Books — Field Guides

Field Guides

Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans

Lowest new price: $11.80
Lowest used price: $11.83
List price: $15.00
Author: John Marzluff

Playful, social, and passionate, crows have brains that are huge for their body size, which allows them to think, plan, and reconsider their actions. They also exhibit an avian kind of eloquence, mate for life, and associate with relatives and neighbors for years. And to people who care for them and feed them, they often give oddly touching gifts in return.

The ongoing connection between humans and crows—a cultural coevolution—has shaped both species for millions of years. Scientist John Marzluff teams up with artist-naturalist Tony Angell to tell amazing stories of these brilliant birds. With Marzluff’s extraordinary original research on the intelligence and startling abilities of corvids—crows, ravens, and jays—Angell’s gorgeous line drawings, and a lively joint narrative, the authors offer an in-depth look at these complex creatures and the traits and behaviors we share, including language, delinquency, frolic, passion, wrath, risk taking, and awareness. Crows gather around their dead, warn of impending doom, recognize people, commit murder of other crows, lure animals to their death, swill coffee and drink beer, design and use tools—including cars as nutcrackers—and windsurf and sled to play.

With its abundance of funny, awe-inspiring, and poignant stories, Gifts of the Crow portrays creatures who are nothing short of amazing.

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The World's Rarest Birds

Lowest new price: $30.31
Lowest used price: $30.13
List price: $45.00
Author: Erik Hirschfeld

This illustrated book vividly depicts the most endangered birds in the world and provides the latest information on the threats each species faces and the measures being taken to save them. Today, 571 bird species are classified as critically endangered or endangered, and a further four now exist only in captivity. This landmark book features stunning photographs of 500 of these species--the results of a prestigious international photographic competition organized specifically for this book. It also showcases paintings by acclaimed wildlife artist Tomasz Cofta of the 75 species for which no photos are known to exist.

The World's Rarest Birds has introductory chapters that explain the threats to birds, the ways threat categories are applied, and the distinction between threat and rarity. The book is divided into seven regional sections--Europe and the Middle East; Africa and Madagascar; Asia; Australasia; Oceanic Islands; North America, Central America, and the Caribbean; and South America. Each section includes an illustrated directory to the bird species under threat there, and gives a concise description of distribution, status, population, key threats, and conservation needs. This one-of-a-kind book also provides coverage of 62 data-deficient species.

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The Warbler Guide

Lowest new price: $18.99
List price: $29.95
Author: Tom Stephenson

Warblers are among the most challenging birds to identify. They exhibit an array of seasonal plumages and have distinctive yet oft-confused calls and songs. The Warbler Guide enables you to quickly identify any of the 56 species of warblers in the United States and Canada. This groundbreaking guide features more than 1,000 stunning color photos, extensive species accounts with multiple viewing angles, and an entirely new system of vocalization analysis that helps you effectively learn songs and calls.

The Warbler Guide revolutionizes birdwatching, making warbler identification easier than ever before. Also look for the interactive companion apps for iPhone and iPad.

Covers all 56 species of warblers in the United States and Canada
Visual quick finders help you identify warblers from any angle
Song and call finders make identification easy using a few simple questions
Uses sonograms to teach a new system of song identification that makes it easier to understand and hear differences between similar species
Detailed species accounts show multiple views with diagnostic points, direct comparisons of plumage and vocalizations with similar species, and complete aging and sexing descriptions
New aids to identification include song mnemonics and icons for undertail pattern, color impression, habitat, and behavior
Includes field exercises, flight shots, general identification strategies, and quizzes

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What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World

Lowest new price: $12.68
Lowest used price: $10.71
List price: $22.00
Author: Jon Young

Companion audio files are available at www.hmhbooks.com/whattherobinknows

A lifelong birder, tracker, and naturalist, Jon Young is guided in his work and teaching by three basic premises: the robin, junco, and other songbirds know everything important about their environment, be it backyard or forest; by tuning in to their vocalizations and behavior, we can acquire much of this wisdom for our own pleasure and benefit; and the birds' companion calls and warning alarms are just as important as their songs.
Birds are the sentries—and our key to understanding the world beyond our front door. Unwitting humans create a zone of disturbance that scatters the wildlife. Respectful humans who heed the birds acquire an awareness that radically changes the dynamic. We are welcome in their habitat. The birds don't fly away. The larger animals don't race off. No longer hapless intruders, we now find, see, and engage the deer, the fox, the red-shouldered hawk—even the elusive, whispering wren.

