Tag Archives: Birding Tips

Your Most Influential Birding Books

Last month we asked you to share some of your most influential birding books—here are a few favorite books that got you hooked!

Dozen Birding Hot Spots by Roger Tory Peterson
Dozen Birding Hot Spots by Roger Tory Peterson

PEG ABBOTT

  1. The Complete Birder, Jack Connor, 1988. This birding book transformed my birding from watching and matching to a field guide to the art of comparative study between species. It helped me pace myself for careful study of shorebirds and even gave me hope for gulls. A gem still relevant today.
  2. Roger Tory Peterson’s Dozen Birding Hotspots, George Harrison, 1976. This publication came two years post high-school graduation for me and I was already birding from escapades in my first car, a Plymouth Duster my parents had passed on to me. I immediately pointed it to the first hotspot I explored, Cave Creek Canyon. I said right then, someday I am going to live here (I do now). I got to all of the hotspots and many more but it gave me my first map and sense of urgency to get out and see these premier places.
Birding on Borrowed Time by Phoebe Snetsinger
Birding on Borrowed Time by Phoebe Snetsinger

PAT LUEDERS

  1. Birding on Borrowed Time. When Phoebe Snetsinger died, my local paper did a front page story about her. I discovered she lived only two blocks from me, so I read her biography, Birding on Borrowed Time, discovering there was a hobby of birding all over the world.
  2. Kenn Kaufman’s Kingbird Highway inspired me to learn about, and chase, birds throughout the U.S.

Because of these two books, I enrolled in a Beginning Birders class at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Birds of North America by Chandler S. Robbins
Birds of North America by Chandler S. Robbins

KEITH HANSEN

Undoubtedly the two birding books that initially inspired me at the start were:

  1. Golden Guide to Birds of North America by Chandler S. Robbins, artwork by Arthur Singer
  2. The four volume set by William Leon Dawson to the Birds of California.
Birds of North America by Eliot Porter
Birds of North America by Eliot Porter

GREG SMITH

  1. From William Leon Dawson’s account for Bufflehead in Birds of California: “We would cuddle him in our arms, and stroke his puffy cheeks and rainbow hue, or give a playful tweak to his saucy little nose. But he does not immediately reciprocate our desire to fondle him…”.
  2. And then there is Eliot Porter’s Birds of North America: A Personal Selection, a birding book that instilled in me all the ethical and positive feelings generated by my photography of the world of natural history.
Parrots of the World by Joseph M. Forshaw
Parrots of the World by Joseph M. Forshaw

CARLOS SANCHEZ

  1. Golden Guide to the Birds of North America— Chandler S. Robbins, Herbert S. Zim, Bertel Brunn— 1966: This is the classic field guide that introduced many in the United States to the birds of North America, and I studied the copy at my elementary school endlessly. I was especially interested in artwork and sketching at the time, and I would often practice by copying individual birds from the book onto blank pieces of paper.
  2. Parrots of the World— Joseph Michael Forshaw— 1977: This is a beautiful birding book full of information and scientific illustrations on every single known parrot species, my favorite group of birds. I eventually even got to go to Bowra Station in Queensland, Australia in 2009 to visit the very same place where Forshaw made a lot of his observations on parrots!
The Observer's Book of Birds by S. Vere Benson
The Observer’s Book of Birds by S. Vere Benson

GERARD GORMAN

  1. The Observer’s Book of Birds by S. Vere Benson (any Brits of a certain age reading this will know it). It was one in a series (with Birds Eggs, Butterflies, Trees, Fungi, Horses, Dogs, Postage Stamps, etc., etc.). An absolute little pocket-sized gem, with paintings of every bird in Britain and succinct texts. I devoured that book. I still have it.
  2. My Year with the Woodpeckers by Heinz Sielmann. This birding book made a huge impression on me. It was first published in 1959 (before I was born!). It mainly tells the story of how Sielmann, a German zoologist and film-maker, filmed INSIDE the tree cavity nests of woodpeckers. I got the book after watching him interviewed on TV and seeing his black-and-white film of nesting woodpeckers on a BBC nature program. It was incredible stuff, he was the first to do it and, compared to today, with very basic equipment.
A Guide to Bird Finding in New Jersey by William J. Boyle, Jr.
A Guide to Bird Finding in New Jersey by William J. Boyle, Jr.

