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Enter here for a chance to win a free copy of The Condor’s Feather: Travelling Wild in South America, by Michael Webster

Fine print:

• Contest ends 04/18/2022, 12:00am eastern
• Five winners will be chosen at random. The winners will be notified after the contest ends. They will then have to provide a mailing address within 3 days of notification, or another winner may be chosen.
• Can be sent to United States, Canada, UK, and Australasia addresses only.
• There is no entry fee and no purchase necessary to enter this competition.

Please be assured that any information collected will only be used to contact you regarding this contest – it will not be sold, used to send you spam, or anything else.

Looking for something to get for the birdwatcher in your life? You can never go wrong with a good bird book. Here are a few suggestions.

Disclosure: I get a small commission for purchases made through links in this post.

Every bird in the world in one book

Any birder would love to have one of these tomes on their shelf, as they’re the only books that have all of the world’s birds in one volume. Those who do a lot of birding around the globe would get more use out of the more expensive All the Birds of the World. But The Complete Birds of the World is a great way to simply browse through all the birds there are to see.

Field guides

Great reads

Awesome reference guides

The Wonderful Mr Willughby: The First True Ornithologist
by Tim Birkhead

From Bloomsbury Publishing:

Francis Willughby lived and thrived in the midst of the rapidly accelerating scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. Traveling with his Cambridge tutor John Ray, they decided to overhaul the whole of natural history by imposing order on its messiness and complexity. It was exhilarating, exacting, and exhausting work. Yet before their first book, Ornithology, could be completed, Willughby died in 1672. Since then, Ray’s reputation has grown, obscuring that of his collaborator. Now, for the first time, Willughby’s story and genius are given the attention they deserve.

In his too-short life, Francis Willughby helped found the Royal Society, differentiated birds through identification of their distinguishing features, and asked questions that were, in some cases, centuries ahead of their time. His discoveries and his approach to his work continue to be relevant–and revelatory–oday. Tim Birkhead describes and celebrates how Willughby’s endeavors set a standard for the way birds–and indeed the whole of natural history–should be studied. Rich with glorious detail, The Wonderful Mr Willughby is at once a fascinating insight into a thrilling period of scientific history and an authoritative, lively biography of one of its legendary pioneers.

The first book by Tim Birkhead that I read was The Wisdom of Birds. It was an amazing, enjoyable trip through the history of ornithology. And it was also the first time that I had heard of Francis Willughby. Now, Birkhead focuses on Willughby for this biography. If it’s even half as good as Wisdom, this will be a book well worth reading.

The Wonderful Mr Willughby: The First True Ornithologist
by Tim Birkhead
Hardcover; 368 pages
Bloomsbury Publishing; July 10, 2018
ISBN: 9781408878484
$27.00

Buy from Buteo Books
(based in the U.S.)

Buy from NHBS
(based in the U.K.)

Birdmania: A Remarkable Passion for Birds, a new book from Bernd Brunner, introduces the reader to many individuals that have succumbed to ‘birdmania’. And here’s your chance to meet them.

Enter here for a chance to win a free copy:

Thanks to Greystone Books for supplying the prize!

Please be assured that any information collected will only be used to contact you regarding this contest – it will not be sold, used to send you spam, or anything else.

Fine print:

• Contest ends October 27, 2017, 11:59pm eastern
• Winner will be chosen at random. The winner will be notified after the contest ends. They will then have to provide a mailing address within 3 days of notification, or another winner may be chosen.
• United States and Canada residents only.
• There is no entry fee and no purchase necessary to enter this competition.

I recently posted a list of my favorite books of 2016. What about you – what was your favorite?

As a bonus, if you post your answer as a comment here, you’ll be entered to win my favorite book of the year – Listening to a Continent Sing: Birdsong by Bicycle from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Contest ends 1/23/2017 at 11:59pm eastern. Please include your email when submitting the comment to make it easier to contact you (it won’t be used for anything other than to contact you regarding this contest).

Terms and Conditions:

• Winner will be chosen at random. The winner will be notified after the contest ends. They will then have to provide a mailing address within 3 days of notification, or another winner may be chosen.
• Anyone is eligible to enter. Winners in the United States will have the prizes shipped to them for free. Winners outside the US may be asked to cover some shipping costs.
• There is no entry fee and no purchase necessary to enter this competition.

Here’s the second giveaway in celebration of The Birder’s Library’s 10th anniversary – two books from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Baby Birds: An Artist Looks into the Nest is the latest from artist/author Julie Zickefoose. It’s a treat to look at and to read. Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Northern Central America is an excellent new field guide for Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.

To enter:

Thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for supplying the prizes!

Please be assured that any information collected will only be used to contact you regarding this contest – it will not be sold, used to send you spam, or anything else.

Fine print:

• Contest ends December 18, 11:59pm eastern
• Winner will be chosen at random. The winner will be notified after the contest ends. They will then have to provide a mailing address within 3 days of notification, or another winner may be chosen.
• Anyone is eligible to enter. Winners in the United States will have the prizes shipped to them for free. Winners outside the US may be asked to cover some shipping costs.
• There is no entry fee and no purchase necessary to enter this competition.

How better to celebrate this site’s 10th anniversary than to give away some books? For the first giveaway, we have two fantastic books from Princeton University Press: a new one and one of my favorite books from the past 10 years. Listening to a Continent Sing is one of my favorite books from this year; it’s just an enjoyable read, and you can’t help but learn a good bit about birdsong as it goes. The Unfeathered Bird could be the most surprising book I’ve seen since I started this site. I never would have imagined that a book about, well, birds without feathers could be so beautiful and so informative and relevant to birders.

