North American Backyard Birdwatching for All Seasons

by Marcus H. Schneck, Marcus Schneck

For most of us, birdwatching begins in the backyard with the first crust of bread we offer the birds as children. For many, a keen interest in birds grows from there. The beautifully illustrated North American Backyard Birdwatching will provide everything you need to know, from identification and feeding techniques to housing and landscaping, so you can invite in the birds you want and keep them coming to your yard.

With full-color photography, including more than 100 pictures of different bird species, you'll be a backyard bird expert in no time. See detailed photographs of nesting chicks, birds eating and sleeping, and the best habitats known to attract birds.

The projects in this book are meant for any level and include how to make a simple bird house, how to make your windows bird-safe, and how to care for a bird bath. You'll find hundreds of ways to make your yard a bird haven, incluing the best plants to install, the best neting materials to provide in your yard, and more. Learn to identify bird songs, recognize migration patterns, and understand what different bird social behaviors mean. Youll also find hints for keeping a log so you can record all the species you see in your birdwatching.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2005

About the author

Librarian note: Please don't just merge with "Marcus Schneck". These two books have his middle initial.

Reviews

[Judith]

It needs a different name, because not much of it is about birdwatching. Rather, it's about how to attract and protect birds in your backyard, even specific species, and what and how to plant to make it a "habitant," not just a yard or garden. It includes a bit of how-to info for building nesting boxes or homemade water agitators to cater to birds. That's what I was looking for, so there was enough useful information to make it worth reading those chapters.

If you're looking for what's known as a "field guide" -- a book about how to identify birds you're likely to see where you live -- there is a bit about that, but this is not that book. Get a field guide from Audubon or a regional specialty source.

I got the book from the library in like-new condition, but the binding was already coming apart. There were also quite a few typos. Fixing those problems is the domain of copy editors and a good publisher.