Princeton University Press just announced an app based on The Warbler Guide will be available for iOS devices in December. Among the list of features, one in particular caught my eye:
- 3D models of birds in all plumages, rotatable and pinch-zoomable to match field experience of a bird
That could be AWESOME! That’s one way that apps could really improve upon printed field guides.
Here are the other features:
- Intuitive, visual, and interactive finders with filters for possible species based on audio and visual criteria chosen by the user
- Rapid and confident two-step ID process using visual finders and comparison species
- The first complete treatment of warbler songs, using a new objective vocabulary
- An intuitive visual finder that includes side, 45 degree, and undertail views
- Many additional photos to show behavior and reinforce key ID points
- Color Impression Icons for narrowing down ID of warblers from the briefest glimpses
- Playback of all songs and vocalizations with sonograms makes study of vocalizations easy and intuitive
- iPhone® and iPad® versions let you take these useful tools into the field
- Selectable finder sortings grouped by color, alphabetical order, song type, and taxonomic order
- Interactive song finder using objective vocabulary for fast ID of unknown songs
- Comparison species with selectable side, 45 degree, and undertail views
Penguins: The Ultimate Guide
by Tui De Roy, Mark Jones, and Julie Cornthwaite
From Princeton University Press:
Penguins are perhaps the most beloved birds. On land, their behavior appears so humorous and expressive that we can be excused for attributing to them moods and foibles similar to our own. Few realize how complex and mysterious their private lives truly are, as most of their existence takes place far from our prying eyes, hidden beneath the ocean waves. This stunningly illustrated book provides a unique look at these extraordinary creatures and the cutting-edge science that is helping us to better understand them. Featuring more than 400 breathtaking photos, this is the ultimate guide to all 18 species of penguins, including those with retiring personalities or nocturnal habits that tend to be overlooked and rarely photographed.
A book that no bird enthusiast or armchair naturalist should do without, Penguins includes discussions of penguin conservation, informative species profiles, fascinating penguin facts, and tips on where to see penguins in the wild.
- Covers all 18 species of the world’s penguins
- Features more than 400 photos
- Explores the latest science on penguins and their conservation
- Includes informative species profiles and fascinating penguin facts
This book is very similar to the previous Tui De Roy and Mark Jones collaboration, Albatross: Their World, Their Ways (probably my favorite bird-family book ever). That means it is big, filled with gorgeous photographs, and packed with great information.
Penguins: The Ultimate Guide
by Tui De Roy, Mark Jones, and Julie Cornthwaite
Hardcover; 240 pages
Princeton University Press; August 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-0691162997
$35.00
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(based in the U.S.)
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(based in the U.K.)
On 1 September 1914, between midday and 1 pm, in the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Cincinnati, Ohio, a pigeon breathed her last, and with her died her species.
– Mark Avery, A Message from Martha
And thus, the Passenger Pigeon became extinct 100 years ago. You’re probably already aware of this, as much has been made of this centenary (it was even in the New York Times!). But this is one thing that we should make a big deal about, and things such as Project Passenger Pigeon are doing just that. But I want to focus on (what else?) some books. To mark this anniversary, no fewer than three books about the Passenger Pigeon will be published this year. I would strongly urge everyone to read one or more of these books. The story of the pigeon’s extinction is not only interesting in and of itself, but it holds many lessons that we dare not forget.
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A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon’s Flight to Extinction
by Joel Greenberg
Greenberg traces the history of the pigeon through those that encountered this amazing bird. Intriguingly, he also looks into their ecological role and postulates how the landscape of eastern North America would be different today if the pigeon had survived.
For a more detailed look at this book, check out Rick Wright’s review for the American Birding Association.
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A Message from Martha: The Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon and Its Relevance Today
by Mark Avery
Avery frames the pigeon’s story around a trip he made to visit the bird’s former haunts. “With an element of travelogue as well as historical detective work”, he weaves in a broader view of what was happening in America at the time. But even more importantly, he doesn’t dwell exclusively in the past, but uses the pigeon to show how we can have a more sustainable future.
Here’s a review of this book at The Well-read Naturalist.
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The Passenger Pigeon
by Errol Fuller
Not intended to be a detailed monograph of the pigeon, Fuller’s book is instead both a celebration and memorial of this important bird. Unlike the previous two books, this one is richly illustrated with many artists’ renderings of the Passenger Pigeon and photos of live birds.
