Books to Deepen
Your Birding Knowledge

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Lives of North American Birds

By Kenn Kaufman. Published by Houghton Mifflin, 1996. 675 pages, 1.5" X 7.2" X 9.25". Hard cover. $35. (Less if you order here, through Amazon Books.)

Sometimes we want to know the details about how a bird lives, how long the eggs take to hatch, what the bird eats, where it goes in the winter, and so on. There isn't room for all this sort of data in a regular bird book or field guide.

However, here is a big new book that gives the lifestyle information for every species of bird found in North Anerica.

There is one small but good color photo of each bird. A map shows where the bird lives during the summer and winter. The text gives you the life history of the species.

For example, the Killdeer entry tells how the bird gets its name (from its call). It tells what kind of place the killdeer lives (its habitat). It describes the killdeer's courtship and nesting behavior, including the broken-wing act. It fills you in on the killdeer's diet and feeding behavior.

It also tells how many eggs are laid and how long it takes for them to hatch. It includes how the parents take care of the baby killdeer. It tells about the killdeer's migration. In short, it provides all the things you want to know about when a bird gets your attention.

Lives of North American Birds is the first reference I consult when I have a question about a bird species. I have had a lot of use and enjoyment from this book.

--Diane Porter

Living on the Wind
Across the Hemisphere
With Migratory Birds

by Scott Weidensaul. Published by North Point Press, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999, 420 pages, 1.4" x 9.3" x 6.3" Hardback. $26.00. (A lot less if you order here, through Amazon Books.)

Scott Weidensaul must have had a great time doing his research for this book. He went in person to all the places he writes about -- those special places where migration spectacles make your mouth drop open in amazement.

He went in fall to the the tip of the Alaskan Peninsula, where he sat at the extreme edge of the North American continent and watched shorebirds about to take off and scatter in all directions, each species by its own route to its own winter home thousands of miles away.

He went to Big Bend National Park, in Texas, where a dozen species of vireos, thrushes, and warbers, exhausted from migrating through Mexican desert, crowded around a tiny puddle in an oasis. The birds were too thirsty to pay much attention to the writer (and besides, he knows how to sit quietly).

He went to the coastal plain of Veracruz, where he and his hosts counted 435,000 hawks passing in one day, the heaviest hawk migration ever recorded anywhere in the world.

This wonderful book entertained me mightily, engaging my heart as well as mind. It taught me something on every page. And it helped me realize how huge is the migration of birds, and how deeply it is woven into the fabric of life on earth.

Reading this book will open your eyes a little wider. When you look at a sandpiper on the beach, you'll appreciate it all the more for knowing where it's been and where it's going. When you hear unidentified chirps over your head at night, you might wonder what birds are passing, and you'll think of all the navigation techniques they use to find their way to their destinations.

Although Mr. Weidensaul explains the difficulties that birds face as they pursue their age-old migrations in a world increasingly dominated by human beings, his book won't make you despair. However, he's a great advocate for conserving the vital stop-over places that birds depend on during their migrations, and his book might inspire you to take a stand on the next habitat conservation issue that comes your way.

This book is not only for birders. It will interest anyone who cares about the natural world. I have asked our local library to acquire a copy of this book. I hope millions of people will read it. -- Diane Porter

The Complete Birder
A Guide to Better Birding

by Jack Connor . Published by Houghton Mifflin Co, 1988, 285 pages, .55" X 8.2" X 5.4". Paperback. $14.95. (Less if you order here, through Amazon Books.)

Such an easy-to-read book! And every page full of insights on how to identify birds intelligently.

If you've ever felt you needed to get a handle on where to start when approaching a group of similar birds, this book can answer your questions.

Chapters on warblers, hawks, shorebirds, terns, and gulls show you what to look for and how to think about these groups. The book also discusses how to hear and remember birds' songs. There is a chapter on each season, to help you get the most out of the present moment.

Although this book has been around for a decade, it is still helping people to be better birders and have more fun doing it. It is beautifully illustrated with elegant line drawings and silhouettes (like the one at right) by MargaretLaFarge.

I have given this book as a gift several times, and it has always been much appreciated.

--Diane Porter

The Birder's Handbook

A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds; Including All Species That Regularly Breed North of Mexico

By Paul Ehrlich, Darryl Wheye, and David S. Dobkin. Published by Fireside, June 1988, 785 pages, 1.8" X 5.45" X 8.41". Paperback. $18.00. (Less if you order here, through Amazon Books.)

A wonderfully useful book. I pull it out every time I want to know what the field guides have left out, such as what a certain bird feeds on, or whether the male participates in incubating the eggs. It also tells the habitat and conservation status is for each species of North American birds, and what the nest and eggs look like.

Besides much useful information by species, the book contains many brief (mostly one page), entertaining essays on wild birds -- fascinating tidbits of information that will add another dimension to your birding pleasure.

All the essays are cross referenced and indexed for easy finding when you want to know about a given topic. A few of the essay topics include:

Loon Nurseries and Populations
Visual Displays
Bathing and Dusting
Navigation and Orientation
Hormones and Nest Building
Conservation of Kirtland's Warbler

I personally recommend this book and would not want to have to be without it.

--Diane Porter