Five Books About Birds That I Love

This is essentially a coffee-table type book but packed full of information too and I would particularly recommend this to anyone who is just starting to take a deeper interest in birds than simply looking at them and writing the species names down on a list; this is a great book to start learning much more about birds from all over the world and I still enjoy sitting down in a comfortable chair and browsing through this.

The book that I have featured above is a really good one for those who are just getting into birds, people of all ages, as well as those who are already bird lovers. While it would be the sort of thing that turned some one who had a casual interest into someone with a growing passion, my moment of "bird revelation" came about in a different way.

When I was very young my father used to take me on walks in the countryside, sometimes rather longer than was suitable for a 6 year-old, but I liked going out with him into the countryside and looking at all sorts of wildlife. My father used to carry a pair of binoculars and if he saw something interesting he would let me look too.

Not only were Dartford Warblers rare but they are colorful and interesting birds, particularly on a sunny day, sitting on top of yellow flowers, but the really exciting thing for me was that I come from Dartford! I couldn't believe that we had our own bird, and such a rare and beautiful one too. That was the moment that I really became a bird watcher for life. Thanks to that moment and, of course, my father, I now make a living from taking people bird watching - Calidris Birding Tours.

This video clip is a famous moment with a Lyrebird copying some incredibly complex sounds. If you have not seen it before, please watch it, it is amazing. If you have seen it before, well, it is always worth seeing again.

This is one of those pieces of footage that should stimulate an interest in birds in anyone.

The above video clip comes from the BBC series, The Life of Birds, which is, in my opinion, the best documentary about birds ever made. For anyone who is interested in birds this series, narrated by the wonderful David Attenborough, is a must see as it contains a wealth of information about bird ecology.

This is one of the most interesting books about birds that I have ever read and is almost a one-stop evolutionary course about birds; a source of information that was very useful to me when I did my BSc in Conservation. Fantastic!

It should be understood that this is not a book that deals so much with general themes as specific information about the different groups of birds found in North America and as such it has limited interest for those outside of this region, but as each bird family has sections on breeding, foraging strategies, migration, songs and calls etc. it is of supreme interest to budding ornithologists.

I am not from North America, nor have I ever been there, but as a bird lover I still found this book very interesting, although some sections were skipped over.

This is a book that all sorts of people will love. Bird watchers will love it as they can laugh at things they have seen and recognize in themselves, budding birders will also love this story as they learn more about the hobby they have adopted and non-birders will also  be intrigued by the bizarre behavior that is described in the story.

The book "The Big Year" deals with bird watchers' obsession with keeping lists; in this case a year list for North American. Like most birders I keep all sorts of lists, a life list, a UK list, a year list etc. etc.

At its worst, listing, as it is known, can lead to obsessiveness and antisocial behavior. However, at its best listing can increase a birder's enjoyment of the hobby and if the notes on birds are submitted to the appropriate bird recorders, then this knowledge can benefit other bird watchers, science and even the birds themselves.

If you are at all inclined to keep lists of the birds you see I suggest using eBird to keep the records and it will automatically keep all sorts of lists for you.

Out of all the bird ecology books that I have read this one stands out as the one that I learned the most from and it really helps me to understand migratory patterns of birds when I am out leading bird watching tours and the knowledge that I have picked up here helps me to predict the best times and places to see birds when they are on migration.