Customer Reviews

Birds at Your Feeder

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

 

 

I spent a few hours last night reading various parts of BIRDS AT YOUR FEEDER, and I wanted to write and tell everyone how much I'm enjoying it. I read all of the introductory sections and end chapters and about a dozen species accounts. I learned new things, always a pleasure, and was impressed with the design, graphics and friendly level of writing. It's a trick to present scientific results in a reader-friendly way and I think this book succeeds wonderfully. The real proof to me was that I caught my 16-year old son reading a book -- this book!

Here's the complete review from `Library Journal' (15 Sept. 1999), by Henry T. Armistead, Free Library of Philadelphia: "This superb book is distinguished from the dozens of others on attracting birds by its analysis of data from thousands of people who feed birds across North America and participate in Project FeederWatch, a survey begun in 1986 by Dunn and managed by Cornell University and other institutions. For the 93 most widespread feeder species, the authors present several pages of excellent commentary plus two range maps and four bar graphs. For each bird, there is textual and graphic information on its abundance (both geographical and through the yearly calendar), food preferences, behavior, habits, a drawing of the bird, and more. There is also some detail on birds and mammals found less frequently at feeders plus discussions of misconceptions about the perceived risks of feeders: concerns about dependency, disease, predation, and window collisions. A wealth of information is easily accessible here thanks to this massive cooperative program--a prime example of `citizen science'."

In addition to very interesting and often unique summary information on different species of birds attracted to feeders, the book includes birdfood ratings and maps that are ideal for people who are trying to determine whether the foods, water, etc. that they offer for birds were found to be as attractive by other birdfeeders, and whether particular birds were attracted to feeders in their local rural, suburban, or urban area, or adjoining state. By examining various graphs, they can also tell: how many of each species typically come at one time; how frequently they may come between different periods watched by other birdfeeders; and whether there is any monthly variation in visits between November and April, when most people are feeding birds.

I found this book to be very helpful, and I refer to it frequently when I see a new species at my feeder. I like the way it lists the seed preferences for each bird. It is a very interesting book and has been very helpful to me in attacting backyard birds!

The title doesn't do justice to this book's breadth and depth. "Birds at Your Feeder" consists of ornithologically informed and delightfully written accounts of the feeding habits, behavior, distribution, and abundance of 93 North American species that often visit bird feeders. I bought the book knowing nothing more about it than Dr. Dunn's international prominence as an ornithologist at the Canadian Wildlife Service and a prime developer of Project FeederWatch -- and I wasn't disappointed. She and her co-author based the book solidly on an analysis of the data submitted by thousands of observers since 1987 in the immense network of FeederWatch volunteers across the U.S. and Canada. It seems to me that this important publication has not received the wide attention it deserves. A broad range of readers from professionals in ornithology to people with little more than a casual interest in backyard birds should find it both entertaining and worthwhile.

I bought this book along with 4 other books about bird feeding on Amazon. In addition to these, I own dozens of other books about bird feeding, and bird identification. I have to say that of them all, this book is the worst of the lot. Its quite boring, and written more like a text book than something meant to be entertaining. And I found it relentlessly technical for just a backyard feeder like myself. It contains almost no illustrations, and also gets very bogged down in bird identification rather than the true nuts and bolts of bird feeding, seed choices....etc. Read some of my other reviews of bird books on here to make a better choice. There are much better written books for the back yard novice that isn't interested in gaining a PHD in bird identification.

I use the book along with my Peterson Field Guide and am able to distinguish birds from each other by what the birds tend to eat, according to Birds At Your Feeder.

Some birds, from far away, even with your binoculars, may be so similar in appearance (size and color), and their visits to your feeders so short, that you can't get a good enough look a them. However, what they eat will help you to identify the birds. For instance, that small gray bird might be a titmouse, a thrush or a vireo. But what did they choose to eat from your feeders? Was it mixed seed, sunflower or suet? I flip through the Peterson Guide to select which birds might meet the size and appearance, and then refer to BAYF for what those birds most commonly eat, using process of elimination to identify the bird.