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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…]

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…]

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 Dozen Things You Can Do to Celebrate Bill Thompson III

 

These are my friend Bill Thompson III’s shoes. Actually, this is just the tip of his footwear iceberg—he owned and wore a lot of shoes. I photographed these as they sat by his front door the day after I, along with members of his family, watched him fly free of his cancer-ravaged body. [read more…]

At The Top of the Pecking Order

A review by Caitlin Kight

Woodpecker, by Gerard Gorman

Reaktion Books, 2018

180 pages, softcover

ABA Sales / Buteo Books 14922

Gerard Gorman’s Woodpecker is the latest volume in Reaktion Books’ Animal Series, a handsome collection of lavishly illustrated books that explore the natural and cultural history of a range of iconic animals. By examining [read more…]

Wild Anecdotes and Curious Asides

A review by Lori Potter

Birdmania: A Remarkable Passion for Birds, by Bernd Brunner, translated by Jane Billinghurst

Greystone Books, 2017

292 pages, hardcover

ABA Sales / Buteo Books 14791

The book jacket of Birdmania advises that its contents are “quirky.” Soon enough, we learn that this disclosure is not misleading. The book’s quirkiness [read more…]

SNEAK PEEK! Birder’s Guide to Gear, 2018

The 2018 issue of Birder’s Guide to Gear is now being mailed. If you’re an ABA member, you should find it in your mailbox in the next couple weeks. But you don’t have to wait until then to see what’s inside. And neither do non-members. You can see the entirety of this issue of [read more…]

Moving to the City: Raptors in a Concrete Jungle

A review by Corey C. Husic

Urban Raptors: Ecology and Conservation of Birds of Prey in Cities, edited by Clint W. Boal and Cheryl R. Dykstra

Island Press, 2018

320 pages, softcover

ABA Sales / Buteo Books 14851

Humans have long lived in proximity to raptors, with stories dating back centuries of Red Kites pestering [read more…]