Birdwatching Books - Page 12

Birds in Flight: The Art and Science of How Birds Fly

Carrol L. Henderson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

They soar and they glide, they flap and they flutter, they swoop and they plummet.  Solo or en masse, in formation or pas de deux, birds in flight are in their element, their airborne behavior as varied and distinctive as their plumage.  In this book, wildlife biologist Carrol Henderson, a twenty-year veteran of bird-watching around the globe, offers his insights into spotting and identifying birds in flight. 

 

With 150 of Henderson’s exquisite close-up photographs of airborne birds, as well as diagrams illustrating the principles of flight and detailed information based on firsthand research, this book is as informative as it is simply delightful to look at.  The singular beauty of an iridescent hummingbird pollinating a flower, the majesty of a condor soaring above the Andes, the impressive spectacle of migrating geese in Minnesota, black storks in Kenya, or Swainson’s hawks in Bolivia:  in your back yard or far afield, this guide lets you enjoy the beauty of birds taking wing while learning the fascinating science of how, precisely, birds fly.

Birds of Arizona Field Guide

Stan Tekiela

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Missing some fairly common species but useful with other guides 3 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I live in Phoenix (central AZ). I've just gotten beyond the totally novice birdwatcher and found that this book does not cover some of the species I see quite frequently such as the ash-throated and brown-crested flycatchers, great egret and bushtit (as well as the hummingbirds mentioned in another post - rufous and allens being two I have seen). It's also missing some less common birds I see in my local area: canvasback, blue-grey gnatcatcher, eared grebe. However, I do use the book in combination with other guides such as the SIbley Guide to Birds (best reference) and the Petersen Field Guide "Western Birds".

Editorial Review:

Learn about and identify birds using Stan Tekiela's state-by-state field guides. The full-page, color photos are incomparable and include insets of winter plumage, color morphs and more. Plus, with the easy-to-use format, you don't need to know a bird's name or classification in order to easily find it in the book. Using this field guide is a real pleasure. It's a great way for anyone to learn about the birds in your state.

A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America

Steve N.G. Howell, Sophie Webb

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

When Steve Howell first visited Mexico in November of 1981, he arrived armed with a strong background of birding in Britain and the Western Palearctic, and an even stronger enthusiasm for the diverse and exotic birds of Northern Central America. But he also arrived without an adequate field guide. Indeed, to his surprise, he found that relatively little was known (and even less written) about the myriad of bird species that inhabit the region stretching from the U.S.-Mexican border to Nicaragua. And so, after eleven years of research in northern Central America, and with the essential collaboration of Sophie Webb--a biologist and one of the most talented ornithological illustrators working today--we now have the definitive guide to birds of this fascinating region. drop rest as varied as the Laysan Albatross, the Blue-footed Booby, the Collared Trogon, even the rare Guadalupe Storm-Petrel.
A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America is astonishingly comprehensive, covering the identification, status, and distribution of all 1,070 birds species known from Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, and western Nicaragua. No other book approaches the thoroughness of this unique field guide. Beautifully illustrated with seventy-one color plates and thirty-nine black and white drawings, the guide shows 750 species and includes many plumages never before depicted. Of special interest are illustrations of some of the most notoriously difficult groups to portray, such as raptors in flight, owls, and nightjars. In addition, superb, easy-to-read maps help the traveling birder locate particular--even rare--species, and the entries describing individual birds detail their appearance, voice, habitat, behavior (including nesting and eggs), and distribution. With the U.S. birder in mind, the guide also includes birds that can be seen north of the border, showing these American migrants on plates when they could be confused with similar Mexican species, thus enabling the birder to make quick and ready comparisons in the field. And, with readable and fascinating presentations of the natural history of Central American birds, this guide will be welcomed not only by seasoned birders, but by any traveler exploring the rain forests, coastlines, and deserts of Mexico and the Central American isthmus.
Sponsored by the distinguished Point Reyes Observatory in California, A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America is a wonderful addition to the library of birders, nature enthusiasts, and travelers alike. With its lavish illustrations, clear writing, and unprecedented range, it offers hours of compelling reading and pleasant browsing for anyone intrigued by the colorful diversity of birds and the wild, largely unspoiled world next door.

