In contrast to years previous, when matters like migration or hen conduct predominated, we’ve been handled, in 2024, to a vigorous mixture of titles about conservation and analysis, historical past and artwork, hen households, and nation discipline guides. There have been books by a few of our most beloved and revered authors, auspicious new authors, and one bestseller by a world-famous creator.
The ten,000 Birds reviewers (Donna, Dragan, Susan, Mark, and John) have right here chosen their decisions for finest hen and birding titles of 2024, books it’s possible you’ll wish to purchase for the novice or skilled birders in your sphere or as items to your self. Or you’ll be able to merely learn a replica borrowed out of your native library (don’t hesitate to ask them to seek out you a replica if it’s not on the cabinets!).
DONNA:
It was a troublesome job deciding on titles this yr, and I’m grateful I’m not restricted to a sure quantity. (I simply completed recording the American Birding Affiliation podcast on Greatest Birding Books of 2024 with Nate Swick and Rebecca Minardi, the place the restrict is 5 Greatest Books per individual; fortunately Nate allowed us to sneak in some ‘honorable mentions.’ The podcast shall be obtainable after Thanksgiving.)
BIRDS AND ART:
A number of books embraced the artwork of drawing birds, though in very alternative ways. In The Yard Chicken Chronicles, creator Amy Tan embraces nature journaling. From 2017 to the top of 2022, Tan recorded the conduct and fantastic thing about her Northern California yard birds, discovering comedy in Crow and Scrub-Jay household squabbles, tragedy in an injured Cooper’s Hawk, and a meditative peace in ‘being the hen,” her technique for drawing the character of every hen. I discovered the e book inspiring and should begin drawing birds in my native park (I don’t have a yard) within the close to future.
On the different finish of the spectrum is Birds of the World: The Artwork of Elizabeth Gould by Andrea Hart and Ann Datta (Prestel). This coffee-table sized e book is a celebration of the life and artwork of the largely unknown 19th-century artist who drew, painted, and engraved lots of the hen plates for husband John Gould’s well-known ornithological books earlier than dying early in childbirth. Working from specimens, descriptions, and ultimately from life, Gould’s depictions of the birds of South America, Australia, and Europe are gorgeous.
Kenn Kaufman’s The Birds That Audubon Missed: Discovery and Need within the American Wilderness is about an iconic hen artist, creating artwork, and our North American ornithological historical past—its myths and realities, some solely uncovered now by persistent researchers. Kaufman explores many, separate strands, from historic taxonomic puzzles to Audubon’s problematic life to his personal creative aspirations, weaving it along with intelligence and a way of surprise that our ornithological forefathers (no moms until you rely Lucy Audubon) navigated such a incredible world of unknown birds and creating pure science.
FAMILY HISTORIES & IDENTIFICATION GUIDES
The Shorebirds of North America: A Pure Historical past and Photographic Celebration by Pete Dunne and Kevin T. Karlson is precisely what the title says, a celebration of one in all our most liked and feared hen teams (possibly concern is just too robust a phrase, let’s say intimidating). The pictures, most by Karlson, are stunningly stunning. The essays and chapters by each authors supply a wealth of pure historical past info, from nesting to molt to migration, on the 54 species that comprise the 5 households of the shorebird group. This e book shall be loved by birders and individuals who merely love nature and good images.
Subject Information to North American Flycatchers: Kingbirds and Myiarchus by Cin-Ty Lee with illustrations by Andrew Birch is the second quantity in what shall be a three-volume sequence. Whereas the species coated right here is probably not as puzzling because the Empidonax species coated within the first quantity, there’s sufficient confusion about figuring out the six Myiarchus flycatchers and ten Tyrannus flycatchers that comprise this quantity to greater than justify its acquisition (there’s additionally a bonus, a piece on hybrids!). I like the ‘look’ of those books—clear design, elegant illustrations, with lots of the identification charts that made the primary quantity so distinctive. Extremely really helpful for birders who love identification challenges and glorious birding books.
