Customer Reviews

Bird Feathers: A Guide to North American Species (Birds Ornithology)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What a delight to have this tool. This is the birdwatcher's geocaching. I have spent many years picking up feathers and testing my ability to identify the bird from which it has come. I enjoy it personally but am also a field biologist who uses that data to describe details of a discovery, including bird remains that have been left as a result of predation or impact from transmission wires or wind turbines. I have since purchased 4 more copies for my colleagues and field staff. Other than the unfortunate mislabeled plate on page 30, I have found the book accurate. I believe the authors approach to depict flight feathers was an appropriate choice as they are the most telling of species. The more we learn, the more we respect nature's gifts. Thank you for your tremendous tedious efforts.

My review of Bird Feathers actually started at the base of a fallen rotten trunk of an old Douglas fir in a forested ravine on the east slope of the Cascades. At the base of the log, close to the ground we found large chips of wood that had been removed from the log along with a half dozen feathers of an unidentified bird. They were black with a small bit of white close to their base. The longest was about 6 inches long. I guessed it was a woodpecker that had been killed and eaten while foraging on the log.

In the past the identity of such a discovery would remain just that, a guess. I collected the feathers and that afternoon I put Bird Feathers to work. Previously, I might have attempt to use a bird field guide to guess at whether or not the feathers I found could be from one bird or another. Or I might have used a text with a few examples of feathers, but it often was missing the species I guessed it might be or look-a-likes which prevented comparison and more certainty in identification. With Bird Feathers in hand I was able to identify the bird quite definitively as a Pileated woodpecker and even specifically which feathers I had discovered.

And here is where Bird Feathers excels further as a field guide. Beyond identification, Bird Feathers provides the opportunity for greater exploration. "Why do Pileated woodpecker primary feathers look different than other woodpeckers?" I wondered. This lead me to explore the detailed information in the front of the book on feather types, wing types, various patterns of bird flight. What started out as the desire to identify some feathers found in the woods, ended up with me having a much better image in my mind of how bird feathers WORK. For me, a field guide with the ability to draw you deeper into the subject rather than dead end with a common name and latin binomial, is a treasure.

Besides this, Scott and McFarland paid meticulous attention to their photography, measurements and layout all of which contribute to a handsome and highly functional text. It is a truly original contribution to the field of Natural History in North America and as such belongs on the bookshelf and in the backpack of any serious student of our continent's wild heritage.

I pre-ordered this book after hearing a good friend talk about the authors and the work that went into producing it. What an amazing book. The full color photos are fantastic...crisp and clean, easy to match in the field to feathers found. The regional maps are great. The book is laid out well and very user friendly (or idiot friendly in my case, haha). The information is clearly communicated. I hope that the authors will collaborate and do a non-native guide as well...hint, hint. :)

The day I got the book I used it and have been using it about every day since. I work in a nature center and park so there are constantly feathers to be identified, especially since migration is starting. I have recommended the guide to several of my friends and coworkers and will continue to do so. Easy to use, easy to identify the feathers using the book.

This field guide is fantastic! I am an avid hiker and bird lover and this guide will be in my backpack for every hike I take from here on out. The photos are beautiful and should make identification easy. The authors are authoritative and know their subject matter well. I'm so glad someone undertook the exhaustive job of creating this great guide book.

I have been waiting for a field guide like this for so long and it certainly did not disappoint. Bird feather identification has seemed so daunting to me in the past because I didn't even know where to start, but after reading this guide and using it for a few days I feel much more at ease. The authors do an artful job of making something complicated into something much more approachable by explaining how feather morphology (shape) can help the reader narrow down a particular flight feather into one of five different wing types, or two tail feather types. Once the wing type is known the reader can then take that inforamtion and narrow down their search. The guide is full of hundreds of beautiful color photos of the feathers of North American birds for readers to compare their feather to.

Whether a seasoned naturalist, a student, or casual walker picking up an eye-catching feather, this unique field guide is an infomative new way to understand birds, birdflight, and birdwatching and...feathers. It will certainly be in my backpack for my summer hiking (and off the shelf of my classroom).

This is an excellent book.I am a bird carver and trey to be as accurate as I can be in laying out the feather patter, shape contour etc and the colour. The feathers on any bird overlap and thus give the bird its shape and pattern of colour. Having a book that shows individual feathers is a great reference source.

I rate this book very highly and recommend it to anyone who carves or paints birds

I'm sitting at my desk which has an old ink well filled with 7 feathers I've collected in the past few months from hikes in the western foothills. Three of these feathers are tan and barred. After receiving "Bird Feathers" by Scott and McFarland, I now know that two are primaries and one is a secondary - and I know the purposes as well. I'm also fairly sure that one is from a Sharp-shinned Hawk, but I'm not positive. I'm not even certain as to the feathers on the front cover of the book, the most detailed photos presented. And I either have a feather from an Anna's Hummingbird or a Western Bluebird. Hence, my predicament in being a real amateur and having such a book.

Beautifully written and well photographed, the book still has a fault and it is not entirely the authors'. As an amateur nature photographer, I know how difficult it is to photograph feathers, especially feathers with color. If it were a perfect world, the book would be twice as large and the feathers would be life-sized and the colors would be true. However, if one takes a Western Bluebird and a Western Inland Scrub Jay as examples, the blues are distinctive and much more "blue" than what is represented in the book.

Under a high powered (Verilux)lamp or outdoors, one can see that the feathers that are photographers do have blue in them, but the gray part of the feathers predominates and makes the variations very difficult to see. This makes identification difficult though not impossible.

I highly recommend the book even with these "distractions." Nothing compares, and if it makes you "study" harder, then the book has accomplished an unintended consequence. Meanwhile, it IS well written and explains more than I ever knew. Combined with the photographs, it's superb.

BIRD FEATHERS is a definitive, educational book on feathers with explicit details of feather construction, colors, and purpose. I took this book to my class on birds designed for home schoolers and could have used several copies. It is educational but it is also fun just to look at species of US birds and compare them to the feather collections the students brought to class.