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We now interrupt all talk about birds and migration to consider dragonflies. And damselflies. Together they comprise Ondonata, an order of insects that, like birds, are beautiful in flight and challenging in identification. Unlike birds, they do not vocalize; unlike butterflies, they are totally predatory, not a vegetarian amongst them. When I was a kid, [...]

This is going to be a rave review. I like Julie Zickefoose’s art, her writing, her blog, her blog posts here on 10,000 Birds, and, of course, I like birds. So a book about birds by Julie Zickefoose, featuring her writing and art, some of which has been featured in different forms on her blog, [...]

I’ve just finished reading THE PLUME HUNTER (Torrey House Press, December 2011) by Renée Thompson. In this captivating book, Thompson explores the motivation behind hunters who shot birds to sell feathers for women’s hats at the turn of the nineteenth century.  Set in the marshes of the Malheur and Lower Klamath regions of 1890’s Oregon, [...]

It’s my fantasy and it’s yours: Quit the job, say good-bye to the family, and bird. Just bird. It’s what I dream of every Monday morning. British birder Chris Gooddie, my new birding hero, not only dreamed the fantasy, he lived it. And, to give his dream year a little more oomph, he created a [...]

My apologies, 10,000 Birds folk, for missing my December post on the 18th. There was this little thing called Christmas, and I was shut in a recording studio all that week (and for weeks after) with The Rain Crows, making a CD. Plumb forgot about blogging, I did. Forgot about my own blog; forgot about [...]

It’s tough being a New Jersey birder. Jersey has always gotten a bad rap in general (the smells of the turnpike, the Jersey shore, the governor), and in the world of birding, the state often seems to be symbolized by two words: Cape May. And yes, Cape May is incredibly wonderful, with its hawk watch [...]

I’ve spent most of my time since Thanksgiving trying to get my semester wrapped up, which means I’ve spent quite a bit more time looking at birds in the works of James Joyce than birds in real life. Many people don’t realize that Joyce was very into birds, using them as a symbol of artistic [...]

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. And, it is not a coffee table book, though [...]

Anarchy – discontent – upheaval! Desperate fights over territory, water, and food! Poisoned air! Unhappiness! I fear we are lost. We must do something! -Peter Sis in The Conference of the Birds The Conference of the Birds, an amazingly well-illustrated adaptation of the twelfth century Persian poet Farid Ud-Din Attar’s epic poem, is well worth the [...]

Recently, I’ve reviewed a number of well-designed and interesting books on birds. Today, I bring you an equally lavish look at a group bipeds that are perhaps a little more confusing: people. People who are into birds. The Birding Life is another coffee-table-worthy affair, rich with color photographs and brief vignettes that encourage browsing. As [...]

I confess, I don’t always love hawks.  Sure, they’re beautiful and powerful, a reminder of the feral freedom of the skies. They’re also confoundingly difficult to identify, the eternal inscrutable spot in the distance.  This is probably why I number so many hawk books in my collection. There’s the slim Hawk Watch: At Guide for [...]

I’ve long felt that birders, as a group, should have a greater appreciation for the book as a physical object – all those years of choosing field guides that have high-quality color prints and will hold up to rough use ought to lead in that direction. Looking at a book like Barn Owl by David [...]

Few issues of our day are as huge, in scope or in implication, as climate change. The task of wrestling this topic down into something that the human mind can manage, without losing sight of the big picture because it’s snowing in Buffalo, is likely to be the task of a lifetime for many science [...]

“An island in the Adriatic Sea, called Diomedea, is home to a great number of shearwaters, which, it is said, neither harm the barbarians who live there nor come close to them. If, however, a Greek comes ashore, the shearwaters approach and stretch out their wings as if they were hands, welcoming the stranger.” Thus [...]

Feathers are the unique ingredient when it comes to birds.  Platypus have bills, bats and bugs can fly, and reptiles lay eggs, but only birds have feathers.  Despite feathers being such a large and essential aspect of birdness I did not know much about them, at least until I read Feathers: The Evolution of a [...]

My birding adventures this week, while Western, were far from Interior (three words for you: Black-bellied Whistling Duck). Fortunately for you, though, when I got home I found a review copy of National Geographic Backyard Guide to the Birds of North America by Jonathan Alderfer and Paul Hess ready and waiting to be dissected for [...]

“Our dream is to inspire a nation of potential birders who will delight in the beauty of Brazil’s abundant birdlife and become interested in helping to protect Brazil’s vibrant ecosystems and natural heritage.  It is our hope that this volume will provide the first sparks.” – John Gwynne and Martha Argel What does a field [...]

No one who has read this blog for any length of time will be surprised that I was very excited to hear that a collection of Emily Dickinson’s bird-related poems was being released and a copy was on its way to me to review.*  After all, I have already discussed on this blog what is [...]

With a release date of 25 October 2010, The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America will likely be showing up on the wish lists of many a North American birder this holiday season.  Entirely illustrated by photographs, the main selling point of the new field guide is the sheer number of species [...]

The best way to learn about birds is to go birding.  The second best way to learn about birds is, well, it’s a toss-up between talking with other birders about birds or reading about birds.  Then again, a well-written book or article is kind of like a one-sided conversation, and a blog, when it is [...]