RICK WEIMAN

  1. Birds of North America field guide (Golden Press). I was a biology major at Rutgers College (before it was a University) and in 1981 I enrolled in an Ornithology course taught by Dr. Charles Leck (who unbeknownst to me was also the State Ornithologist for New Jersey). The Golden field guide was one of the birding books we had to purchase and using this guide we had to learn 150 birds for the course including their orders, families, and Latin names. This book and Dr. Leck started me on my birding path and has led to all of the wonderful places I’ve been and many of friends I’ve met since that share my passion.
  2. A Guide to Bird Finding in New Jersey by William (Bill) J. Boyle, Jr. When I began birding after college this was the birding book I purchased to help me explore NJ in search of birds. It was my bible and my road map and I still use it today. The book lists all of the author’s best birding spots in NJ with maps, directions, and times of year certain species may be present. It is in this book I first read about the wonders of Cape May, a place I have visited many times since in the spring and fall. Trips to Cape May led me to NJ Audubon and the wonderful people at the Cape May Bird Observatory. I soon joined CMBO’s World Series of birding century run teams and learned from birders like Pat & clay Sutton and David Sibley (yes, that David Sibley) who worked at CMBO way back then. Years later I joined the NJ Audubon “Wandering Tattlers” team made up of board members and corporate sponsors (that’s how I punched my ticket) and our leader every year was none other than Bill Boyle. Bill and I still keep in touch, and his book really was a huge part of my discovering what an awesome state I live in for both people, nature, and birds.
Birds of Southern Africa by Ian Sinclair
Birds of Southern Africa by Ian Sinclair

BOB MEINKE

Although I’ve essentially been a biologist since I was eight years old—probably from the day I returned to our family campsite with a 50-inch Bull Snake draped across my shoulders, scaring my poor mother witless—my appreciation for birding developed in fits and starts. Not surprisingly, my hotly anticipated career in herpetology never materialized, and I ultimately spent much of my youth in the Mojave Desert peering through a hand lens, honing what would eventually become a professional interest in plant taxonomy. But still not limiting myself to botany at that point, I wanted to know the names of everything I ran across, and not just the wildflowers. What lizard was that, and that dragonfly, and by the way, what were those pale little birds that blended in so well under the creosote bushes?

They were Horned Larks, I learned, though not from a book or a field guide, but a simple pamphlet handed out by the National Park Service at Lake Mead. But the seed was planted. Years went by, I was now teaching at Oregon State, and I continued to flirt with a passing interest in birding—a Pileated Woodpecker here, a Clark’s Nutcracker there. Fate had to intervene it seemed, and in 1994, as I was organizing a research trip to the Prudhoe Bay oilfields, I came across a publication by Alfred Bailey entitled Birds of Arctic Alaska (published 1948). How it ended up stacked near the floristic manuals and plant presses we were loading up for Prudhoe is a mystery, but there it was, so I tossed it in my rucksack. 

Travel from Oregon to Deadhorse took a full day, and with time to kill I flipped open Bailey’s book, which detailed an expedition he took to the Arctic coast in the early 1920s. Just where I was going!  And so many birds I’d never heard of!  And I’d probably have time to look for them, since it was summer—when it never got dark! Why the book resonated with me so much I’ll never know, but I spent as much time on that trip birding as I did stooped over our tundra research plots. By the time we got back, my interest in birding was no longer passing.

