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Review of Birds: The Art of Ornithology

By Corey November 9, 2008 3 comments

Birds: The Art of Ornithology by Jonathan Elphick was originally published in an over-sized, luxury edition but is now available in a much smaller (about 6″ by 5.5″), more affordable, twenty-dollar edition.  Despite the small size there is a ton of content in the 336 page book.  It is gorgeously illustrated with 300 well-chosen images [...]

Review of Corvus: A Life With Birds

By Corey September 18, 2008 6 comments

Living in a house with uncaged birds is not for everyone and that goes double for those brave enough to live with corvids.  Usually ranked up there as among the smartest of birds, corvids, which include jays, crows, magpies, and ravens, are fascinating creatures that have been mythologized, persecuted, deified, and hunted throughout human history.  [...]

A mini-interview with Nicholas Drayson

By Charlie July 30, 2008 4 comments

I recently wrote an enthusiastic review of “A Guide to the Birds of East Africa: a novel” by Nicholas Drayson (you’ve not read the review? You should - it’s a great book!). I really enjoyed this charming and highly entertaining novel - but did highlight a few mistakes I’d found concerning a couple of the [...]

Book Review: “A Guide to the Birds of East Africa - A Novel”

By Charlie July 21, 2008 2 comments

Review: “A Guide to the Birds of East Africa - A Novel”
Nicholas Drayson
The summer holidays are coming (for some of us anyway) and perhaps you’re thinking about a book to read “on the beach” or in the hammock at home? If you are - and even if you’re not - I’d like to recommend [...]

Review: “Woodland Birds of North America”

By Corey June 18, 2008 3 comments

There are some absolutely gorgeous photos of birds in Scott Leslie’s Woodland Birds of North America. The book, which is billed on the cover as “A guide to observation, understanding, and conservation,” has at least two pictures of almost every one of the nearly 100 species described in it (nearly 200 pictures altogether). [...]

Kenn Kaufman’s Flights Against the Sunset

By Corey April 7, 2008 2 comments

Kenn Kaufman is a birding celebrity. He is well-known not only for his field guides but also for his North American Big Year, famously described in his memoir, Kingbird Highway, in which he describes his hitchhiking, cat-food eating, country-criss-crossing attempt at breaking the Big Year record (he did, but another birder beat the record [...]