Deep bird language is an ancient discipline, perfected by Native peoples the world over. Finally, science is catching up. This groundbreaking book unites the indigenous knowledge, the latest research, and the author's own experience of four decades in the field to lead us toward a deeper connection to the animals and, in the end, a deeper connection to ourselves.

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Bird Songs Bible: The Complete, Illustrated Reference for North American Birds

Lowest new price: $75.00
Lowest used price: $52.13
List price: $125.00
Brand: Chronicle Books

From the best-selling Bird Songs series comes the most comprehensive bird book ever published. Bird Songs Bible covers the sights and sounds of every single breeding bird in North Americanearly 750 in all. This utterly distinctive package features a state-of-the-art digital audio player that brings to life the birds' songs and calls with the touch of a button. Written by a panel of ornithological experts and produced with the renowned Cornell Lab of Ornithology, this indispensable reference features lavish illustrations of the birds and their habitats, scientifically accurate range maps, and detailed information on distribution, habitat, behavior, and vocalizations. A beautiful keepsake object, Bird Songs Bible is an essential volume for the true bird lover.

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1001 Secrets Every Birder Should Know: Tips and Trivia for the Backyard and Beyond

Lowest new price: $7.74
Lowest used price: $6.75
List price: $20.00
Author: Sharon Stiteler

Bird watching is one of the most popular hobbies in America, and 1,001 Secrets Every Bird Watcher Should Know is the first photographic guide and fact book written in a humorous conversational tone that appeals to every age and skill level. Replete with sound information, 1,001 Secrets will expose many birding myths: a bald eagle cannot carry off a four-month old baby, and crows do not go sledding for fun.

This accessible guide includes fun facts, such as where certain birds got their names, how birds eat, how they find a life partner, and how they build a home for the chicks. Other useful information includes identification tips, migration patterns, and where the best birding vacation spots are. Packed with full-color photos, 1,001 Secrets Every Bird Watcher Should Know is a fun, informative read for every bird watcher.

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America's Other Audubon

Lowest new price: $25.95
Lowest used price: $25.98
List price: $45.00
Author: Joy M. Kiser