And now you have a change to win both of them.

Thanks to Princeton University Press for supplying the prizes!

Please be assured that any information collected will only be used to contact you regarding this contest – it will not be sold, used to send you spam, or anything else.

Fine print:

• Contest ends December 12, 11:59pm eastern
• Winner will be chosen at random. The winner will be notified after the contest ends. They will then have to provide a mailing address within 3 days of notification, or another winner may be chosen.
• Anyone is eligible to enter. Winners in the United States will have the prizes shipped to them for free. Winners outside the US may be asked to cover some shipping costs.
• There is no entry fee and no purchase necessary to enter this competition.

Looking for something to get for the bird-lover in your life? You can never go wrong with a good bird book. Here are a few suggestions.

• Owl: A Year in the Lives of North American Owls
  by Paul Bannick

  One look inside this book will tell you why anyone would appreciate it – the photos are stunning. Overall, the best owl pictures I’ve ever seen. And it’s a good read, too!

• Hummingbirds: Volume 1
  by John C. Arvin

  Huge, with amazing (roughly life-sized) paintings of every hummingbird to grace North America, Central America, and the Carribean.

• The Sibley Birds Coloring Field Journal

  Everyone seems to like coloring these days. This book will allow you to color images from one of the best bird artists around, all the while teaching the user about the birds they’re coloring.

• Baby Birds: An Artist Looks into the Nest
  by Julie Zickefoose

  This book is just a delight – the art, words, design, everything about it.

 

For avid readers:





 

And for the world-traveling birders in your life:

Today, August 25, 2016, is the 100th birthday of the National Park Service. The best way to celebrate, of course, is to get out there and, as the park service puts it, Find Your Park. (This weekend is a particularly good time to do so, as all parks are fee-free August 25 through August 28.) But, just as with birding, if you can’t be out there, you can always read about it. Here are a few of my favorite books on America’s national parks:

• Your Guide to the National Parks: The Complete Guide to all 58 National Parks
  by Michael Joseph Oswald

  This is the best guidebook to all of the capital-N, capital-P National Parks (with the exception of Pinnacles, which was “upgraded” to National Park status after the book was published). It provides brief summaries of the parks and their history and personal recommendations of the “to do” activities. Before you buy, though, just be aware that there is a second edition set to be published January 1, 2017, which will include Pinnacles, new photos, and other small changes.

• The National Parks: An Illustrated History
  by Kim Heacox and National Geographic

  This is an excellent overview of the history of the national parks, illustrated with tons of photographs.

• Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey Through America’s National Parks
  by Q.T. Luong

  Of all the large-format photography books of the parks – and there have been many – this is the best I’ve seen. The photos are amazing, of course. The author/photographer includes a fair amount of information on each park, including the precise location where each photo was taken (a particularly nice touch).

• The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks
  by Terry Tempest Williams

  Of the many books about the national parks published this year, this one stands out. In it, Williams writes about a selection of parks that have made an impact on her. It’s an excellent read.

• A Thinking Person’s Guide To America’s National Parks
  by various

  Don’t let the title put you off – this is an excellent book for any fan of the national parks. It’s a series of essays on various park-related topics – from conservation to how to engage the next generation. It’s a nice variety of topics, and a good introduction to many of the lesser-known units in the park service.

• The National Parks: America’s Best Idea
  by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan

  You may have seen this on PBS. But if not – and even if you have, actually – having it on blu-ray or DVD is a good idea so that you can watch it whenever the mood hits. And this series is so good that could be very often, indeed. Alternatively, Amazon Prime members can watch for free

I love the paintings of John James Audubon. I’ve long thrilled to see his works in various books, and have even been fortunate enough to gaze upon a selection of plates from the first editions. But never did it occur to me that his original watercolors could still exist. That is, until about three years ago, when the New-York Historical Society announced an exhibition of Audubon’s original works. It turns out that the society purchased the paintings from Audubon’s widow. The exhibit, Audubon’s Aviary, would display all of the paintings in the society’s possession. But it would do so over three years, with roughly a third of them exhibited at a time for just a few months during each of those years. 2015 marks the third, and final, exhibit.

I desperately wanted to see them. I wasn’t able to make the exhibits in 2013 or 2014, but finally got a chance this year. Being in a room surrounded by 130 of Audubon’s original watercolor paintings was awe-inspiring. I couldn’t get over the fact that I was inches away, separated only by thin glass, from paintings produced by Audubon’s own hand. It was unreal.

From reading the book produced about this exhibit – Audubon’s Aviary: The Original Watercolors for The Birds of America (a review will be coming soon) – I discovered that many of Audubon’s paintings are actually collages. He would sometimes cut out a figure and adhere it to another painting. His Green Heron is a good example of this. Except, you can’t tell it from any print. You can see evidence of it in Audubon’s Aviary, as the images in that book are taken directly from the original paintings, but even then it’s not very clear unless you know what you’re looking for. But it’s glaringly obvious when looking at the original. The adult Green Heron was painted separately and then attached to this sheet, with the overlapping leaf cut out in such a way that the bird could be slid beneath it. It looks great as a print, but really pops in person.

I’m sure there are many other details that you can discern from viewing these paintings in person, especially if you have any training in art. But to me, the best thing was the overall, subjective experience. Being surrounded by, and that close to, such greatness was overwhelming.

If you want to experience it for yourself you need to hurry, as this exhibit closes on May 10, 2015. After that, we’ll have to wait at least 10 years before being able to see these paintings again (according to the exhibit’s flyer, anyway). For more information see http://audubon.nyhistory.org/