalist book circles as a scientist who can write about complex scientific topics in engaging smart prose touched with just the right amount of dry wit.
This, 2022, has been a curious year for books about birds and birding. Despite the absence of two major publishers—Lynx and HMH–from the new title publishing scene (hopefully not permanently), we were happily surprised to read and peruse many excellent books. But this is more than a coffee table book. Highly recommended.
Birding being a visual and an auditory pursuit, it’s not surprising that publishers have taken advantage of the media of its day to produce bird books accompanied by CDs or DVDs. QR stands for Quick Response (the things I learn when I write a book review!). The process itself was easier to use than playing a DVD while reading a book.
Author Joshua Hammer, who previously wrote about a different type of real-life-unexpected-caper in The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu , read about Lendrum in the Times of London in 2017, realized the possibilities, did the research. 2019), and now this book. The book is structured cinematically. Author Joshua Hammer.
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.
This added layer elevates Birding Under the Influence: Cycling Across America in Search of Birds and Recovery from a book of fun birding and travel adventures to a more complex memoir about the ways in which birding spurs self-reflection, motivates life change, feeds a need for wonder, and creates community. This is a smartly written book.
It took me a while to wrap my mind around the concept of Birds and People , Mark Cocker and David Tipling’s book that, in 592 pages, explores the intersection of just that—birds and us. Still, I found it a little disjointing that a book has been written about our relationship with birds. So, I just sit here, amazed at this book.
The Secret Perfume of Birds: Uncovering the Science of Avian Scent focuses on this last question, but you might find yourself fascinated by the first two, which come early in the book but linger on in the imagination as author Danielle J. Whittaker’s research road is more serpentine than most academics. ” (p.
Penguins are cartoons, emoticons, animated films, children’s books (though owls really take first place here), sports teams, a book publisher, and a Batman villain (a rare example of penguin negativity, though Burgess Meredith did bring an endearing attitude to his 1960’s TV portrayal).
It’s the subject of the eleventh essay in this collection, almost smack in the middle of the 22 pieces that comprise the book. and then the life and writings of Harriet Mann Miller, a New York State native who under the name Olive Thorne Miller wrote eleven books and hundreds of articles about nature in the mid- and late 19th century.
This is the book you will want to give to everyone in your life who has said ‘I’d like to bird too, but ….(fill Not only is Nate a birding and blogging colleague, but Mike Bergin, 10,000 Birds co-publisher, has written the Foreword and I have been threatened with all sorts of birder-type punishment if I give this book a bad review.
Life Along the Delaware Bay: Cape May, Gateway to a Million Shorebirds , by Lawrence Niles, Joanna Burger, and Amanda Dey, is a book with a mission. The numbers, as detailed in this book, are alarming: the horseshoe crab harvest grew from less than 100,000 in 1992 to over 2.5 million in the late 1990’s.
I could go on and on, it’s that kind of a book—a comprehensive treatment of a species we respect and adore, based on the most current research, written in a style that, while factual, is from the author’s viewpoint, flavoring facts with a witty, observant personal quality. Scott Weidensaul is a nature writer with roots in journalism.
An impressive combination of research and artwork, combined with a pragmatic organization aimed towards quick identification, and education, Baby Bird Identification extends the frontiers of bird identification guides and is an important contribution to wildlife rehabilitation literature. But perhaps that’s for a different book.
I love reading children’s books, even though my child is well over the age when she asks to have them read at bedtime and my nephews fall asleep all too easily after playing lacrosse all day. Here are three excellent but very different children’s books I enjoyed this year (two were published in 2013, one in 2011).
The book is chiefly about how people have conceptualized and studied birds, but there is an underlying theme, the changing ways in which our Western culture has viewed animals, nature and God. It’s a huge scope for a 338-page book. Common Guillemot research at Skomer Island, Wales.
There is a long list of articles and books on how to feed birds in your yard. So, I was happy to see the publication of a book on all aspects of wild bird feeding—history, culture, and economics. It is a serious book with a friendly attitude. There was cleaning, lots of cleaning of feeders and yard. And squirrels.
” The book in question is Birds of Bolivia: Field Guide , edited and written by Sebastian K. The guide covers 1,433 species, the number of birds documented at the end of 2014, the cutoff point for the book. The downside of the size (and quality of paper) is that this is a fairly heavy book, about 2.5
For endangered species, red and gray tabs at the top of the page indicate level of threatened status from the IUCN and the Libro Rogo de los Vertebrados Cubanos (Red Data Book for Cuban Vertebrates). The book includes lots of space for Notes. This means that it has some interesting features, which may or may not work in practice.