John James Audubon: The Making of an American

Richard Rhodes

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Fascinating, Encyclopedic Study of Audubon and Early America 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

In the tradition of the great biographers, Rhodes leaves no stone unturned in his exploration of this remarkable fellow. The author carries us through the journey of the quintessential self-made man as he comes into maturity with his new country, the United States.
This is a study of a man, not an ornithological treatise. We all have seen the beautiful portraits of birds (terrific color plates in the paperback edition I have) and, through Rhodes efforts, discover Audubon's ingenuity in rendering them with the sort of lifelike quality he hoped to achieve. He earned his passage on many early excursions as the boat's hunter and trapper requiring lone forays into the hinterland. He clearly absorbed everything in his environment while he was making his way. His love for wildlife extended beyond avian society to all flora and fauna contained in the natural environment. He painted other animals and plants, as well. In his waning years, he executed a series of North American mammals with his sons. He had hoped to do much more.
Audubon's history is entwined with early America. He surely enjoyed his notoriety in European courts but always longed for his wild territory. In his later years (he died a decade before the Civil War), his assessment of the burgeoning nation was that it was becoming too crowded, overpopulated; ruined. THAT America was gone before Audubon died but Mr. Rhodes allows us an almost palpable glimpse at it as he illuminates one of it's most colorful citizens. Who would be a better guide into the young U.S. than this great naturalist, so skillfully revealed by this delightful writer?

Editorial Review:

John James Audubon came to America as a dapper eighteen-year-old eager to make his fortune. He had a talent for drawing and an interest in birds, and he would spend the next thirty-five years traveling to the remotest regions of his new country–often alone and on foot–to render his avian subjects on paper. The works of art he created gave the world its idea of America. They gave America its idea of itself.

Here Richard Rhodes vividly depicts Audubon’s life and career: his epic wanderings; his quest to portray birds in a lifelike way; his long, anguished separations from his adored wife; his ambivalent witness to the vanishing of the wilderness. John James Audubon: The Making of an American is a magnificent achievement.

Owls 2009 (Calendar)

Firefly Books

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Features:

• Size: 14" x 12"
• Science

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Editorial Review:

The subject of myth and superstition, the owl is instantly distinguished by its disconcerting stare and haunting cry. It is a mysterious and fearsome predator, a flawless hunter in the darkest of nights. It stakes out its territory on a perch high above and then, floating on silent wings, swoops down to snatch its unsuspecting prey. But with its wise face and downy plumage, the owl is also among nature's most photogenic and pleasing creatures. In Owls 2009, world-renowned nature photographers capture every aspect of this splendid bird in candid and remarkable images. Descriptive captions further reveal the mysterious lives of owls.

Birds of Ecuador Field Guide

Robert S. Ridgely, Paul J. Greenfield

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Birds of Ecuador comprehensively treats the nearly 1600 species of birds that can be found in mainland Ecuador. The authors describe Ecuador this way:

"One of the wonders of the natural world. Nowhere else is such incredible avian diversity crammed into such a small country. . . . Birds are, happily, numerous in many parts of Ecuador: even the downtown parks of the big cities such as Quito and Guayaquil host their complement."

Volume I, Status, Distribution, and Taxonomy, contains detailed information on the ecology, status, and distribution of all species. Introductory chapters deal with geography, climate, and vegetation; bird migration in Ecuador; Ecuadorian ornithology; endemic bird areas in Ecuador; and conservation. Individual species accounts treat habitat, distribution, and taxonomy.

Volume II, Field Guide, contains 96 full-color plates and facing pages of descriptive text, a color map of Ecuador, 2 line drawings of bird anatomy, 115 silhouette outlines, and nearly 1600 distribution maps. All species are illustrated in full color, including migrants and vagrants and visually distinctive subspecies. The text focuses on the field identification aspects of each species, including their behavior, vocalizations, and nest appearance.

The two volumes are available separately or may be purchased as a slipcased set.

Audubon: Early Drawings

John James Audubon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 1805, Jean Jacques Audubon was a twenty-year-old itinerant Frenchman of ignoble birth and indifferent education who had fled revolutionary violence in Haiti and then France to take refuge in frontier America. Ten years later, John James Audubon was an American citizen, entrepreneur, and family man whose fervent desire to “become acquainted with nature” had led him to reinvent himself as a naturalist and artist whose study of birds would soon earn him international acclaim. The drawings he made during this crucial decade—sold to Audubon’s friend and patron Edward Harris to help fund his masterwork The Birds of America, and now held by the Houghton Library and the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University—are published together here for the first time in large format and full color. In these 116 portraits of species collected in America and in Europe we see Audubon inventing his ingenious methods of posing and depicting his subjects, and we trace his development into a scientist and an artist who could proudly sign his artworks “drawn from Nature.” The drawings also serve as a record of the birds found in Europe and the Eastern United States in the early nineteenth century, some now rare or extinct.

