Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding [Paperback]

Scott Weidensaul (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2008

Arriving in the New World, Europeans were awestruck by a continent awash with birds. Today tens of millions of Americans birders have made a once eccentric hobby into something so mainstream it’s (almost) cool.

Scott Weidensaul traces the colorful evolution of American birding: from the frontier ornithologists who collected eggs between border skirmishes to the society matrons who organized the first effective conservation movement; from the luminaries with checkered pasts, such as convicted blackmailer Alexander Wilson and the endlessly self-mythologizing John James Audubon, to the awkward schoolteacher Roger Tory Peterson, whose A Field Guide to the Birds prompted the explosive growth of modern birding. Spirited and compulsively readable, Of a Feather celebrates the passions and achievements of birders throughout Americcan history.

 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Weidensaul (Return to Wild America) traces bird watching in America from colonial times to the present, when powerful binoculars and other sophisticated technologies have revolutionized the sport. He entertainingly describes many early naturalists who shot and collected birds, including Mark Catesby, John and William Bartram, some military men and an intrepid woman named Martha Maxwell. By the late 19th century, when entire bird populations had been decimated for sport, food and the millinery trade, formidable society ladies began demanding avian protection, the Audubon Society was created and recreational birding, featuring binoculars instead of guns, was born, aided by the emergence of field guides like Roger Tory Peterson's. Today, says Weidensaul, there are millions of birders in the United States, and the sport has entered a new phase, emphasizing competitive birding, lists, rarity chasing and Big Year records. For Weidensaul, this is not a good thing. He finds that people who concentrate on competition and listing often forget the enjoyment of mere observation and the importance of conservation. A naturalist and federally licensed bird bander, he is passionate about birding. His vivid descriptions of his own experiences should send many a reader out of doors to look for the small, contained miracle that is a bird. Photos. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Weidensaul, author of four other works of natural history, chronicles the origins of American birding. We meet Alexander Wilson, who came to the U.S. from Scotland in 1794 and published a book illustrating all the birds to be found in this country; John James Audubon, famous author of Birds of America; Spencer Fullerton Baird, who created the National Museum of Natural History; Florence Merriam, the author of Birds through an Opera Glass (1889); George Grinnell, who created the first Audubon Society in 1886; Mabel Osgood Wright, the author of best-selling books on birds and the founder of the Connecticut Audubon chapter; and David Sibley, who has written the most successful field guide since Roger Tory Peterson's. With 24 black-and-white photographs, this book will delight birdwatchers and encourage others to start watching. Cohen, George --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; 1 edition (September 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156033550
• ISBN-13: 978-0156033558
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,023,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Entertaining Story, September 20, 2007

By 

s.5 "spenceronehalf" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding (Hardcover)

Like one of the other reviewers, I also found this book an entertaining and informative read. It's a book written for a popular audience, so all kinds of readers should find something in this book.

While there are a few facts that Weidensaul could have attended to a bit more closely (Florence Merriam first published her first field guide, Birds Through an Opera Glass, in 1889, not 1899, for instance) ... the chapter discussing David Allen Sibley's guides is outstanding. Weidensaul interviewed Sibley for the book and, as a result, is able to tell the story of how Sibley's field guides came into being, were designed in the ways that they were, and function as texts.

I'm surprised Weidensaul does not attend more to American women writers such as Neltje Blanchan, Mabel Osgood Wright, and Olive Thorne Miller. These authors all published books about birds in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and to have included them in this story would have, I think, made Weidensaul's history of birding appear to have been less of a story about "great men."

With all of that said, Weidensaul's book is very compelling, personal, and full of facts. He ends making a very strong call for bird preservation in the book, claiming that birders could learn a lot from hunters (among which he counts himself a member). Birders in general have become so concerned with identifying birds that we've forgotten to spend as much or more effort preserving birds, Weidensaul claims. Without the birds, Weidensaul reminds us, we'd have nothing to look at and listen to.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent History of Birding, September 18, 2007

By 

David B Richman (Mesilla Park, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding (Hardcover)

As a mostly casual birder- my life list is less than 300 - who still finds watching birds fascinating, I like to occasionally read about the science and sport of birding. Some of Roger Tory Peterson's non-field guide books come to mind. However these were not so much histories as collections of essays. I know of only one or two other writers who have tackled this subject and Scott Weidensaul has now surpassed them all with "Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding."

This book is a treat for anyone interested in birds, birding or ornithology. In 314 pages of text and 40 plus more pages of Acknowledgements, Notes and Bibliography, Weidensaul covers the period from pre-Colombian Native American myths and the early work of such naturalists as Mark Catesby and John Bartram to Kenn Kaufman and David Sibley, and the modern field guide. Of course Roger Tory Peterson, Frank Chapman, Cleveland Bent and Ludlow Griscom get their due, as do the many women (who seldom did get credit in publications on the subject), such as Harriet Lawrence Hemenway, Florence Merriam Bailey and Rosalie Edge, among others.

Bird study has come a long way and despite the occasional bore described by Weidensaul, who tallies what the group has found without actually even bothering to look, many birders are genuinely involved in scientific work and/or important conservation efforts.

There is a great thrill in watching birds, or in any other pursuit of natural history (butterfly watching, botanizing, etc.), that many miss in their pursuit of success or (in many cases) of just daily bread. We are lucky in the United States to have both a beautiful land and a high biotic diversity. It is up to us to both conserve and enjoy it. Reading this book would be a good start!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Become part of history, October 2, 2007

By 

Ken Januski (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding (Hardcover)

I've written less than ten book reviews for Amazon and this is the second in which I include "history" in the title. I can't really explain this other than that perhaps I've gotten more interested in history as I get older.

In any case I've chosen it very deliberately to convey my reactions to this great book. As I've read it I've felt that I've started to understand the history, and community, of which I, as a birder/bird-watcher, am part. This is a great gift to readers who are perhaps avid birders but have little sense of the long history of American birdwatching. Though it's not that difficult today to join a birding trip somewhere or other and thus become part of the birding community, this book helps to convey the rich and varied history that is American birding. It's somewhat like discovering that though you thought you were the only person who cared about Solitary Vireos, and that this was just due to your idiosyncratic nature, there is actually a club that began 50 years ago devoted strictly to them. You are actually a part of a very large community.

The other particularly salient point I think is the groundedness and passion of the book. As with any subject once you get somewhat knowledgeable and especially if you have some talent with words it's not that difficult to write a book that seems to cover the subject and yet leaves the reader feeling somewhat dissatisfied. In other words a perhaps entertaining but in the end superficial book. Sometimes that's just what you want. But there are other times, as with a good hearty home-cooked meal after a month on the road eating fast-food, that you really appreciate something that is a bit more substantial. This book is that meal.

I can't convey how rewarding it's been to read this book. As the author goes through the history of American birding you feel that he has really thought about what he is writing. This becomes especially true at the end where he questions the prevalence of counting/listing in contemporary birding and the need for a more holistic approach to it. But it's not a preachy environmental work. It's more that of a thoughtful and engaged birder thinking about where American birding and birds have been and where they are heading. Without more concern for birds on the part of birders and others there will be far fewer birds to check off one's list. But again this isn't a preachy environmental polemic. It's more a heartfelt consideration of what it means to be a birder, particularly an American birder.

As I said I can't recommend it enough.

As an afterthought I have to say that it seems to me that it is a tremendous time to be a birder and to be a birder who reads. The Sibley guides, Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion, The Shorebird Guide, among others, are helping to create a golden age of birding books.