The Armchair Birder: Discovering the Secret Lives of Familiar Birds

I’m not the most hardcore twitcher (aka birdchaser), but I do enjoy traveling around my state and country to see new birds. On the other hand, sometimes it’s nice to just sit down and watch the birds in my own backyard – to be an “armchair birder”. In the same way, I love reading about exotic birds and locations, ones I may never get to see. But it’s also enjoyable to read about familiar birds, to get reacquainted with those that I see regularly. Whichever category the birds of this book fall into for you – strangers or old friends – this book holds something for you.

The Armchair Birder is a collection of 40 essays, each focusing on a specific North American bird or, in a few cases, a pair or group of birds (the complete list is at the end of the review). They are organized around the seasons of the year, with ten per season. You may notice that the selection has a pronounced eastern bias. But that is not too surprising given that the author lives in Georgia and, as a self-professed armchair birder, has chosen to write about the birds familiar to him.

In these accounts, the author weaves together personal observations and anecdotes along with information from other sources to fashion a revealing portrait of each bird. Anyone who wants to write about North American birds today is almost bound to reference the Birds of North America (BNA), the definitive scientific accounts of our breeding birds. Yow is no exception. However, you will quickly find that the BNA is not the author’s primary source. Rather, he favors older writers such as Audubon, Edward Howe Forbush, and Arthur Cleveland Bent.

For anyone familiar with these chroniclers of birds, this will immediately indicate what kind of accounts you will find here. The species accounts of these men included the pertinent scientific data, of course. But they wrote more as storytellers than scientists, so that their accounts, far from being dry like the BNA, were fun and interesting to read.

Likewise, these accounts incorporate a good bit of natural history information, such as feeding, courtship, and nesting behavior. But it is the author’s personal anecdotes and the stories he quotes from other writers that are the most interesting. For instance, it’s nice to find out what Pileated Woodpeckers eat and how they forage. But it’s much more fascinating (at least to me, anyway) to find out that the nineteenth century reverend/naturalist John Bachman tried to raise a couple of Pileateds, but eventually had to set them free when they kept destroying anything that he tried to confine them in.

Audubon is known more for his art than his writing, so it is appropriate that his portrait of the featured bird graces each of the essays. On the plus side, they are reproduced full-paged. But the downside is that they are black-and-white. It’s better than nothing, but probably won’t add much for most readers. Color would have made it much better, but would probably have been cost prohibitive.

Recommendation

These essays were fun to read, and anyone, regardless of experience level, will learn something from this book (probably many somethings). I would especially recommend it to beginning or intermediate birders who want to learn about these creatures beyond their field marks.

There’s nothing wrong with being an armchair birder. If it means getting to know birds the way the author has, I think I should try it more often. If you would like to as well, sitting yourself down with a view of your yard and this book in your hands would be a good way to start.

You can read the book’s introduction, an author interview, and more at the publisher’s website.

The birds included in The Armchair Birder.

Spring

• Carolina Wren
• Eastern Phoebe
• Rose-breasted Grosbeak
• Eastern Bluebird
• Belted Kingfisher
• Scarlet and Summer Tanager
• Brown-headed Cowbird
• Redheads: Red-bellied and Red-headed Woodpeckers
• Mourning Dove

Summer

• Cedar Waxwing
• American Goldfinch
• Wood Thrush
• Yellow-billed Cuckoo
• Chimney Swift
• Northern Mockingbird
• Goatsuckers: Whip-poor-will and Chuck-will’s-widow
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird
• Northern Cardinal

Autumn

• Wild Turkey
• Canada Goose
• American Crow
• Great Blue Heron
• Turkey Vulture
• White-breasted Nuthatch
• Bald Eagle
• Loud Owls: Great Horned and Barred Owls
• “Confusing Fall Warblers”

Winter

• Sandhill Crane
• Blue Jay
• Bobwhite
• Pileated Woodpecker
• American Robin
• The Titmouse Family: Carolina Chickadee and Tufted Titmouse
• Osprey
• Chicken Hawks?: Red-tailed and Cooper’s Hawks