The Bird Watching Answer Book: Everything You Need to Know to Enjoy Birds in Your Backyard and Beyond (Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
Probably millions of Americans participate in bird-watching. All birders have to start somewhere, and this new entry in the Storey Answer Book series is an excellent choice for the novice and not-so-novice. Erikson is a science editor at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, and with the imprimatur of this well-known institution, the reader is assured of accurate information. Dividing the book into three parts—For the Birds: Feeding, Watching and Protecting Our Feathered Friends; Bird Brains: Avian Behavior and Intelligence; and All about Birds, Inside and Out—Erikson organizes a vast amount of bird biology and behavior into manageable snippets. Using a familiar question-and-answer format, the author covers such broad topics as feeding birds and bird migration. Liberally sprinkled throughout the book are boxed factoids, such as why birds can perch on power lines without getting electrocuted; and blue-tinted pages cover interesting topics in greater detail. Lovely line drawings by Pedro Fernandez complete a very nice book. --Nancy Bent