birding
Tag archives for birding
Let The (Golden) Eagle Soar
Posted by Greg Laden on December 20, 2012 Golden Eagle I hope I won’t disappoint you … this is not about John Ashcroft. It is about golden eagles (actually, maybe its about one golden eagle in particular).
The Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide to Birding Books
Posted by Greg Laden on December 11, 2012 
This is a summary of several of the better books I’ve had the opportunity to review here, organized in general categories. This is written from a North American perspective since most of my readers are North American (though many of you live to the west of the “Eastern Region” … but you probably know that).…
National Geo’s Birding Essentials
Posted by Greg Laden on November 28, 2012 Are you interested in birding but don’t really know much about it? Did you just put a feeder outside and noticed that birds are interesting, or did you finally get around to stopping at that wildlife refuge you drive by every week on the way to the casino and realize that walking down to the…
How to be a better birder
Posted by Greg Laden on November 27, 2012 There are several things you need to do to be a better birder. Some of these things can be handled by just tossing money after the problem. Better binoculars, more books, that sort of thing. If you use those tools well they will improve your abilities as a birder. But the most important thing you…
Spring Break Birding!
Posted by Greg Laden on March 23, 2012 If you are a birder and you are going on Spring Break (from the US), don’t forget that there are birds where you are going. And, probably, there are bird books that cover your destination. One of the really cool things about North American birding is that when you do go down to tye Yucatan,…
Birding Binoculars
Posted by Greg Laden on December 12, 2011 What kind of birding binoculars do you use? How do you chose a good model? Obviously, the best way to pick out a pair of binoculars is to try them out, but in doing so, I strongly urge you to try at least a couple of pairs that are beyond your budget, and work your…
New Bird Book: Birds of North America and Greenland
Posted by Greg Laden on November 12, 2011 Face it. Half the time … most of the time, really … you use your Peterson (or some other favorite “field guide”) as a checklist. You see a bird and you pretty much know in your head what it is, but you need to look it up to see what the three or four similar…
The Atlas of Birds: Diversity, Behavior, and Conservation
Posted by Greg Laden on November 11, 2011 How are birds related to dinosaurs, crocodiles, and pterosaurs? Where do birds live, and not live? How many bird species are there, and how many actual birds, and how does this vary across the glob? What about endemics?; Where ate the most local species found? Mike Unwin’s The Atlas of Birds: Diversity, Behavior, and Conservation…
It’s fall. Time to start hoarding bird books.
Posted by Greg Laden on October 24, 2011 Here in the Northern Hemisphere, many of our birds fly away in the fall. Other, very cool birds from even farther north, depending on where you live then arrive. But just about now, where I live, we are at the tail end of the migration out and not quite at the migration in, so this…
Birders Need to More Actively Embrace Evolution
Posted by Greg Laden on August 11, 2011 People who watch birds identify them, and that process is integral to what makes birding interesting. But the best practices for identifying birds appear on the face of it to conflict with evolutionary concepts of birds, and this can lead to both sloppy thinking and missed opportunities
The first crane and the last crane
Posted by Greg Laden on July 18, 2011 The first crane I ever saw is a bird burned permanently in my memory. It came out of nowhere and flew close by, staying in view lit by a nearly setting sun for about five wing beats. A gun was raised to shoot it but the trigger was not pulled.
The Birds of New Jersey
Posted by Greg Laden on June 8, 2011 I’ve recently reviewed bird or nature books for some fairly exotic places (see this for all the reviews) including the Antarctic and the West Indies. Now, I have a book on the birds of one of the most exotic places ever: New Jersey! OK, if you are from New York like I am, you know…
Antarctic Wildlife: A Visitor’s Guide
Posted by Greg Laden on June 6, 2011 I’m sitting here looking at Antarctic Wildlife: A Visitor’s Guide. I’ve never been to the Antarctic so I can’t tell you what I think of this book from the pragmatic angle of how well it works as a guide, but I can tell you that I’ve learned a number of things just looking at the…
Guide to Birds of the West Indies
Posted by Greg Laden on June 2, 2011 The West Indies includes the Lucayan Archipelago (Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands); the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola [Dominican Republic and Haiti], Jamaica, Cayman Islands); the Lesser Antilles (Leeward Islands [the Virgin Islands of Saint Croix, Saint Thomas, Saint John, Water Island, Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada, Jost Van Dyke], Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Antigua, Barbuda,…
When is a bird a real turkey?
Posted by Greg Laden on May 7, 2011 This post at 10,000 Birds, an item I accidentally bumped into on the Internet while looking for something else, and an unusual sighting moments ago, converge. And, its a nice distracting convergence which I need right now because as I sit here one week before fishing opener, looking at the glassy surface of Hunters Bay,…
Bring your birding to the next level
Posted by Greg Laden on April 20, 2011 Description and identification of birds, or anything else, can be done in a rote manner with straightforward reference to details. If information about enough details is available, the identification will be accurate. But as humans we hardly ever do that sort of thing. If you ask someone to describe a car they saw recently, they…
How To Identify Hawks at a Distance (and a recommendation on binoculars)
Posted by Greg Laden on March 23, 2011 Imma let you hear all about how Hawks at a Distance: Identification of Migrant Raptors is a remarkable and important field guide, but first I want to mention that one of the most interesting parts of that guide is the forward by Pete Dunne, who himself has written a bird book or two. Dunne reviews…
Your next bird book: The Crossley ID Guide (Eastern Birds)
Posted by Greg Laden on March 11, 2011 Three days ago I happen to glance out the front window of our townhouse and found myself staring at a bald eagle swooping by, presumably after picking up one of the neighborhood dogs or small children1 A few minutes later, the doorbell rang. When I opened the door, no one was there but a package…
What bird field guides do you really need?
Posted by Greg Laden on July 23, 2010 There are several characteristics that make up a field guide. It should be “pocket size” (and birders have huge pockets, so this may not be as much of a restriction as it sounds). It should cover the geographical region in which you are watching the birds, although in some remote areas of the world you…
A New Field Guide to the Birds from The Smithsonian
Posted by Greg Laden on April 25, 2009 OK, not so new, but still relevant. The following is a repost of a review of this book. New Smithsonian Field Guide Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America by Ted Floyd is a newcomer to the bird field guide scene. This guide offers a new combination of features that may make it…
, which is now available for the 