America's Other Audubon chronicles the story of Genevieve Jones, her family, and the making of an extraordinary nineteenth-century book, Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio. At the age of twenty-nine, Genevieve Jones, an amateur naturalist/artist and daughter of a country doctor, visited the 1876 Centennial World's Fair in Philadelphia, where she saw Audubon's paintings in Birds of America on display. His artwork inspired her to undertake the production of a book illustrating the birds nests and eggs that Audubon neglected to include in his work. Her parents were reluctant to support the undertaking of such an ambitious and expensive project until Genevieve became despondent over a broken engagement. Concerned over her fragile mental state, they encouraged her to begin the book as a distraction. Her brother collected the nests and eggs, her father paid for the publishing costs, and Genevieve and her girlhood friend learned lithography and began illustrating the specimens. The book was sold by subscription in twenty-three parts. When part one of Genevieve's work was issued, leading ornithologists praised the illustrations, and Rutherford B. Hayes and Theodore Roosevelt added their names to the subscription list. One reviewer wrote: It is one of the most beautiful and desirable works that has ever appeared in the United States upon any branch of natural history and ranks with Audubon's celebrated work on birds. Then, suddenly, Genevieve died of typhoid fever after personally completing only five of the illustrations. Her family took up the completion of the work in her memory. They labored for seven years until the book was completed in 1886; collecting nests and eggs, drawing lithographs on stone, and hand coloring fifty copies of each illustration, and writing the field notes for each species of bird. Both the brother who collected the nests and eggs and wrote the field notes, and the mother who completed the drawings on stone and hand coloring, were stricken with typhoid fever two years after Genevieve's death and nearly died. In spite of serious damage to their health, they never gave up and labored until the book was finished. The father covered the publishing costs, which were higher than had been anticipated and were not covered by the subscription price, and ultimately lost his entire retirement savings completing the task in his daughter's memory. The mother lost her eyesight at the end of her life from the effects of typhoid fever and long hours of straining to draw and color the nests and eggs. But neither parent ever complained and considered their work on the book the most important accomplishment of their lives. When the mother's copy of the volume was exhibited on the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, it was awarded a bronze medal. Only 90 copies of the book were produced and fewer than 20 have been located today in libraries or in private collections. America's Other Audubon includes a foreword by the Curator of Natural-History Rare Books at the Smithsonian, Leslie Overstreet, a prologue and introduction by researcher and writer Joy M. Kiser (with archival photographs of the family and original advertisements and ephemera from the publication and sale of the book), the 68 original color plates of nests and eggs, plus selected field notes, a key to the eggs, and a key to the birds scientific and current common names (which have changed since the book first published in the nineteenth century). Joy Kiser has been friends with the Jones ancestors for fourteen years and has access to family photographs and documents that the general public has never seen. The Joneses story has never been fully told and no other author is better prepared to tell it.

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Collecting Rocks, Gems and Minerals: Identification, Values and Lapidary Uses (Collecting Rocks, Gems & Minerals: Identification, Values, Lapidar y Uses)

Lowest new price: $9.87
Lowest used price: $12.43
List price: $19.99
Author: Patti Polk
Brand: Krause Publications

Unlike the dense and highly technical academic tomes that are text-heavy, poorly organized and intimidating, this colorful and easy-to-use reference guide dedicated to collecting rocks, gems and minerals is ideal for readers who want to expand their understanding without getting lost in a labyrinth of science. Beautifully illustrated with 700 color photographs providing wonderful detail and smartly organized to take the hassle out identification, you will enjoy the simplicity of the guide and the enthusiasm and knowledge of author Patti Polk, one of the top agate collectors in the world and a self-proclaimed rockhound." You will also enjoy two areas that our competitors don't bother with. First it includes values, and second, it covers an introduction to lapidary, which is the cutting and polishing of rocks and gemstones for jewelry or display.

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National Geographic Angry Birds: 50 True Stories of the Fed Up, Feathered, and Furious

Lowest new price: $3.69
Lowest used price: $1.95
List price: $13.95
Author: Mel White
Brand: National Geographic

"If playing Angry Birds has suddenly turned you into a bird lover, you’ll want to get your talons on the latest book National Geographic Angry Birds: 50 True Stories of the Fed Up, Feathered and Furious." --geekstyleguide.com

This hilariously eye-popping book showcases real-world angry birds and 50 fantastic stories peppered with tips to avoid them, as well as fascinating facts about angry bird behavior. In addition to the funny and light-hearted real-life angry bird stories, National Geographic Angry Birds: Fed up, Feathered, and Furious will tell, for the first time ever, the story of the Angry Birds we all know and love from the hit game. Angry Bird fans will finally get to learn the personality, name, and all the details of each of the iconic Angry Birds. The Angry Birds' stories have been TOP SECRET until now, and will only be revealed in this book!

Rovio graphics and National Geographic photography are featured throughout. Structured like the game which progresses in degree of difficulty, the book progresses in degree of anger and devotes a chapter to each level of anger intensity; Annoyed, Testy, Outraged, and Furious. Readers will discover the world's angriest real bird at the end.

As one of the most trusted authorities on animal behavior, National Geographic is the perfect source for the real truth behind real-life angry birds.