Backyard Bird Watching for Kids
This book on bird watching may be too limited for use beyond the suburbs. Harrison briefly covers 20 favorite backyard birds, directions for designing gardens to attract them, plans for building feeders and birdhouses, tips for photographing birds, and a log to list birds observed. Among the birds discussed- -``that you should be able to see in your backyard habitat sometime during the year''--are the Eastern bluebird, ring-necked pheasant, ruby-throated hummingbird, Baltimore oriole, and red-winged blackbird. Many of the birdhouse designs require mounting on tall poles, placing in large, open spaces, or positioning on water, conditions difficult in most backyards. The language is often simplistic--``the most exciting thing about birds is that they can fly''--while the advice can be banal, e.g., when photographing birds, ``any kind of camera is fine,'' so just ``hold the camera as still as possible . . . wait until the birds are in good position, and push the button without moving the camera.'' (index, not seen) (Nonfiction. 8-12) --Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.