Producing a book about birds and nesting is a dangerous business. Some people love books like that. I’m happy to say that Laura Erickson and Marie Read have written a book, Into the Nest: Intimate Views of the Courting, Parenting, and Family Lives of Familiar Birds , that is not too cute and that does not anthropomorphize.
Looking for a bird book that has appeal to cross the generations, one that will delight both the preschooler and the seasoned birder? Ignotofsky is best known for her 2016 book Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World, of which Scientific American noted “The world needs more books like this.”
Karlson and Dale Rosselet in Birding by Impression: A Different Approach to Knowing and Identifying Birds, the latest addition to the Peterson Reference Guide series and a book likely to revive the continuing discussion about the merits of GISS (the term used in the book, as opposed to the popular jizz ) versus traditional bird identification.
They’re useful resources for researching bird food sources (present and historical), relative numbers of small mammals in a bird’s prey area, and seed dispersal. And they’re a great… Source
This is what happens when you read a book like Frogs and Toads of the World , by Chris Mattison. A book about all the frogs and toads of the world is an ambitious undertaking. This seemingly boundless diversity comes through in every chapter of this book, and is both its strength and its weakness. And, they look like frogs.
The accounts vary in length from two to six pages, and are well illustrated with photographic images by Ryan Phillips of the Belize Raptor Research Institute and a group of 40 photographers from the United States and Central America. The book’s bio is not exaggerating when it says that author William S.
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. Armistead and Brian L. Authors George L.
It’s never too late or too early to buy a children’s book about birds. It’s been a few years since my last roundup of children’s bird books, and children’s book writers, illustrators and publishers continue to produce picture books that feature avian protagonists. First, the board books.
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.
The length of each bird species account varies, depending on whether the bird is native or a “visitor” (the book’s term for migrant) or vagrant, breeding or non breeding. The book is entitled South Georgia, but it also covers nearby areas including the South Sandwich Islands, Shag and Clerke Rocks.)
Two reactions on receiving my review copy from publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: (1) Small book, colorful design, (2) There really are 12 steps and they are not in the order I expected. Especially 10, because, this being a book co-authored by Steve Howell, plumage quickly becomes a tutorial on molt. Howell and Brian L. 16, below).”
The book, handsome and hefty, is meant to “commemorate and amplify” the Year of the Bird initiative –but it’s a self-celebration of sorts, too. Much of the book, most of it, consists of full-page photos with identifying captions and some interspersed prose. In any event, there’s a good amount of that in this book, as well.
It’s time for some short book reviews. Two books are part of series I’ve reviewed previously (and you may want to reread those posts for more detailed info), one is a handbook that I’ve been wanting to review for a long time, but thought that a shorter piece would work better than the long ones I always seem to end up doing here.
Now, on to the books. The cover designs, like the parent book, are cheerily colorful; the Eastern guide is green, featuring a photo of a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, the Western guide is blue, featuring a White Pelican just landing onto the water. A detailed index is located at the back of the book, listing scientific and common bird names.
It’s a sign, I think, when I receive a book to review and realize I just bought the same book, on my own recognizance, for my own pleasure. Also a sign when I spot other books by the same author on the shelf in the office of a member of my thesis committee, and on my own Christmas wish list. This is a good book.
These are just three of the 448 great things to do in nature before you grow up that are covered in illustrated detail in The Kids’ Outdoor Adventure Book by Stacy Tornio and Ken Keffer. Stacy and Ken’s wonderfully written book takes this post 438 steps further and will delight both children and parents alike.
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.
Besides birding, I have another hobby that I like to indulge when I travel: seeking out books from small regional presses. Nearly every town with a souvenir shop has a book or two about the local ghost stories, true crimes, battlefields, and the like. The Birds of Eigg is such a book. Reviews books Scotland'
On my last trip to Greece, I carried and studied this book, hoping for the Audouin’s Gull (no such luck yet, actually I saw very few gulls). My first impression is that the book is somewhat large and heavy (2.05 True, the book is called an identification guide and not a field guide, though in my mind those are synonyms.
That piece of information, along with many others, comes from Kroodsma’a new book, Birdsong for the Curious Naturalist : Your Guide to Listening — and you have to love the “nearly.” And that’s part of the point of the book, and its charm – how much there is still to be discovered in the realm of birdsong. Except he doesn’t!
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