Over six years within the making, The Gull Information: North America, by Amar Ayyash, is a complete, dense information to North American gulls and past. It’s a singular achievement, one that every one larophiles and birders who wish to advance their identification abilities of gulls will wish to personal. It’s packed stuffed with gull images of seemingly each plumage of each species (molt might be the most typical phrase of the e book), discussions of taxonomy, and tips from Ayyash, gull observer supreme, on easy methods to establish the gulls at your lake, seashore, and dump. (Overview to return)
Surprisingly, Stokes Information to Finches of the US and Canada is the primary complete information to this household that features acquainted feeder birds and charismatic boreal species. Authors Lillian Q. Stokes and Matthew A. Younger make a fantastic group. Stokes brings her lengthy historical past of writing guides on birds and yard hen feeding; Younger brings his experience on boreal birds. Along with the 18 breeding species in mainland U.S. and Canada, the e book contains vagrant finches and Hawaiian honeycreepers (who’re finches). It is a e book that each birder at each ability stage will discover helpful.
CONSERVATION & INDIVIDUAL JOURNEY:
Feather Trails: A Journey of Discovery Amongst Endangered Birds by Sophie A. H. Osborn is one in all my favourite books of the yr, the one I take into consideration essentially the most. It’s about endangered species, the science of reintroduction, the significance of conservation, and Osborn’s particular person, joyful and difficult experiences working with three endangered species: Peregrine Falcon, Hawaiian Crow (‘Alala), and California Condor. Osborn seamlessly goes from observing falcons on prime of a mountain in Wyoming or monitoring mischievous crows within the rainforest to histories of how these birds turned endangered and the way reintroduction tasks search to reverse these trajectories. Most of all, her writing brings us into her intense experiences along with her birds and assist us admire them much more.
HONORABLE MENTION:
I need to give a shoutout to an unbelievable e book, years within the making: Dragonflies of North America, written & illustrated Ed Lam. Over 300 species and subspecies are coated, every illustrated in beautiful element (if you happen to’ve ever tried to {photograph} or seize a dragonfly, you understand how troublesome intently observing these species could also be). Like The Gull Information, it is a vital achievement, achieved with artistry, experience, persistence, and pure love for this fascinating group of predators. (Overview to return.)
DRAGAN:
Whereas Steve Mills began his information with northern Greece, by the third version he has expanded the protection to embody your complete continental Greece, aside from Attica (the environment of Athens) and the Peloponnese Peninsula. The third version of Birdwatching in Northern Greece is a exceptional achievement that surpasses its predecessors in each scope and high quality. The inclusion of latest websites comparable to Lake Karla, Messolonghi, Mount Parnassos and others expands the scope of the information, whereas the addition of color-coded sections, detailed GPS info, up to date standing lists, and lodging suggestions additional improve the usability of the information. This e book is bound to grow to be an important companion on my future birding journeys in Greece.
There’s another reason to take my hat off: all funds raised from promoting the books go immediately in direction of hen safety tasks in Greece. Now you understand which information you really need.
When the brand new NL 14×52 mm binoculars had been introduced by Swarovski Optik, regardless that I discover this sequence a bit outsized for my tastes, I used to be nonetheless curious. I imply, which birder makes use of 14s? Are you aware anybody utilizing such a excessive magnification? Precisely, neither do I. NL Pure 14×52s come as a powerful, specialised beast, nice for bigger however distant waterbirds and raptors, but additionally small, but nearer larks and pipits, and for open habitats comparable to grasslands, open savannas, deserts, lakes and marshes, cliffs, scree and mountain-tops above the tree-line, and shore-to-sea watching.