The deal was sealed in 1998 when I first went to Africa. Again, botany took the lead, as we were primarily going to photograph the wide array of spectacular geopyhtes (i.e., bulb-bearing plants) that South Africa is famous for. But I didn’t leave without bringing along Birds of Southern Africa by Ian Sinclair, et al. And if I envisioned myself a serious birder before, my interest shifted to another level as we traveled through South Africa, Zambia, and Botswana.  

Although an identification guide, and completely different than Bailey’s book, Birds of Southern Africa was (and still is) beautifully put together, and was the key to making the most of a very memorable trip. It was the first of many international birding books for me, and I still remember it as the one that got me hooked on ecotravel.

This Cold Heaven by Gretel Ehrlich
This Cold Heaven by Gretel Ehrlich

DODIE LOGUE

Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez and This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland by Gretel Ehrlich. Both books are broad scope portraits of place, but also the minutia of daily life in these places. Both contain gorgeous writing and language, emotion, and much to think about. The Inuit have 23 words for Ice!

Song and Garden Birds of North America by National Geographic Society
Song and Garden Birds of North America by National Geographic Society

SHARON GUENTHER

Like most of the guides, The Golden Guide by Zim, et al, was my first birding book and remains my favorite. Years ago National Geographic published a 2-volume Birds of North America – one volume with song and garden birds, and the other with raptors and shore/sea birds. Both volumes contained these little vinyl records with bird songs and calls that I listened to constantly to learn more about birds. I wish I still had them but they got lost somewhere in my many moves.

We asked and you responded! Here are some of our Naturalist Journeys client’s most influential birding books:

Louisiana Birds by George Lowery
Louisiana Birds by George H. Lowery

When I was in junior high in the early 1960s, I had to pick a project from our science textbook.  I chose identifying all the birds on the school grounds.  Our school ground was not very bird friendly, so I changed the area to our rural yard and fields.  Thank goodness, our school library had a copy of Louisiana Birds by George H. Lowery, Jr. 

There was no Internet, no public library, and no money to buy a bird guide.  Lowery’s book started me on a lifelong journey of birding.  I was delighted when the third edition was printed in 1974 so that I could own a copy of that wonderful book.  I have a shelf of birding books, but I still pull out the Louisiana Birds to read the historical account of one species or another.

Roger Tory Peterson’s Field Guide to the Birds, Eastern version
I got my hands on my mom’s copy at a very early age (about two) —
interpreting the silhouette page as a dot-to-dot puzzle!  I took up
birding seriously at age 10, and had this book pretty well memorized by adulthood. Too bad I can’t still do that now.

In my teenage years, I was introduced to the Western U.S. That first
evening, camping in Rocky Mountain National Park, I couldn’t identify any of the amazing birds, and quickly realized I needed a different book.  I still have the tattered Peterson Western guide that we bought the next morning.

Of course, our shelves now contain piles of books about birds from
around the world.  I hope we will be able to resume traveling, and
birding, in new countries soon.

Birds of the West Indies by James Bond
Birds of the West Indies by James Bond

Roger Tory Peterson’s A Field Guide to the Birds which has been my constant birding companion since I got hooked on birding in the mid-1970s.  I’m also a book collector, so as exciting to me as spotting a great life bird is finding a great bird book: my ultimate find was a pristine 1934 first edition of Peterson’s guide, which I found on a 3/$1.00 table at a library sale twenty-five years ago.

My first international field guide was James Bond’s Birds of the West Indies.  (Ian Fleming was a birder, and named his character after the author.)

A Pocket Guide to Birds by Allan Cruickshank
A Pocket Guide to Birds by Allan Cruickshank

A Pocket Guide to Birds by Allan Cruickshank. My mother’s best friend, and my surrogate mother, who introduced me to birding as an 8-year old, was Helen Cruickshank’s sister, and an ardent amateur naturalist herself.  I vividly recall Allan’s escapades following birds to all sorts of unlikely heights, armed only with his giant box camera and an indomitable spirit. He autographed my 1954 copy (I was 10). I was, and am, hooked. The book, with Helen’s photographs, is probably now out of print, but it will always be current for me. 


