How to Be a Better Birder by Derek Lovitch. Published 2012. As reviewed and pictured: softcover, 192 pages.
I haven't been out birding as much as I would like lately. That means it has been very good time to catch up on my bird reading. What better place to start than this book with its no-nonsense title?
Unfortunately for me, the last weeks have not been my first birding drought. During times like these, I start to feel like I've read a lot more about birding than I've actually done it. Therefore, a few concepts covered in How to Be a Better Birder were very familiar to me - at least in theory, if not already in practice. The book is divided into nine chapters, covering topics like Birding by Habitat, Birding with a Purpose, and Patch Listing. Lovitch covers all the bases for anyone looking to improve their craft, no matter the personal birding goals.
There's no denying the wealth of resources available to birders online. This is true of any pastime (or anything at all) today, I suppose, but still it's refreshing to read a book where the author embraces these sources rather than pretending they don't exist. Lovitch does a great job of explaining topics using real-world personal examples while offering links to websites for further study. This is perhaps most evident in the chapter which covers Birding and Weather. Here, Lovitch provides detailed instructions on how to use several different online sources to further understand how weather patterns impact bird movements (a topic much too great to be discussed in depth in the book) and how to use modern tools to plan birding outings no matter where one is located.
I was also especially interested in the last chapter in the book, which covered Patch Listing. Patch listing is something I have really come to embrace since moving to Florida last year. This last chapter in the book ties together all of the skills and concepts laid out in the previous chapters, and spells out how they can all be applied to local patch birding to improve a birder's overall skill.
Lovitch writes in a familiar tone which makes even the most technical topics easy to follow and understand. Each chapter discusses skills that build upon previous concepts, tying everything neatly together in the end. I feel like I learned some new general skills, and I am looking forward to trying out some of the weather/radar and other topics just as soon as I can get out regularly birding again!
I enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it to other birders who want to go further in this hobby. I did find a few editorial errors (typos, unclosed parentheses, etc) a bit distracting, for which I am deducting a half star. Therefore, I give How to Be a Better Birder 4.5 Goldfinches out of 5.
Disclosure: This is my own original, honest review of How to Be a Better Birder, a copy of which was provided to me free of charge by the publisher.
My birding library grew by leaps and bounds in 2011, with a high number of books acquired and a very short list of books traded out. In 2011 I only managed to review 11 books (out of a goal of 20) and got rid of less than that....
As my birding library grows, I've acquired a lot of books via trading sites like PaperBackSwap (PBS) and BookMooch (BM), or via thrift shops, used book stores, and festival fundraisers. Acquiring books this way makes the obsessive book-collecting part of this hobby a bit more affordable....
The American Bird Conservancy Guide to Bird Conservation by Daniel J. Lebbin, Michael J. Parr, and George H. Fenwick. First published 2010. Hardcover, 456 pages. As a reader of this blog, chances are that you do something to help birds. There are a lot of ways to help, and...
Tales of a Low-Rent Birder by Pete Dunne. First published 1986. As reviewed and pictured: softcover, 157 pages. Pete Dunne's Tales of a Low-Rent Birder is subtitled 19 Flight of Fancy by America's Second-Best-Known Bird-watcher. The book's forward comes from the best-known birder of the time, Roger Tory...
