The Backyard Bird-Lover's Guide: Attracting, Nesting, Feeding - Softcover

Mahnken, Jan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0882669273 ISBN 13: 9780882669274

Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC, 1996

Synopsis

Whether you’d like to wake up to a cheery robin’s birdsong or see hummingbirds in your garden, Jan Mahnken has you covered. In this colorful reference book, you’ll find simple tips to attract, feed, and observe 135 American bird species. Mahnken provides information on territory, courtship, nesting, parenting, and much more, while Jeffrey C. Domm brings each species to life with stunningly detailed paintings.

About this title

About the Author

Jan Mahnken, author of The Backyard Bird-Lover's Guide, has written for Country Journal, Farmstead, Countryside, and New England Farm Journal. She lives in western Massachusetts and has loved birds since the age of thirteen.

From the Back Cover

An information-packed reference to attracting, feeding, and appreciating a wide variety of birds in your yard.

Whether you want to attract hummingbirds to your garden or bluebirds to your nesting box, this colorful guide is brimming with information on attracting and understanding backyard birds. You'll learn how to feed them, house them, provide nesting materials, and keep them coming back year after year.

Along with beautiful, detailed paintings by Jeffrey C. Domm and a foreword by Ren, Laubach of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, The Backyard Bird-Lover's Guide features a reference section with closeups of more than 135 species and their feeding and nesting habits. And there's much more:

-- A guide to feeders and food, and who eats what

-- A chapter on providing nestboxes for bluebirds, martins, owls, woodpeckers, wrens, wood ducks, and more

-- How to create gardens that attract birds

-- Tips on deterring cats, squirrels, and undesirable birds

-- How to identify nests and eggs - and what to do with a fallen nestling

-- Details of the family life of birds

Reviews

Whether undertaken for practical reasons (insect control) or pure enjoyment, attracting birds to one's own backyard is an activity that can involve the whole family. In this personable, informal guide, Mahnken demonstrates both her knowledge and her love for birds as she introduces 135 North American species, discusses nesting cycles, and supplies tips on feeding and encouraging feathered friends to visit on a regular basis. This isn't as definitive, slick, or handy as some of the pocket field guides. But it's loaded with plenty of black-and-white and color pictures (not seen in finished form), which, when coupled with the book's quick facts about nesting, habits, range, size, and more, will be great for new bird spotters. Stephanie Zvirin

Edition details

• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0882669273
• ISBN 13: 9780882669274
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Domm Jeffrey C.
• Number of pages: 320