Editors of Bird Watcher's Digest

Another one of the “For Dummies” books, this one focuses on bird watching. It not only goes through ways to help you learn how to ID birds (what to watch for, listen for, etc.), but also ways to make your yard more bird-friendly (feeders, shelter, water… also gardening – what types of trees, shrubs, flowers, etc), keeping lists, sketching, what to look for in binoculars, field guides, and more.

I always enjoy these books – there is usually some humour thrown in, though this one had maybe less than some of the others I’ve read. This one was published in 1997, though, so a bit outdated, as he mentions organizations with their mailing addresses, rather than a website, for instance; there was one chapter that included Internet and email resources, but CD-ROMs are also mentioned. Other than that, though, I thought there was a lot of good information here. Oh, I’ve seen comments about the colour photos, but my edition didn’t have that (maybe that was just in the 1st edition?).… (meer)

This bird identificatio book is perfect for anyone just starting to learn their backyard birds, especially kids. The guide is photo-based rather than painting based but that should be fine for novices. The birds chosen are the right ones. The number of birds covered is probably the best comprimise between thoroughness and too few. Photos used are diagnostic and reproduced with color accuracy and decent tonal range.

The bird order is a little odd but with the limited number of birds this should not be a hinderance.… (meer)