Bird watching is one of those pastimes that can be learnt in five minutes but takes a lifetime to master (if even then). While it essentially requires only one book to practice – a field guide to the birds of the area in which one intends to watch birds – seemingly countless volumes have been written to help those seeking to improve and refine their skills. The sheer number of these books alone is sufficient to either bewilder or bankrupt the aspiring bird watcher; however not all provide any significantly different or more effective advice than many of the others. Fortunately, a recently published title, Laura Erickson’s The Bird Watching Answer Book: Everything You Need to Know to Enjoy Birds in Your Backyard and Beyond, provides a wealth of information that is both valuable and effectively presented so as to yield the reader great opportunity to apply it and reap the benefits of increased understanding, proficiency, and enjoyment of their hobby.
Those familiar with Laura Erickson will recall that in her previously published 101 Ways to Help Birds she provided bird watchers with an invaluable reference for bird conservation activities that were presented in an easily accessible format which could be either read straight through or casually browsed. To The Bird Watching Answer Book she has brought a similarly user-friendly format and infuses it with both her vast ornithological expertise as well as her enthusiastic writing style that helps impart to bird watchers of all levels of experience valuable information on everything from bird watching field craft to the multi-faceted subject of bird biology.
Structured in what is essentially a question and answer format, the style of The Bird Watching Answer Book is casual and approachable to even an absolute beginner. A practitioner at this level would be best counseled to read the book through sequentially as the topics flow from the familiar (how to feed birds in your backyard, choosing binoculars, etc.) to the more scientific (the structure of feathers, eyesight in birds, migration, etc.). However to the more experienced bird watcher, the book offers a wealth of discrete topical discussions on as wide a variety of subjects as one would like; picking it up and reading a few pages over one’s morning coffee as personal interest directs is very easy to do. Indeed, the book’s very size and construction make it an ideal commuting or café companion.
As would be expected of a book published in conjunction with such a noted institution as The Cornell Lab of Ornithology (in which Ms. Erickson holds the position of Science Editor), the contents of The Bird Watching Answer Book can be counted on to reflect the most recent discoveries about birds, their natural history, and the issues important to their conservation. Yet as “The Lab,” as it is commonly referred to those who know its work, is not only a source for the generation and compilation of ornithological research but an institution dedicated to “citizen science” and the education of the general population in the areas of bird study and conservation as well, publications bearing its name have a high standard to which they must rise. The Bird Watching Answer Book most certainly fulfills this mandate and as a result is recommended to bird watchers of all levels of interest and experience as a reference without which they should not consider their respective libraries complete.
Author: Laura Erickson
Publisher: Storey Publishing
ISBN-10: 1603424520
ISBN-13: 978-1603424523
In accordance with Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255, it is disclosed that the copy of the book read in order to produce this review was provided gratis to the reviewer by the publisher.
