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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 spent the odd hour sea-watching from both land and sea. I’ve sea-watched with some very experienced birders whose ability to identify species almost at the edge of visibility has left me questioning my optics, my eyesight, my ability and quite often my sanity. I’ve listened and learned and gone back to listen and learn [...]

When Corey and Mike asked if I wanted to review this book, I cautioned them that I am far from an expert in seabirds (my friends know that if you want to see my face turn green, just say the word “pelagic”), but would happy to review it from the perspective of a seabird beginner [...]

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, [...]

Sherrida Woodley’s Quick Fall of Light is based on an intriguing premise – what if the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon was somehow linked to the 1918 influenza epidemic? What if, in turn, the discovery that the species was not truly extinct held the key to saving humanity from another, even more devestating flu outbreak? [...]

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 [...]

Putting nature on TV is a tricky business. First there is the inherent irony of getting people to sit on their butts in front of a screen in order to show them the vast and beautiful world outside said screen. On top of that, every editorial choice not only says something, but says a million [...]

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 [...]

Have you ever looked to the sky and seen a high-flying hawk and wanted to know what it was?  Do you wish you could tell an eagle from a hawk?  Do you know your raptors but wish that you had an easy reference for all the raptors of North America? Never fear, David Allen Sibley [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The Big Year was alright.  It was neither horrible nor outstanding, neither fully factual nor completely made-up, neither completely engaging nor totally alienating.  I would give it a solid “B-” as a birder whether I was grading on a curve or not.  If you are a birder you should, of course, see the movie.  If [...]

“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 [...]

Philosophy and I have always had a rather fraught relationship. I love grappling with big ideas, but dislike the tendency to extrapolate endless sky-bridges of thought and constantly redefine terms. You’d think, then, that applying science to philosophy by studying the evolutionary underpinnings of thought and behavior across species would be right up my alley. [...]

Here at 10,000 Birds we have already reviewed Watching Sparrows, Watching Warblers, and Watching Warblers West.  Somehow, we never got around to reviewing Watching Waders, another in the series of excellent films by Michael Male and Judy Fieth.  Watching Waders is chock full of great footage, as one learns to expect after having seen other films [...]

I never would have thought that a film that focused entirely on North American sparrows could be so delightful.  But the new second edition of Watching Sparrows* by Michael Male and Judy Fieth, who have a whole series of bird films already produced or in production, not only kept me staring at the screen but drew [...]

“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 [...]

The Crossley ID Guide from Princeton University Press has long been anticipated and has certainly been the subject of many discussions among birders across North America.  Now that it is in the hands of reviewers across the country we can see that it is unlike any other field guide we have ever seen.  It is [...]

The idea that tiny songbirds that weigh far less than the change found in the average pocket manage to migrate 600 miles across the Gulf of Mexico was long considered fanciful.  It was assumed that a few, at most, might make such flights, but most birds were thought to be circum-gulf migrants rather than trans-gulf [...]

Are you a birder with relatives who constantly call to ask you what the weird bird at their bird feeders is?  Do you have a child in your family who you think is on the cusp of becoming interested in birds?  Is there a blank spot on your wall that is just begging for something [...]