SUSAN:
BOOKS FOR CHILDREN:
In case you are on the lookout for one excellent e book to attract kids into the fun of birding, I like to recommend The Kids’s E book of Birdwatching, by Welsh ornithologist and wildlife advocate Dan Rouse. Filled with pictures, illustrations, suggestions and actions (you may make DIY hen meals or seed bombs with the youngsters), this e book focuses not simply on the birds themselves, however on caring for them and caring for the planet. (Studying age 5-9)
For the youngsters in your life who’re auditory learners, music-makers and tech-lovers, Hearken to the Birds by birdsong knowledgeable Donald Kroodsma, illustrator and designer Léna Mazilu, and interactive developer Yoann Guény is a should. The group created an image e book of widespread North American birds that’s accompanied by an augmented actuality “Birdie Reminiscence” app. With the app downloaded onto a telephone and the telephone digital camera pointed to a hen within the e book, the hen appears to return alive, transfer — and sing. The impact is totally enchanting. (Studying age 4-11)
Within the small (however important for bird-lovers!) class of birding bedtime books, the husband and spouse group of David Obuchowski and Sarah Pedry created How Birds Sleep, a stunning exploration of the various methods and areas that birds relaxation—together with whereas flying within the sky, sleeping on one leg, or tucked inside a termite mound. The backmatter on this nonfiction image e book offers the grownup readers with info to assist reply a few of the inevitable questions: how are you aware if a hen is asleep—and what precisely is sleep, anyway? (Studying age 4-8)
MARK:
Avian Structure: How Birds Design, Engineer, and Construct, by Peter Goodfellow, is a revised and expanded model of his e book that first appeared in 2011. The primary version was terrific; this new one is even higher, with extra case research and illustrations of the extraordinary number of nests (and different buildings, comparable to bowerbirds’ bowers and sapsuckers’ and Acorn woodpeckers’ meals shops) constructed by the world’s birds. The Horned coot takes tons of of journeys to construct a mound of stones weighing 1 1/2 tons simply offshore in a lake within the excessive Andes — and that’s simply to get its nestbuilding began. This e book is stuffed with astounding tales like that.
If you happen to’re planning a birding journey for the brand new yr or merely fantasizing about one, you should look at The Pleasure of Birdwatching. It provides you 4 well-designed and engaging pages on sixty totally different locales and the avian sights to see in them — Griffin vultures within the Pyrenees; Kingfishers in Sri Lanka; Sandhill cranes in Nebraska; Sooty falcons in Jordan; and others — with simply the correct amount of native coloration and tricks to information guests. And the writing and images within the e book is first-rate.
Twenty-three thousand photographs had been submitted for the 2024 Chicken Photographer of the Yr competitors (it’s run by British charities), with the winners printed right here, in varied classes: Greatest Portrait, Black and White, Birds in Flight, Chicken Conduct, City Birds, Comedy, and others. You’ll, while you open the e book and begin wanting on the images, snort at lots of them, most of them, with utter delight. They’re that good.
JOHN:
Spurn, in East Yorkshire, is one in all my favourite locations to observe birds, however I’ve by no means visited the Little Tern colony there. So Richard Boon’s Clinging to the Edge, an intimate look into the breeding season of a colony there, is particularly welcome. Boone paints a vivid image of those delicate birds, from their arduous migration from West Africa to their every day struggles for survival on the North Sea Coast. And he affords eager insights into the distinctive ecosystem of Spurn Level, a dynamic landform continually formed by the ocean. His e book is a poignant reminder of the fragility of our pure world and of the pressing want to guard its most weak inhabitants.
These in search of to hone their avian auditory abilities will wish to seek the advice of Stanislas Wroza’s Figuring out Migratory Birds by Sound in Britain and Europe, a complete and holistic perspective on the flight and get in touch with calls of 450 species. It contains sonograms, in addition to QR codes linked to downloadable sounds. And Wroza provides helpful insights into migratory conduct and optimum listening circumstances. The e book is a must have for the intense birdwatcher.
In his ID Handbook of European Birds, Nils van Duivendijk has created an ID information for the ages.
His systematic method makes identification a doddle. And the emphasis on sensible identification strategies – things like conduct, habitat clues, molt technique — makes this a e book your shouldn’t dawdle to buy and seek the advice of. It is available in two volumes (however can also be obtainable as a downloadable PDF file); not low cost however nothing worthwhile is: in different phrases, that is actually value the price.
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M.C.! H.H.! God bless you all!