Update: And here are a few more: Pilgrims of the Air
, One Came Home
(a young-adult novel), and The Lost Bird Project
. Thanks, Ted, for bringing attention to these.
by Richard Weeks
The pictures, paintings, and story of the author’s attempt to photograph all the regularly breeding warblers in the United States.
Read the full review »
52 Small Birds
by Richard Weeks
From Richard Weeks:
Wood warblers are among the most sought-after of the spring migrants. The small, colorful birds provide motivation for thousands of birders from throughout the world to travel to locations both popular and obscure. 52 Small Birds describes the eight year quest of a bird artist to photograph and paint the 52 breeding warblers of the United States. Comfortably retired and enjoying his passion as an artist, the author was in his 60s when he discovered the joys and challenges of birding. His desire—perhaps more rightly described as a fixation—to document warblers led to 11 trips to eight different states, which are described in narration, journal sketches, photographs, and paintings. This narrative relates how the process of searching for, photographing, and painting birds both enhanced and deepened the author’s connection to the natural world.
Not a new book, but I just discovered it this week and am really enjoying it so far. The art and photography are nice, but the narrative is also very good. And, of course, it’s about warblers!
52 Small Birds
by Richard Weeks
Paperback; 140 pages
Luminare Press; February 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-1937303228
$26.95
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(based in the U.S.)
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(based in the U.K.)
by Noah Strycker
An exploration of the amazing lives of birds and the insight they can provide into our own lives.
Read the full review »
A Message from Martha: The Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon and Its Relevance Today
by Mark Avery
From Bloomsbury:
September 1st, 2014 sees the centenary of one of the best-documented extinctions in history the demise of the Passenger Pigeon. From being the commonest bird on the planet 50 years earlier, the species became extinct with the death in Cincinatti Zoo of Martha, the last of her kind.
A Message from Martha marks the centenary of that tragic event. Built around the framework of a visit to the pigeon’s former haunts in eastern North America by author Mark Avery, it tells the tale of the pigeon, and of Martha, and explores the largely untold story of the ecological annihilation of this part of America in the years between the end of the US Civil War and 1900. This period saw an unprecedented loss of natural beauty and richness, as forests were felled and the prairies were ploughed, swiftly to be replaced by a dustbowl, while wildlife was slaughtered indiscriminately. Written engagingly and with an element of travelogue as well as historical detective work, A Message from Martha is more than another depressing tale of human greed and ecological stupidity [emphasis added]. It contains an underlying message that we need to re-forge our relationship with the natural world on which we depend, and plan a more sustainable future. Otherwise the tipping point will be crossed and more species will go the way of the Passenger Pigeon. We should listen to the message from Martha.
I love the portion above that’s in bold. That’s why I’m looking forward to reading this book, it not only looks back at the Passenger Pigeion, but ahead to what we can learn from it.
A Message from Martha: The Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon and Its Relevance Today
by Mark Avery
Hardcover; 304 pages
Bloomsbury; August 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-1472906250
$22.00
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(based in the U.S.)
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(based in the U.K.)
by The Mincing Mockingbird
A humorous look at some very troubled birds.
Read the full review »
A History of Birdwatching in 100 Objects
by David Callahan
From Bloomsbury:
This book looks at 100 items that have profoundly shaped how people watched, studied and engaged with the avian world. Each item contains around 500 words on a double-page spread and include an illustration of the object in question. The book includes the objects listed below as well as many more.The range of items is international and cross-cultural. Subjects include:
- An Egyptian ‘field guide’ [early tomb decorations of birds, identifiable as species]
- Ornithologiae libri tres: the first British bird guide [a 1676 publication that attempted to itemise all British birds known at the time]
- The Dodo specimen held at the Horniman museum
- Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus [the first-ever system of scientific names in 1758, and still the international standard today]
- The shotgun
- The book, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne by Gilbert White [1789]
- HMS Beagle [the ship on which Darwin made his ground-breaking discoveries]
- Aluminium bird rings [used to record movement and longevity of individuals and species]
- Many more modern innovations including walkie talkies, pagers, radio tags and apps
There’s an excellent review of this book by Donna Schulman at 10,000 Birds. Looks like an interesting conversation starter.
A History of Birdwatching in 100 Objects
by David Callahan
Hardcover; 224 pages
Bloomsbury; September 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-1408186183
$35.00
Buy from Buteo Books
(based in the U.S.)
Buy from NHBS
(based in the U.K.)
