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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.  [...]

You’d think that a person’s centennial, even a posthumous one, would be easier. The long-awaited newly revised Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America is released to the avid masses almost 100 years to the day after the Great Man himself was born and yet, the world did not spin off its axis. Humankind [...]

I just watched Opposable Chums: Guts and Glory at the World Series of Birding and it was a heck of a documentary.  Some of birding’s brightest stars provide commentary and the filmmaker, Jason Kessler, manages to capture the essence, not just of the World Series of Birding, but of birding more generally, in his 65-minute [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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). [...]

We birders are a most fortunate bunch. Not only are we spoilt for choice when it comes to high-quality optics, birding holidays to suit every budget and every level of interest, birding blogs (like this one!) and websites serving us with all kinds of information and avian adventure, we’re also being offered books of astonishing [...]

A new field-guide by the birding powerhouse family that is Bill Thomson III and Julie Zickefoose, published by the excellent Houghton Mifflin in the notable “Peterson Field Guide” series? Now there’s a pedigree that should appeal to most birders - after all it’s almost guaranteed that it’ll be well-written, well-illustrated, and beautifully put-together. And [...]

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 [...]

Any author who attests that “birdwatching is the real national pastime,” American or otherwise, deserves attention. Jonathan Rosen, in actually making a compelling case for his electrifying assertion, demands respect. Too many books in the birding genre focus naturally on the innumerable hows of technique, craft, and field ornithology. Rosen’s mighty The Life of [...]

That time of year has come when raptors are on the wing and a young man’s thoughts turn to… Osprey? It’s true. Come September, the denizens of Seattle aren’t the only ones watching seahawks. Nature lovers around the world turn out in hordes to observe the osprey’s southerly migration. However, none have pursued this peregrination [...]

Season 10 of The Simpsons has come out on DVD and of course I picked up a copy as soon as I noticed. No show on television has ever held my attention and devotion as The Simpsons has and I even saw their silver screen debut on its opening weekend. But why am [...]

“Gulls of the Americas”,
Steve Howell and Jon Dunn (Houghton Mifflin, 2007)
Identifying gulls - particularly 1st and 2nd year birds - is one of birding’s most difficult skills to master, as anyone who’s ever stepped onto a beach in eg California, Kuwait, or Korea will know all too well. The variation in plumage seems endless. The [...]

Mike O’Connor is a syndicated avian expert and owner of the popular Bird Watcher’s General Store in Cape Cod. He’s also a very funny and informative writer, as indicated by his charming book, Why Don’t Woodpeckers Get Headaches? And Other Answers to Bird Questions You Know You Want to Ask. Mr. O’Connor estimates that he’s [...]

I’ve spent quite a few hours lately reading and paging through my recently arrived field guide, Birds of Europe. With a planned trip to Germany in October I want to be prepared to identify everything I see and hear…which isn’t too likely but I can dream, can’t I?
Having never birded outside of the [...]

This seems an optimal time to repost last year’s birdPod review for three important reasons: 1. They’ve renamed this wondrous device the birdJam; 2. Spring is the ideal season to invest in such a handy tool for birdsong identification; and 3. I’ve joined their affiliate program and thus will benefit from purchases made [...]

Faansie Peacock (Self-published, 2006)

Writing a review of a book which is entirely dedicated to the pipits of southern Africa might at first glance seem obscure, like an act of one-upmanship that says to the majority of mainly residential birders, “I travel a lot, so I need a book like this even if you don’t” [...]

Reading a book is usually the closest we’ll ever come to interacting with its author. The experience of reading some books is akin to meeting a new friend; other times, it’s like becoming reacquainted with an old one. Many publications take a didactic tone, seeming to the reader a professor by proxy. More regrettable texts, [...]

There’s more to bird watching than watching birds. Attempting to bird by eye alone is like driving home with only half your gears: even if you get where you’re going, the trip is going to take a lot more time than it has to. Knowledge of bird song makes birding more complete. It also makes [...]

Don’t you just love Julie Zickefoose? If your answer is “no” it probably means that you’re not acquainted with Julie Zickefoose, haven’t read any of her books or articles, seen her artwork, heard her lectures or monthly National Public Radio spots, or even read her eponymous blog. Your loss. Ms. Zickefoose is a naturalist’s naturalist, [...]