2016 Bird Book Preview

One of my favorite things to do is to look ahead at the bird books set to be published soon (I lead such an exciting life!). 2016 is shaping up to be a great year for them. Check out April 12, in particular (in addition to the three highlighted titles, two others – The Genius of Birds and Feathers: Displays of Brilliant Plumage – are also set to be published that day). Has there ever been a single date with that many fantastic-looking books set to be published?

• American Birding Association State Field Guides
  by various
  Scott & Nix

  The excellent ABA state field guide series continues in 2016 with Arizona, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Texas, New York, and probably more.

• Bird Droppings: Writings About Watching Birds and Bird Watchers
  by Pete Dunne
  January 15, 2016; Stackpole Books

  Finally! It’s been way too long since a Pete Dunne anthology has been published.

• Waterfowl of North America, Europe and Asia: An Identification Guide
  by Sébastien Reeber
  March 1, 2016; Princeton University Press

  This should be the same as the Helm Guide published in 2015 (but with a less attractive cover, in my opinion). If all the reviews of that edition are correct, this will be the definitive ID guide for these birds.

• Sibley Birds East (Second Edition)
  Sibley Birds West (Second Edition)
  by David Allen Sibley
  March 29, 2016; Knopf

  We’ve been anticipating these since the second edition of the “Big” Sibley was published in 2014. And for anyone who’s worried about the colors, the publisher reassures us:

  All illustrations, including new and revised illustrations of species and regional forms, are taken from the rescanned and meticulously color-corrected second printing of the second edition of the Sibley Guide.

• Birds in Trouble
  by Lynn E. Barber
  April 8, 2016; Texas A&M University Press

  Barber highlights, with words and art, birds that are, well, in trouble. Anything that raises awareness of the perils facing birds is a good thing.

• Baby Birds: An Artist Looks into the Nest
  by Julie Zickefoose
  April 12, 2016; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  Zickefoose’s books are an absolute delight to both read and look at. Her previous articles and chapters dealing with baby birds are endearing, yet educational (not to mention cute as hell).

• One Wild Bird at a Time: Portraits of Individual Lives
  by Bernd Heinrich
  April 12, 2016; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  It’s Bernd Heinrich writing about birds. ‘Nuff said.

• The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird’s Egg
  by Tim Birkhead
  April 12, 2016; Bloomsbury

  Birkhead has a knack for taking technical topics that have the potential to be, dare I say, boring, and making them compelling. I have no doubt that this will be the case here.

• Peterson Reference Guide to Woodpeckers of North America
  by Stephen A. Shunk
  May 10, 2016; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  Like the Peterson Reference Guide to Owls of North America and the Caribbean (one of the best books of 2015), this is a guide to the natural history of these birds. Expect lots of excellent photos and interesting information on each of North America’s 23 woodpecker species.

• Listening to a Continent Sing: Birdsong by Bicycle from the Atlantic to the Pacific
  by Donald Kroodsma
  May 10, 2016; Princeton University Press

  Kroodsma’s previous books about birdsong – The Singing Life of Birds and Birdsong by the Seasons – are excellent (the former, especially, is a must-read for anyone interested in the subject), so I’m looking forward to another one.

• Lost Among the Birds: Accidentally Finding Myself in One Very Big Year
  by Neil Hayward
  May 17, 2016; Bloomsbury

  When Neil Hayward broke the ABA-area big year record, you knew it was only a matter of time until a book was written about it. But I’m not complaining – I love such books!

• Wildlife Conservation Society Birds of Brazil: The Atlantic Forest of Southeast Brazil, Including São Paulo and Rio De Janeiro
  by Robert S. Ridgely, John A. Gwynne, Guy Tudor, and Martha Argel
  June 14, 2016; Page Street Publishing

  The first guide in this series – Birds of Brazil: The Pantanal and Cerrado of Central Brazil – was published over five years ago, so I was beginning to think the line might have ended prematurely. Glad to see that I was wrong; this series has a great concept.

• Birds of Western Ecuador: A Photographic Guide
  by Nick Athanas and Paul J. Greenfield
  June 28, 2016; Princeton University Press

  Nice to see the neotropics get some photographic guides.

Posted by Grant McCreary on January 1st, 2016.