These are personal book reviews of a variety of bird- and birding-related titles.
The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America by Donald & Lillian Stokes. First published 2010. As reviewed and pictured: Softcover, 792 pages. The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America is an amazingly comprehensive new photographic guide. Over 850 species are covered, ranging from...
The Curse of the Labrador Duck: My Obsessive Quest to the Edge of Extinction by Glen Chilton. First published September 2009. The Labrador Duck, Camptorhynchus labradorius, was a striking black and white eider-like sea duck that was never known to be common, and is believed to be the first...
The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik. First published in 2004. I joined PaperBackSwap a few months ago. Having been a huge fan in a former lifetime, I had a very large collection of X-files-related books in which I was no longer...
Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding by Scott Weidensaul. First published in 2007. From shotgun ornithologists collecting bird skins to the "angry ladies" that rebelled against the fashion industry's use of bird feathers, and from the first citizen scientists sharing bird sightings to the development...
How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher by Simon Barnes. First published 2005. Look out the window. See a bird. Enjoy it. CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a bad birdwatcher. Throughout How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher, Simon Barnes shares his premise that birdwatching should simply be done for the joy...
To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifelong Obsession by Dan Koeppel. First published 2005. In To See Every Bird On Earth, Dan Koeppel tells of his father's lifelong obsession with birds. It's a well-written biography of an average man who excelled within...
