It's official. I'm a birder.
I have spent 116 hours so far this year watching birds at my feeder, participating in Project FeederWatch.
Some of you may remember that a year ago I posted this picture on my blog.
I boldly identified the little bird in the photo as a House Sparrow.
It didn't take long to have several bloggers gently correct me, suggesting the bird was most likely a Carolina chickadee.
Now here I am a year later and I can properly identify about twenty species of birds.
Yes, I'm a newbie birder.
What books do I recommend for birders? This is a question I now get a lot. Here's what I started with:
The two most helpful tools in identifying birds for me as a novice birder have been the laminated, fold-out pamphlet, Birds of Southeast Texas and the Upper Texas Coast: A Guide to Common and Notable Species, and the two-sided poster I received from Project FeederWatch, Common Feeder Birds of Eastern North America/Common Feeder Birds of Western North America. (I bought the pamphlet at the shop at the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory site in Lake Jackson, but it can be purchased online at Amazon. A truncated version of the poster can be downloaded here; you receive the complete poster when you join the project.)
It has been very helpful for me to take a photo of the birds I see and upload the photo into the INaturalist and/or Merlin apps on my phone/computer to help identify what I see.
I'm ready to start using some real bird books, I think. Here's what I got first:
If you look at some of these books, you will see a library stamp. So that's where I started; I checked out a bunch of bird identification books from the library, and I tried them out. I got Sibley Birds, Peterson Field Guide to Birds; National Geographic Field Guide to Birds; DK Birds; and a guide to birds of my state. Then I looked for used books at a bookstore and book sales. Finally, I plan to buy a good, hold-in-your-hand book as well as a good e-book.
I'm not a bird book expert. I'd love to hear your recommendation for the best books for birders. What do you use? What would you recommend for newbies? Any tips you'd like to share with us?
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.
I've recently gotten into birding, too! I eagerly await the answers of others who are more experienced in this topic. :)
ReplyDeleteMy post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-literature-themed-colouring-books/
I have a whole shelf of bird field guides, several of them from a few years ago when I was accepting books from publishers to review. Crossley, Sibley, Stokes, Kaufman, the Audubon Society guide, the National Geographic guide, and, of course, the several Peterson guides that I started out with years ago. They are all useful in their own way. The Crossley and Stokes guides are too hefty, in my opinion, to take into the field. They are more useful as cross-checking references. The Peterson, Kaufman, and Sibley guides are sized just right for the field. Some guides, like the Crossley and the Stokes use actual photographs, while most use drawings that often emphasize the bird's most noticeable field marks. I think you are wise to check books out from the library to get a feel of what works for you. A field guide is a personal thing and you need to find one that fits your needs. My personal favorites at the moment are the Sibley guides, but I actually use all the books on my shelf at one time or another. and my old standbys are still the Petersons. Roger Tory Peterson was an early hero of mine. Good luck with finding what works for you.
ReplyDeleteI will look for these. Thank you for sharing your helpful thoughts.
DeleteI've done a few of bird book posts:
ReplyDelete#1 https://hopewellslibraryoflife.wordpress.com/2016/04/08/spring-time-is-bird-time/
#2 https://hopewellslibraryoflife.wordpress.com/2016/07/19/bird-books-the-sequel-titles-for-the-entire-family/
#3 https://hopewellslibraryoflife.wordpress.com/2021/02/01/review-the-first-of-two-books-with-the-same-title-wintering-stephen-rutts-wintering-a-season-with-geese/
Thank you, Lisa. These are great.
DeleteI coudn't recommend books in English on that subject, I only have these in French :/ But I can recommend reading Len Howard if you haven't already, who watched birds for practically her whole life, lived with them. I have her "Birds as individuals" that read almost like a novel :)
ReplyDeleteFunny! Well, French birding books wouldn't be that helpful to me. I will look for Birds as Individuals. It doesn't seem to be widely available, though.
DeleteI'm not a bird book expert, but these all look really neat! I've considered trying a bird ID app, so I'll have to look into the ones you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteMy TTT: https://bookwyrmknits.com/2021/04/13/top-ten-tuesday-crayola-crayon-titles/
I like to use the app for children. I guess that's where I am. A birding child.
