Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches?: And Other Bird Questions You Know You Want to Ask - Softcover

Mike O'Connor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1554550416 ISBN 13: 9781554550418

Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd, 2008

Synopsis

A beginner's guide filled with wisdom and humour.

In 1983, Mike O'Connor opened the Bird Watcher's General Store, which might well have been the first store devoted solely to birding in North America. Since that time he has answered thousands of questions about birds, both at his store and while walking down the aisles of the supermarket.

The questions have ranged from:

• inquiries about individual species (Are flamingos really real?")
        to
• what and when to feed birds ("Should I bring in my feeders for the summer?")
       to
• the down-and-dirty specifics of backyard birding ("Why are the birds dropping poop in my pool?").

Answering the questions has been easy; keeping a straight face has been hard.

Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches? is the solution for the beginning birder who already has a book that explains the slight plumage variations between doves, but who is really much more interested in why birds sing at 4:30 a.m. instead of 7:00 a.m., or whether it's okay to feed bread to birds, or how birds rediscover your feeders so quickly when you've just filled them after a long vacation. Or, for that matter, whether flamingos are really real.

"Mike O'Connor knows birds - I mean, REALLY knows them. He has been answering questions about birds for years, and he can deliver the straight scoop with a hilarious twist that makes it unforgettable. Reading this book is almost as much fun as bird watching, and that's saying a lot!"
— Kenn Kaufman, author of the Kaufman Field Guide to the Birds of North America

"While O'Connor's detailed responses are full of ornithological facts, it's their humor and irreverence that make the book so entertaining."
— Audubon Magazine

About this title

About the Author:

Mike O'Connor
Mike is the owner of the Bird Watcher's General Store on Cape Cod. His column, Ask the Bird Folks, appears in The Cape Codder, and his writing has been included in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004. He lives in Massachusetts.

Review:

"The avian equivalent in tone and expertise to NPR's Car Talk Magliozzi brothers, O'Connor should net a wider audience with this amusing collection."
— Publishers Weekly

"While O'Connor's detailed responses are full of ornithological facts, it's their humor and irreverence that make the book so entertaining."
— Audubon Magazine

"O'Connor's book delightfully answers almost any question one could ask about birds. I am impelled to declare that the Chesworth pen and ink drawings add a sprinkling of 'salt' to O'Connor's bird tales. This is a fun book to read, whether nibbled at a bit at a time, or in one large clump."
— New Hampshire Union Leader

"O'Connor's response had me literally laughing out loud . . . he makes bird-watching fun for everyone."
— Barnstable Patriot, Cape Cod

"This is quite possibly the funniest bird book ever written. O'Connor has broken the mold of straight-laced bird books."
— WildBird Magazine

"(O'Connor's) responses to questions are practical, well researched and always written with humour. . .

O'Connor manages to make very complicated things understandable even to a reader who doesn't have a background in bird anatomy and behavior, and finds something admirable about every bird, even the kingfisher which, as he says, doesn't like anybody, but you have to admire such consistent cantankerousness. . .

The great thing about this book is that it's entirely enjoyable even for those of us who are so shortsighted that even with binoculars, we can't be sure of who's flying out of the barn loft in the early evening. . .

What a terrific book to keep on hand for those times when you're not sure about an odd bird call heard late at night or whether it's a good idea to rescue a baby bird (which almost certainly does not need rescuing) or different bird species' migration patterns. The few pen-and-ink drawings illustrating the book are charming, but incidental to the information, and we must be thankful that the columns he's written over the years are now available in a permanent format to a wider public."
— The Chronicle-Journal (Thunder Bay)

About this edition

• Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1554550416
• ISBN 13: 9781554550418
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224