Birding, the observation and study of birds and their habits is an activity enjoyed by - it has been estimated - some 50 million Americans and countless others all over the world. For those birders or wannabee birders who are also Kindle readers, new birding books of interest this Spring include:
Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird, by Tim Birkhead. Walker Books, 2012. Print length: 289 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (18 reviews). Text-to-Speech: Enabled. Lending: Enabled.
"What is it like to be a swift, flying at over one hundred kilometres an hour? Or a kiwi, plodding flightlessly among the humid undergrowth in the pitch dark of a New Zealand night? And what is going on inside the head of a nightingale as it sings, and how does its brain improvise? Bird Sense addresses questions like these and many more, by describing the senses of birds that enable them to interpret their environment and to interact with each other. Our affinity for birds is often said to be the result of shared senses - vision and hearing - but how exactly do their senses compare with our own? And what about a bird's sense of taste, or smell, or touch, or the ability to detect the earth's magnetic field? Or the extraordinary ability of desert birds to detect rain hundreds of kilometres away - how do they do it? Bird Sense is based on a conviction that we have consistently underestimated what goes on in a bird's head. Our understanding of bird behaviour is simultaneously informed and constrained by the way we watch and study them. By drawing attention to the way these frameworks both facilitate and inhibit discovery, Birkhead identifies ways we can escape from them to explore new horizons in bird behaviour." - Publisher.
The Beauty of Birds, by Jeremy Mynott. Princton Short. Princeton University Press, 2012. Print Length: 57 p. Amazon customer rating: None yet. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Spring returns and with it the birds. But it also brings throngs of birders who emerge, binoculars in hand, to catch a glimpse of a rare or previously unseen species or to simply lay eyes on a particularly fine specimen of a familiar type. In a delightful meditation that unexpectedly ranges from the Volga Delta to Central Park and from Charles Dickens's Hard Times to a 1940s London burlesque show, Jeremy Mynott ponders what makes birds so beautiful and alluring to so many people." - Publisher.The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds, by Julie Zickefoose. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. Print Length: 384 p. Optimized for larger screens. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (13 reviews). Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"The Bluebird Effect is about the change that's set in motion by one single act, such as saving an injured bluebird - or a hummingbird, swift, or phoebe. Each of the twenty five chapters covers a different species, and many depict an individual bird, each with its own personality, habits, and quirks. And each chapter is illustrated with Zickefoose's stunning watercolor paintings and drawings. Not just individual tales about the trials and triumphs of raising birds, The Bluebird Effect mixes humor, natural history, and memoir to give readers an intimate story of a life lived among wild birds." - Publisher.Life on the Wing: A Bird Chronicle from the pages of The Times, by Derwent May. Robson Press, 2012. Print Length: 288 p. Optimized for larger screens. Amazon customer rating: None yet. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"From dainty avocets prancing along the seashore to panic-stricken waxwings frenziedly gobbling berries, from barking barnacle geese to soaring skylarks, Derwent May writes about birds in a very special way. As he goes in search of birdlife in a variety of places – the English lanes and rolling corn fields that he loves, the lonely Essex marshes, the remote bird-haunted islands of Grassholm and Fair Isle – May reveals just what it feels like to be a birdwatcher. May is an alert observer of avian habits and manners, describing them vividly and poetically, but underlying everything he writes is scientific knowledge and a wealth of experience. Employing all of these skills and drawing on his popular weekly ‘Feather Reports’ column from The Times, May creates a fascinating chronicle of a year in the life of our birds, from robins to rarities, with Peter Brown’s illustrations adding the perfect finishing touch.What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World, by Jon Young. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. Print Length: 272 p. Amazon customer rating: None yet. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"A lifelong birder, tracker, and naturalist, Jon Young is guided in his work and teaching by three basic premises: the robin, junco, and other songbirds know everything important about their environment, be it backyard or forest; by tuning in to their vocalizations and behavior, we can acquire much of this wisdom for our own pleasure and benefit; and the birds' companion calls and warning alarms are just as important as their songs. Birds are the sentries - and our key to understanding the world beyond our front door. Unwitting humans create a zone of disturbance that scatters the wildlife. Respectful humans who heed the birds acquire an awareness that radically changes the dynamic. Deep bird language is an ancient discipline, perfected by Native peoples the world over. Finally, science is catching up. This groundbreaking book unites the indigenous knowledge, the latest research, and the author's own experience of four decades in the field to lead us toward a deeper connection to the animals and, in the end, a deeper connection to ourselves." - Publisher.Birding Apps for the Kindle Fire
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Note to readers: I am no longer listing prices for books mentioned in The Kindle Reader as prices can vary literally from one day to the next. Please follow the links to the individual books to check the current price.
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