The drawings are enhanced by an essay on the sources of Audubon’s art by his biographer, Richard Rhodes; transcription of Audubon’s own annotations to the drawings, including information on when and where the specimens were collected; ornithological commentary by Scott V. Edwards, along with reflections on Audubon as scientist; and an account of the history of the Harris collection by Leslie A. Morris.

Splendid in their own right, these drawings also illuminate the self-invention of one of the most important figures in American natural history. They will delight all those interested in American art, nature, birds, and the life and times of John James Audubon.

(20080901)

Peterson First Guide to Birds of North America (Peterson First Guides (R))

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Great first book 4 out of 5 stars.
13 of 14 people found this review helpful.

My 7yo daughter and I have had great fun identifying the birds in our backyard with this little book. It features the most common birds one might see. I like how they how it organized by size and type of bird (all the water birds are together, all the birds of prey, all the smaller Fenches and Sparrows, etc. Easy to find that way. There was one bird drawing that was more colorful than the actual bird we saw. This might be due to the fact that they don't picture every type of one kind of bird. It is a GREAT first guide for kids and adults that are just starting. I like also that it shows the male and female of a type.

No good for a backyard birdwatcher 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book just so that I could identify some of the birds at my backyard birdfeeder. So far, I've only been able to identify one from this book. The pictures and descriptions aren't very good, and it's very hard to narrow down the type of bird, since they're not organized by geographic area, etc. I would definitely recommend the National Audobon Society books over this one.

Editorial Review:

Peterson First Guides are the first books the beginning naturalist needs. Condensed versions of the famous Peterson Field Guides, the First Guides focus on the animals, plants, and other natural things you are most likely to see. They make it fun to get into the field and easy to progress to the full-fledged Peterson Guides.

Humans, Nature, and Birds: Science Art from Cave Walls to Computer Screens

Darryl Wheye, Donald Kennedy

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Editorial Review:

This book invites readers to enter a two-floor virtual “gallery” where 60-plus images of birds reflecting the accomplishments of human pictorial history are on display. These are works in a genre the authors term Science Art—that is, art that says something about the natural world and how it works. Darryl Wheye and Donald Kennedy show how these works of art can advance our understanding of the ways nature has been perceived over time, its current vulnerability, and our responsibility to preserve its wealth.

 

Each room in the gallery is dedicated to a single topic. The rooms on the first floor show birds as icons, birds as resources, birds as teaching tools, and more. On the second floor, the images and their captions clarify what Science Art is and how the intertwining of art and science can change the way we look at each. The authors also provide a timeline linking scientific innovations with the production of images of birds, and they offer a checklist of steps to promote the creation and accessibility of Science Art. Readers who tour this unique and fascinating gallery will never look at art depicting nature in the same way again.

 

Published with assistance from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Public Understanding of Science and Technology Program.

(20080720)

Book of North American Birds

Editors of Reader's Digest

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

It's amazing 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

What wonderful books Reader's Digest has on such a variety of topics. I've never been disappointed in Reader's Digest books. Whether you are a beginning birder or an experienced one, you will find this book very useful.

Great information and illustrations 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The illustrations are what make this book unique. Stories that go along with each description are really interesting and provide great insight. The only issue I have with the book is that there doesn't seem to be a quick way to go about looking up a bird that you have sighted. Despite this drawback, it's still worth purchasing.

Favorite Bird Book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book many years ago and have found it to be the best out of all the books I've purchased over the years in helping to identify different bird species. It is very helpful, especially for beginners, since there are colorful artist's renderings of each bird and a detailed description of the birds' markings, habitat, feeding habits, and description of their eggs to guide you. I only wish the book included even more bird species than it does.

Editorial Review:

This attractive and informative book of 600 species includes a "special collection" of more than 100 species that are rare. Each portrait includes full-color original artwork; details on identification, habitat, nesting, and food; and a color-coded range map.