The Geometry of Birding

Learn all about the geometry of birding from Naturalist Journeys‘ owner and lead guide, Peg Abbott.

Geometry of Birding
Lesser & Greater Yellowlegs by Hugh Simmons Photography

The malaise we all feel trying to get through this pandemic reminds me a bit of jet-lag, that sort of fog that takes over when your energies are low and your internal clock is off. Therefore, it’s at times like these that I like numbers, being a person of many WORDS, work with numbers soothes me. After a few long plane rides back from Africa and Australia, I came up with what I call, the “Geometry of Birding”. 

I was never very good with math, but always good with spatial relations. In high school when they tested us for careers, they tagged me as interior design. Hah! A little gender biased I think. However, today I use those spatial skills on beaks, wings, tails, and relative bird proportions. 

Size is one of the most unreliable references to use for identification, of all the field marks, as it is so dependent on distance and relationship to other objects. We’ve all had that raptor on a pole turn into a robin, and vice-versa. But relative size is a good one. 

I often use geometry often in two ways. 

Long-billed Dowitchers by Terry Peterson

RELATIVE SIZE

Relative Size  is good for birds in flocks, or birds that aggregate in the same feeding area. Probably best described with shorebirds, the technique is to pick out a species you know well, and use it as the measure for all others. Trying to figure out that Greater or Lesser Yellowlegs? If a Killdeer is near, voila. Lesser Yellowlegs (10.5”) Greater (14″), Killdeer (10.5″). Using relative size in concert with a check of other field characteristics gives you confidence you made the right call. And finds you some sleepers! Ever see a dowitcher that seemed really small?  While this measure does not sort Short-billed from Long-billed, only a half inch apart at 11” and 11.5”, that Stilt Sandpiper (8.5”) making the same feeding motion may be parked nearby! Now if there was a Sanderling nearby, a common companion, at 8” there is your match!  

Sanderling by Greg Smith

So now the fun begins. If you like Excel, make a chart with bird names and the height measurement (right under the name in most field guides), then sort by size and you have your chart. You can also do this by hand, making columns of 5” species, 6” species, 7” species, all the way up to the giants such as that 23” Long-billed Curlew. And you can take it across groups of birds. Perhaps a Common Raven (24”) landed on the mudflat nearby where you wondered if you had a Long-billed Curlew (23”) or Whimbrel (17.5). Bingo—no limit to sorting birds by size. Most handy is to start with those you commonly see at home. Have a big trip planned with a lot of new species? Have fun with the math and grouping them by size; it will REALLY pay off in the field. 

Long-billed Curlew by Steve Wolfe

RELATIVE PROPORTION

Relative Proportion is a learned skill but one that is incredibly useful. We have master bird banders to thank for showing us the utility of comparing body parts and bringing that to field guides. Many know for flycatchers to look at the wing length to tail—at rest where do those wings hit the tail? Some also use primary projection, comparing different parts of the wing to each other. If this sounds way out of reach, start simple. I focus in on the beak right off when I see a bird. The shape and the length and proportion. The simplest question is: If you imagined placing the beak over the head, would it cover half, ¾, or full, perhaps even extend beyond it?

Geometry of Birding
Hairy Woodpecker by Peg Abbott, Downy Woodpecker by Bob Hill

Look up Hairy vs Downy Woodpecker and you will understand the concept. This works well for some of the cryptic warblers, too, and their vireo look-alikes. Compare a Chipping with a Rufous-crowned Sparrow. The, from beaks I often use tails, especially in sparrows. Imagine putting that tail over the birds back. A Song Sparrow is a pretty good fit, whereas Savannah makes it only midway. 

Rufous-crowned Sparrow by Steve Wolfe, Chipping Sparrow by Sandy Sorkin

With just your field guide and your imagination, you can sleuth out many species if seen alone, by using its own body parts compared in relative proportion. Check out Bird Topography online as various sites, including Birdforum.net

Just a few tips on the geometry of birding! 

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