DeleteI hope you get some good results. I’ll be following myself.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteHI Debbie! We had Book Club last night and we actually talked about birders and how many birds we actually know. Here in South Africa, we have so much access to park and private game reserves where there are soooooo many different birds. I don't actually have a book on birds at all. There are a few in the library and the kids love taking them out. Let me take a look at which ones are the most popular and I'll get back to you.
ReplyDeleteLots of Love,
Elza with her Ten Crayola Colors Book Titles
I hope you will share what you find, Mareli.
DeleteMy grandfather in law used to have a bird book. His wife gave it to my daughter. If I find it, I'll let you know the title.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Deanna.
DeleteI don't have any special field guides that I recommend. I just use the standard books I've owned for years. But I do have a bird book recommendation. Close to Birds Every birder should be sure to read this one.
ReplyDeleteYes, I am trying to find a copy of Close to Birds.
DeleteVery nice, I get to use that old rarely-used favorite word "ornithology". :-) One of my aunts is a birder, and carries around binoculars *everywhere* she travels. I'll recommend these books to her, thanks a ton!
ReplyDelete~Lex
It would probably help me if I had some really good binoculars.
DeleteI've also got into birding over lockdown - I love seeing all the different kinds of birds, they're so beautiful. I use the RSPB website (I think) to identify new birds :)
ReplyDeleteRSPB looks like a great place to go for those of us who live in GB.
DeleteYou might enjoy the movie "The Big Year" its a comedy about a couple of birders who are working on their life list and the competition to see the rarest of birds.
ReplyDeleteI will look for it.
DeleteNothing to recommend but taking notes! We put up a bird feeder just a month ago and it's been so fun to see all the visitors! Granted, already had to deal with squirrels trying to get to the goods. haha..
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, we have squirrel friends, too.
DeleteI found a National Geographic Birds of Texas, seemed completely new, in the Little Free Library in our neighborhood about 2 years ago. I thought it might be something fun that my grandchildren and I could work at, identifying and finding birds in our state. Instead it has turned into A Thing for my husband and I - we are very beginning/hobby-ish birders and we love it. Our grandchildren are in it with us, super fun. And it began with a LFL #forthewin
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely story!
DeleteI'm not much of a birder (at least, not an experienced one) but I am enjoying watching the birds that come around here more and more. I think having a really good bird book would be neat.
ReplyDeleteIt's fun to browse through the books and see what is out there.
DeleteThank you all for your helpful ideas, suggestions, and recommendations for bird books. I will write them down and share them in a future post here and in my naturalist group. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI had a little paperback book that I kept in a kitchen drawer, where I could see my feeders. It helped me identify almost every backyard bird that I saw but I can't remember the title to save my life. It was something bland like "Common Backyard Birds of North America" (Or maybe the Southeast) and I'm sure I just grabbed it on a whim at Lowe's or somewhere like that. It's currently in storage and I'm using my Merlin app instead. I didn't do anything useful like add it to GoodReads either. *sigh* A minimalist life is nice until you really want something that's in storage hundreds or thousands of miles away.
ReplyDeleteThose laminated pamphlets are always helpful. We used one for wildflowers when we visited Banff National Park in 2017 and realized that we were there in wildflower season. Park rangers also give out wildflower guides sometimes at their information stations and I love those. I don't think I've noticed as many for birds though.
I once had almost 10,000 books in my house and now I've only a couple of hundred. So I understand your experience.
DeleteHow fun - I love watching birds doing their bird thing more than looking for fancy stuff - we have only "twitched" once, and that's when a rare-ish gull turned up about a mile from where we were staying, so we walked to have a look at it and stayed with it a while as it felt rude to just look then walk away again!
ReplyDelete"Twitched" is a completely new word to me. Thanks for sharing it and your experience.
DeleteI know my parents use Sibley and I think that it is one of the standards. Congratulations on your blossoming birding skills!
ReplyDeleteI love this!! We too have become obsessed with our feeders and birds. We have an Ohio specific book that helps us figure out who is visiting and I think I can get about 5-10 species correct. Good luck on this fun project!
ReplyDeleteI think I'll stick to plants. They don't move around as much. LOL
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on being a birder! My favorite bird guide is the Peterson's. My experience is that drawings are actually better than pictures to help identify birds, and they show arrows pointing to the important points of the bird body that you have to pay more attention to really identify a bird
ReplyDelete