Getting Started in Bird Watching - Softcover

Cronin, Edward W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0395976375 ISBN 13: 9780395976371

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999

Synopsis

Explains how to select and use a field guide, offers tips on observing bird behavior, and includes a detailed checklist of northeastern birds

About this title

Review:

Beginning birdwatchers face many frustrations: birds, it seems, are constantly in motion, taking flight before the fledgling birder can turn to a photograph or drawing that might help pinpoint its identification. The experienced birdwatcher, Edward Cronin writes in this friendly manual, is by contrast able to identify a dozen species in a few seconds, which compounds the beginner's lack of self-confidence. Never fear, Cronin reassures us: The "magician's trick of rapidly identifying species is, in truth, based on a logical procedure that anyone can master." One great secret, he goes on to say, is that most often a bird is what it appears to be: a pigeon is a pigeon, a duck a duck. Another great secret is to know that what is missing is often more important than what is there: a bird lacking a broad bill is unlikely to eat much fish and is therefore unlikely to be that duck. Cronin provides a well-structured set of lessons in how to apply these and other principles. The book closes with a sequence of checklists for the United States, broken into regions. --Gregory McNamee

About the Author:

Gordon Morrison is a well-known naturalist whose work has been praised by Roger Tory Peterson as "Marvelous, beautiful, excellent . . . Morrison’s work is so inspiring that I wish such clear material was available when I was slowly learning ecology. . . . We owe a debt of gratitude to Gordon for his interpretive skills as an artist. He is a superb teacher who uses visual methods." Robert Bateman likened his work to that of Albrecht Durer and Andrew Wyeth. Gordon Morrison makes his home in Massachusetts.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0395976375
• ISBN 13: 9780395976371
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 216
• Editor: Estabrook Barry
• Illustrator: Morrison Gordon