Birdscapes: A Pop-Up Celebration of Bird Songs in Stereo Sound (Hardcover)

~ Miyoko Chu (Author), (Author), Julia Hargreaves (Illustrator)

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Amazon.com Review

Product Description
Get ready for the most groundbreaking entry to date in the bestselling Birdsongs series (more than 400,000 copies sold!). Birdscapes delivers an immersive birding experience never before seen--or heard--in any book. For the eyes: seven elaborately engineered full-color pop-ups portraying dozens of bird species in diverse North American habitats from the Alaskan Tundra to a Southeast swamp. For the ears: extended recordings of the birds' calls and songs in stereo from the collection of the world-renowned Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. For the serious birder: scientifically accurate illustrations of the birds and moving text about their fragile ecosystems. This beautifully crafted volume is a visual and audio delight!

"Pop-up books aren't just for kids anymore! This multimedia experience transports you to seven natural habitats in North America and immerses you in the birds and their songs. --Greg Butcher, director of bird conservation, National Audubon Society

"Birdscapes is a delight for the eyes and the ears--a tour of North America's bird-rich ecosystems, rendered as seven lavishly detailed, three-dimensional landscapes, and brimming with choruses of authentic bird songs and calls." --Scott Weidensaul, author of Living on the Wind and Of a Feather

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An Interview with Miyoko Chu, Director of Communications at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Q: When did you first become interested in birds?

A: When I was 11, my father and I rescued some pigeons from a poultry truck in San Francisco's Chinatown. I spent a lot of time in the backyard coop, watching the pigeons as they courted and raised their young. It was amazing to realize all this drama was playing out with wild birds everywhere, too, and to have the opportunity to study it.

Q: What's your favorite bird song and why?

A: My favorite song is that of the Scott’s Oriole, featured in the desert scene of Birdscapes. Hearing that clear, bubbling melody in the desert is an unforgettable experience.

Q: What was the best thing about working on Birdscapes?

A: It was exciting to go from the ideas and bird lists for each soundscape to seeing and hearing this three-dimensional product as it emerged from the minds of the artists, editors, and sound engineers. It was incredible to see the artists' sketches transform into complex and ingenious pop-up scenes, and to experience how precise recordings for each bird were blended to evoke the soundscape.

Q: Have you visited all of the seven different bird habitats featured in Birdscapes?

A: Of the seven habitats, I'm most familiar with the desert, where I studied birds during 1995-2000, and the eastern deciduous forest, which is right outside my office window. I have visited the Great Plains and Pacific evergreen forests. I have not been to the Arctic, a southern swamp, or a seabird colony. In writing those scenes, I benefited from the insights of my colleague Gerrit Vyn, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s audio production engineer, who selected the recordings, including some that he had recorded on recent expeditions to these habitats.

Q: Which habitat in Birdscapes did you enjoy writing about the most and why?

A: Actually, there were two that I enjoyed the most--for completely opposite reasons! I loved writing about the desert because I had spent so much time there, and remembered the sights and sounds so vividly. And it was great fun to write about the seabird colony because that was something I had never experienced before—and I was completely surprised by what I learned. Whether an individual seabird's voice or thousands, the sounds are awe-inspiring, and the birds have such an interesting lifestyle as they all cram on to a bit of rock for the breeding season.

Q: Are you a daily birder or a weekend birder?

A: I'm an opportunistic birder! I'm always watching and listening for birds around my house and neighborhood. But in between work and spending time with my family, my focused birding these days happens irregularly, on the spur of the moment. My office at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology overlooks Sapsucker Woods, so I sometimes slip outside to look for birds after getting an email alert about a good migration day, or when I notice people outside my window pointing up at the trees.

Q: Do you have any suggestions for beginning birders?

A: Invest in a pair of binoculars and practice becoming comfortable with them. It will open up a whole new world, enabling you to see many more birds than you may have even realized were around you before. Spend time getting to know the different kinds of birds you see, the reasons for their behaviors, and the many kinds of sounds they use throughout the year.

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Excerpts from Birdscapes

Click on each image below to see a larger view of the page.

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More to Explore

Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song

Bird Songs From Around the World

The Backyard Birdsong Guide: Eastern and Central North America

The Backyard Birdsong Guide: Western North America

About the Author

Miyoko Chu is director of communications at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the author of Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a nonprofit institution located in Ithaca, New York. Its mission is to interpret and conserve the earth's biological diversity through research.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 18 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; Pop edition (August 20, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811864286
• ISBN-13: 978-0811864282
• Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 10.9 x 2.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,958 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #10 in	Books > Science > Biological Sciences > Zoology > Ornithology
  #17 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Birdwatching
  #58 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Fauna

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful combo of sight, sound & education, October 6, 2008

By	A. Whitney (Silicon Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Birdscapes combines engaging pop-up landscapes with stereo sound bird songs. It is a great activity for families as kids, parent and grandparents will find something compelling in the book. It would also be a great teaching tool in schools or libraries. When you open a spread, you hear each bird's song. There is an on/off button so you can control the sound. I have turned it off and left it opened to a spread as a decorative element in my home. It catches visitor's attention. The back has more information on each bird in the book. Very unusual and appreciated gift item.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This bird tractor beam will suck you in!, November 11, 2008

By	Rob Fergus "birdchaser" (Bucks County, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As soon as this book came out of the box my kids were all over it--they loved the complex pop-up landscapes, as well as the bird calls. The folks at work were also sucked in. This is more of a bird and nature tractor beam than a book. If you set it on your coffee table, your guests will pick it up, but they won't put it down!

Each of the seven Birdscapes depicted here shows nine to eleven different birds--and plays their calls in a true-to-life cacophony of bird sounds! Since most backyard birdwatchers can only identify about 20 species, this book will more than triple their birding horizons--almost effortlessly!

This book doesn't show all the birds of North America. In fact, it only covers about 10 percent of the birds normally found here. But that's not the point. Birdscapes is a novel way to bring the birds and their world into your living room, and to bring you into their world as well!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Authentic bird songs in a pop-up landscape, November 19, 2008

By	Robert C. Ross (New Jersey) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Chronicle Books and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology produced the excellent Birdsongs books that display a particular bird and then play their songs with the push of a button. Birdscapes is the newest book in the series; in this version, seven different landscapes pop up, each with several birds and with the sounds of the resident birds.

The sounds come from the Macaulay Library archive. The jagged, rocky island landscape is particularly effective. According to Miyoko Chu, director of communications at the Lab:

"We included the sounds of nocturnal Fork-tailed and Leach's storm-petrels recorded on Saint Lazaria Island near Sitka, Alaska just last year. Our recordists lay in sleeping bags with microphones as the air and ground pulsated with the sounds of storm-petrels flying overhead and courting in the burrows below."

Other books in the series include:

Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song.

Bird Songs From Around the World: Featuring Songs of 200 Birds from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Push and Listen).

A Field Guide to Backyard Bird Song: Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guide Audio Series)

The Backyard Birdsong Guide: Western North America (Backyard Birdsong Guide)

Each of the preceding books is excellent at helping the reader to link the song and the sight of birds together. The birdscape book is appealing to both children and to adults, and the high fidelity is a remarkable achievement. The Lab is absolutely right; this book "highlights how the sounds of birds are an unforgettable and defining feature of any landscape."

Robert C. Ross 2008