Backyard Guide to the Birds of North America

My parents host entire flocks of finches every year in their backyard, where at least three feeders hang from the tree outside the glass door. Ma even smears peanut butter on the tree's bark in the winter for the squirrels. When we bought our current house, we finally had a tree in sight of the dinner table and promptly hung a feeder, which was joined later by two more and a homemade squirrel picnic table.

So I was pretty excited when I got an email asking if I wanted to review National Geographic's Backyard Guide to the Birds of North America by Jonathan Alderfer and Paul Hess.

There's an introduction describing which kinds of birds like which types of bird food and feeders and instructions for creating a nice bird habitat. We just guessed and waited to see what would come, and we seem to attract woodpeckers, bluejays, finches, doves, sparrows, cardinals, robins and the occasional blackbird or crow. And a ton of squirrels.

The rest of the book is an illustrated guide, pointing out the differences between similar species, describing their songs and patterns and showing on a map where they live. When my parents and sister were visiting, we used the guide to settle an argument over what kind of woodpecker was gorging itself outside. Yay for NatGeo.

While the web could probably tell you the same thing, the illustrations and guides all in one spot are pretty handy. If you're like me and trying to develop a physical library at home, this is a good book to include.

 

Comments

[addy]

Hmmm - cool. would be great to have handy when "window-gazing" for minutes on end.