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Complete Birds of North America, Oology and Ralph's Talking Eggs, Bird Songs from Around the World, The Audubon Society Guide to Attracting Birds, and Bird: The Definitive Visual Guide
Complete Birds of North America, Oology and Ralph's Talking Eggs, Bird Songs from Around the World, The Audubon Society Guide to Attracting Birds, and Bird: The Definitive Visual GuideBookshelf -- February 2008
Published: December 21, 2007 National Geographic Complete Birds of North America edited by Jonathan Alderfer, National Geographic Society, 2006, 664 pages, $35, hardcover.
Can you judge a book by its cover? Years ago, when I did my editing and writing for a well-known book publisher, I was a member of a team that created an A-to-Z guide to alternative medicine. Early in the development process, we met with a buyer from a major membership-discount chain to see if we could win the title a place on his store's crowded shelves. We went into the meeting ready to sell the superiority of our editorial vision but came out shaking our heads. All the buyer wanted to hear was the book's height, width, and page count. He wanted a big, fat book that would take up shelf space. The heftier, the better.
We made a big, fat book -- and a good one at that.
And so have the editors at National Geographic. Their Complete Birds of North America, a companion to their popular and respected field guide, is as big and as heavy as any reference book, but it's every bit as useful, and as fun, as the field guide, and it reaches further and presents more.
The field guide, of course, summarizes the field marks and ranges of about 800 species -- all birds known to breed in North America and those seen while wintering or passing through on migration, plus a few exotic species.
Complete Birds describes more -- geographic variation, voice, status, population size, and similar species as well as field marks and distribution -- and it includes more birds. Every species reliably recorded on our continent and within 200 miles of its coasts is included, as is an assortment of exotics that are either established or regularly observed, 962 species in all.
Well-chosen casual and accidental species -- birds that are not seen annually and may have been recorded fewer than three times in the past 30 years -- make up the lion's share of the difference in the species count. And they're a chief reason why I've turned to the book so often over the last several months.
The Western Reef-Heron recorded in Nova Scotia and Maine in June? Its two color morphs and recent colonization of the West Indies are described on page 115. Want to know how to tell a Lesser Frigatebird, a bird of the tropical Pacific observed in northern California in July, from a Magnificent Frigatebird? Both birds -- and Great Frigatebird too, another accidental to look for -- are pictured on page 109.
And how about Fan-tailed Warbler, spotted in Big Bend National Park in August? It's on page 552. Green-breasted Mango, found in Wisconsin in September and again in Georgia in October, is on page 349. Dusky Warbler, discovered in Santa Barbara in October, is on page 469.
Unpredictable but never impossible, these are species that make birdwatching thrilling and rewarding and necessary. It's a delight to see them pictured and described, and described well, in one volume. After all, you just might see one. -- Chuck Hagner
Chuck Hagner is editor of Birder's World.
Read reviews of:
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America
National Geographic Reference Atlas to the Birds of North America
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Oology and Ralph's Talking Eggs by Carrol L. Henderson, University of Texas Press, foreword by Noble S. Proctor, 2007, 177 pages, $29.95, hardcover.
Our good friend Carrol Henderson first told the story of Ralph Handsaker, the Iowa farmer who collected thousands of bird eggs in the late 1800s and early 1900s, in this magazine ("Ralph's Talking Eggs," October 2005). He expands on the story here, telling the history of egg collecting, or oology, profiling 60 species from the collection, and describing where and when individual eggs were taken. (A set of Northern Hawk Owl eggs from North Dakota represents the state's only nest record for the species.) Pictures of Handsaker's eggs and illustrations by famous artists illustrate the book.
See a photo of a Northern Hawk Owl in Minnesota. |
Bird Songs From Around the World by Les Beletsky, Chronicle Books, 2007, 368 pages, $45, hardcover with audio player.
The super-successful Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song (Chronicle Books, 2006) now has a companion. This wonderful title features the same easy-to-use audio module but plays the songs and calls of birds heard the world over. You can listen to the soft whistle of the Pauraque (track 10), the bell-like song of the White Bellbird (track 53), the loud g'way! of the Gray Go-away-bird (track 102), the warbling of the Palila (track 200), and dozens of other sounds. The recordings, 200 in all, come from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's respected Macaulay Library.
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The Audubon Society Guide to Attracting Birds, second edition by Stephen W. Kress, Cornell University Press, 2006, 466 pages, $24.95, softcover.
Filled with practical advice for creating natural habitats, this book will help anyone attract birds and keep them happy. Stephen Kress, Audubon's vice president for bird conservation, describes ideal habitats for backyards and large properties, including forests and grasslands. Shrubland owners can learn how to improve their land for bobwhites and quail, for example. Kress recommends native plants for each region of North America and describes how to set up nest boxes and protect them from predators. Finally, he tells how to make a bird feeder for just about every backyard species.
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Bird: The Definitive Visual Guide by David Burnie, Dorling Kindersley, 2007, 512 pages, $50, hardcover with audio CD.
The sheer bulk of this book is what first grabbed our attention -- it measures 10 by 12 inches and weighs almost 6 pounds -- but it's the exquisite illustrations and engaging writing that bring us back to it time and again. The introduction covers bills, wings, and other facets of birdlife. Habitat descriptions and profiles of bird orders and more than 1,500 species follow. The accompanying photos are huge, colorful, and breathtaking. Among our favorites are the swimming King Penguins (pages 140-141), fighting Common Moorhens (page 211), and a feeding flock of Yellowhammers (page 474).
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If you're like us, you like to read about birds almost as much as you like watching birds. To make it easier for you to obtain good bird books, we've partnered with online bookseller Amazon.com. Read about a book in "Bookshelf" or any other part of our website, and if it interests you, click on the title to buy the book.
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