10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 3, 2020

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).

Penguins 279

Penguins Georgia Albatross New Zealand 279

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

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.

Sri Lanka 264

Sri Lanka Malaysia Suriname Malawi 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 12, 2014

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.

2006 245

2006 2014 Connecticut North America 245

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2014

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.

Egypt 243

Egypt Birds Albania Eagles 243

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 3, 2023

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.

Wildlife Rehabilitation 290

Wildlife Rehabilitation Birds Family Collecting 290

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

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.

North Carolina 263

North Carolina Birds North America Owls 263

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 254

North America Owls America Dominican Republic 254

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2014

One of the reasons I enjoy about reviewing books is the opportunity to read titles I wouldn’t ordinarily encounter, not because they aren’t good but because they don’t fall easily into a category. Lost Animals: Extinction and the Photographic Record by Errol Fuller is one of these books. more than there really was to see!” (p.

Animal 270

Animal Mammals Hawaii Dolphins 270

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

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.

Los Angeles 246

Los Angeles Massachusetts Birds New York City 246

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2021

It provides goals and a definite direction for your birding travels and thoughts; sometimes it even becomes the basis of a book! In 2012, I reviewed The Jewel Hunter , an absorbing narrative in which author Chris Goodie travelled throughout Asia, Africa, and Australasia to observe and photograph every Pitta species in the world.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Brazil Bolivia Ecuador 264

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2011

Be warned, The Atlas of Birds is not a map book, though it does contain maps, lovely orange and purple and green bird distribution maps. It is not an encyclopedia, though it does summarize research, explain basic concepts, and ends with a section on bird statistics. Isabelle Lewis and Corinne Pearlman designed the book, with Ms.

Albatross 245

Albatross Campaign Protection Birds 245

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 251

Science Illinois Investigation 2006 251

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 264

Cyprus Slaughter Slaughtered Research 264

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. And, how they betrayed that trust, stealing eggs for years and, possibly even worse, falsifying research data.

Falcons 262

Falcons United Kingdom Zimbabwe Eggs 262

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

Steve, another member of our birding group, also had a field guide by Kenefick, Restall, and Hayes, but his was bordered in GREEN, had a slightly different title, and, to my extreme chagrin, was much more recent, showing the recently split Trinidad Motmot instead of the Blue-crowned Motmot on my book’s cover. I was confused.

Trinidad 243

Trinidad South America Birds 2011 243

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 3, 2015

Navarro’s exceptional drawings illustrate the species accounts. Forty-eight species. Compare, for example, the species account illustration of the Cuban Trogon with the photo that opens up the introductory chapter. The luxury of space means that each species can be shown from various angles and in distinctive poses.

Cuba 244

Cuba Birds 2000 United States 244

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

This shouldn’t have to be stated, especially in a book on bird evolution by an evolutionary biologist with a Ph.D. Futuyma is a synthesis of theory and research about evolution and birds. But, ‘synthesis’ is a dry word, and this is a book with a quiet yet firm personality underlying its words.

Science 246

Science Albatross Owls Research 246

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2012

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.

Delaware 214

Delaware New Jersey Eggs Research 214

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2015

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.

Eggs 263

Eggs Family 2006 New York 263

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 264

2020 Birds North America Sparrows 264

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 2, 2024

Bird Day is a lovely, little jewel of a book. Hauber and artist Tony Angell fulfills this goal beautifully and was the factor that motivated me to review this book. Hauber Hauber’s mini-essays focus on specific behaviors, enhanced by references to recent research yet written in a relaxed, personal way.

Barn Owls 240

Barn Owls Chicago Penguins New Zealand 240

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. ″ x 9.5″x

Bolivia 230

Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 230

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2022

Don’t misunderstand me, it’s not consciously presented this way, but as I read the book, I really did feel that Klem was writing as he talks, putting into text the many presentations he has done over the years. FLAP is the Fatal Light Awareness Program, located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and this is how they raise awareness.

New York City 264

New York City Illinois Science Killing 264

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

Journeys With Penguins: Tracking the World’s Most Extreme Penguin is a different type of penguin book. Kooyman (co-author with Jim Mastro) spent decades studying Emperor Penguins and can be considered the world’s foremost expert on the species. Kooyman and Jim Mastro The book is divided into two sections.

Penguins 215

Penguins Seals Leopards Mammals 215

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2012

It’s the warbler that is often the last unchecked species on birders’ life lists and, whether you list or not, for most of us observing it is a once in a lifetime experience. Fish and Wildlife Service endangered species list. Previously, even researchers had problems getting access to nesting Kirtland’s Warblers.

Michigan 258

Michigan Bahamas Endangered Species Research 258

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

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.

Dissection 264

Dissection Birds Europe Eggs 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 5, 2015

Birding by Impression is a conscious, deliberate method of identifying and recognizing birds based on the study and evaluation of “distinctive structural features and behavioral movements” and comparison with nearby and similar species. The result is a different kind of book. So say Kevin T.

New Jersey 194

New Jersey Birds Science New York City 194

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2017

The guide presents 69 species and 1 subspecies, from “NEW WORLD VULTURES: Cathartiformes” to “OSPREY: Pandioninae” to “FAMILY: Accipitridae” (Kites, Hawks, Eagles, Hawk-Eagles), to “FALONIDS: Falconidae” (Falcons, Forest-Falcons, Caracaras, Kestrels, Merlin). The order is roughly taxonomic, with the priority showing similar species together.

Mexico 189

Mexico America North America Falcons 189

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2012

Or, one of the 145 species of Glass frogs living in the Cental and South American rainforests, I could look through the transparent skin on their undersides and see their internal organs. This is what happens when you read a book like Frogs and Toads of the World , by Chris Mattison.

Reptiles 223

Reptiles Madagascar Family New York City 223

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

NOVEMBER 6, 2012

trying to grasp the enormity of what had just happened, and reading this book, The Feathery Tribe: Robert Ridgway and the Modern Study of Birds by Daniel Lewis. Reading this book is, in addition to everything else, an exercise in getting to know the originals of many of our apostrophized birds.

Illinois 188

Illinois Collecting United States Alaska 188

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 201

New York City New York Birds Breeding 201

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 189

North America America Family Falcons 189

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. Well-researched and footnoted, these sections never feel disconnected from the more personal sections.

California Condor 184

California Condor Falcons California Coyotes 184

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

The section South Georgia Wildlife describes 65 species of birds, 20 species of sea mammals, nearly 60 species of insects, and more than 40 species of flowering and nonflowering plants. The book is entitled South Georgia, but it also covers nearby areas including the South Sandwich Islands, Shag and Clerke Rocks.)

Georgia 184

Georgia Penguins Wildlife Whales 184

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

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.

Pennsylvania 189

Pennsylvania Texas Whales Whaling 189

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2017

That sentence really doesn’t begin to describe this very smart and highly readable book. The ‘little green book’ was now over 450 pages long! It was my first trip to the Neotropics, and I had no idea what I was getting into. An enlarged version was published in 1997, with color photographs and more coverage of South America.

South America 189

South America Ecuador Reptiles America 189