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The History of Bird Names, Across the Pond and Beyond

A review by Frank Izaguirre

Mrs. Moreau’s Warbler: How Birds Got Their Names, by Stephen Moss

Faber & Faber, 2018

368 pages—softcover

ABA Sales / Buteo Books 14980

Birders love talking about bird names. Who among us hasn’t scrolled through the new AOS proposals just to see what the most absurd name change proposal was, [read more…]

Hitting the Right Note

A review by Caitlin Kight

A Sweet, Wild Note: What We Hear When the Birds Sing, by Richard Smyth

Elliott and Thompson, 2017

208 pages—softcover

ABA Sales / Buteo Books 14983

Between my sophomore and junior years in college, I worked as a field ornithologist for the Institute for Bird Populations (IBP). I had been [read more…]

“Ask Rick Wright”—Thoughts on Being Birderly

A quasi-review by Ted Floyd

Peterson Reference Guide to Sparrows of North America, by Rick Wright

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019

434 pages, hardcover

ABA Sales–Buteo Books 14934

As I was sitting down to write this not-exactly-a-book-review, one of my kids asked me a question about the mathematical details of the orbit of the moon. I [read more…]

New Field Guides for Birding Central America

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A review by Knut Eisermann

Birds of Central America: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, [read more…]

Starlings and Humans on the Continuum of Life

A review by Capper Nichols

Mozart’s Starling, by Lyanda Lynn Haupt

Little, Brown, and Company, 2017

288 pages, softcover

ABA Sales / Buteo Books 14944

Out in the California desert, a dozen starlings perched in the branches of a spindly honey mesquite. The tree grew out of a concrete island at a roadside oasis, [read more…]

A Beauty of an Introduction to an Idea of Beauty

A review by Manuel Lerdau

The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World—and Us, by Richard Prum

Doubleday 2017

428 pages—hardcover

ABA Sales / Buteo Books 14815

Rick Prum’s The Evolution of Beauty has been reviewed many times in both the popular and the professional scientific press. My [read more…]

A State Birding Guide for the Modern E-era

A review by Chris Loscalzo

Birding in Connecticut, by Frank Gallo

Wesleyan University Press 2018

488 pages—softcover

ABA Sales / Buteo Books 14860

With its temperate climate, extensive coastline, and large tracts of open space ranging from mature forests to grassy fields, Connecticut is a superb place to see a great variety of birds [read more…]

If You Look, Your World Will Change

A review by Julia Zarankin

The Meaning of Birds, by Simon Barnes

Pegasus Books 2018

208 pages—softcover

ABA Sales / Buteo Books 14938

The first time I went birding, I ended up in a park on the western edge of Toronto face to face with a flotilla of ducks. According to my fellow birdwatchers, we [read more…]

A Sense of Loss, and Some Hope for the Future

A review by Sanford Sorkin

North on the Wing: Travels with the Songbird Migration of Spring, by Bruce M. Beehler

Smithsonian Books, 2018

264 pages, hardcover

ABA Sales / Buteo Books 14864

Many books tell interesting stories; very few inspire us. Bruce Beehler’s North on the Wing corrects any simplistic notions we may have [read more…]

A Luxurious Look at a One-of-a-kind Work of Art

A review by Sandra Paci

The Wall of Birds: One Planet / 243 Families / 375 Million Years

by Jane Kim with Thayer Walker

Harper Design 2018

224 pages, hardcover

ABA Sales / Buteo Books 14911

This profusely illustrated book tells the fascinating story behind the artist and scientific illustrator Jane Kim’s creation of a [read more…]