The best
Bird Watching books:
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The best of Bird Watching books by number of unique Reddit comments:
![Dreambirds [Dream Birds]: The Strange History of the Ostrich in Fashion, Food, and Fortune](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ES6C9EXGL._SL500_.jpg)
![The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior [SIBLEY GT BIRD LIFE & BEHAVIOR] [Hardcover]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/410L-ZDkEaL._SL500_.jpg)
Top Reddit reviews mentioning Bird Watching books:
Description: Perfect for the anti-aviary (or bird fanatic with a sense of humor), this snarky illustrated handbook is equal parts profane, funny, and—let's face it—true. Featuring 50 common North American birds, such as the White-Breasted Butt Nugget and the Goddamned Canada Goose (or White-Breasted Nuthatch and Canada Goose for the layperson), Kracht identifies all the idiots in your backyard and details exactly why they suck with humorous, yet angry, ink drawings. Each entry is accompanied by facts about a bird's (annoying) call, its (dumb) migratory pattern, its (downright tacky) markings, and more. With migratory maps and tips for birding, plus musings on the avian population and the ethics of birdwatching, this is the essential guide to all things wings. No need to wonder what all that racket is anymore!
Asking about ID guides on an ID subreddit seems valid to me!
I'm personally a big fan of the Sibley guides. I think the illustrations provide a lot of detail and clarity and really highlight field marks well. For your area, the Eastern guide is probably what you want, though if you travel frequently or just want a more complete book, there's also a version that covers all of North America.
I also want to mention Merlin, which is a free app from Cornell. It's comprehensive, really good at helping ID unknown birds, provides lists of birds most likely for your location and the time of year, and includes songs as well. It's fantastic and the sort of thing you'd normally expect to pay a good bit of money for.
Sibley Guide to Birds is well known as well: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307957918/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_CMNNHDJFDQFBTKHXJ8YV?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
There’s also the Merlin App https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/
That said though I am obsessed with the app Merlin Bird ID and highly recommend it. I uploaded this pic for example and it figured out the type of owl right away, and has a great little “ID a bird with five questions” thing too.
Was just looking at bird books, there's also "Gifts of the Crow" for Corvidae fans, haven't read yet but 4.5 stars on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Gifts-Crow-Perception-Emotion-Thought/dp/1439198748/
If you like philosophy, consider PHI/HPS 314 Philosophy of Science with Creath. It's a great course, there is zero homework through the whole semester except reading 2.5 books, and they're very easy reads (and one of the books is just excellent anyways, Weiner's The Beak of the Finch). There are 3 tests, which, if you do the reading and just come to lectures most of the time, you'll do fine on them. Creath is a great lecturer, the material is interesting, the reading is good, and it's an upper division HU.
If you're Barrett there's also a discussion component course you can take (HON 394 topic) to get honors credit for the class, and all you do in it is sit around with Creath and a few other students and discuss additional topics.
There is a series of books you can buy as a set from David Canterbury, starts with a broad and basic book called "bushcraft 101," and has specialized books for more advanced topics like medicine, food gathering, etc.
That, and a localized Peterson's guide to edible plants.
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/CFBF422A-0B2C-46CB-A272-7AED8BC49A42
You should read The Beak of the Finch. It's about two scientists, Rosemary and Peter Grant, who have been studying a population of finches in the Galápagos since the 1970s. They are highly respected in their field. This book would give you a much better understanding of natural selection and evolution, and it's not a hard read. There are also similar, and more recent books, on the same subject. Stephen Jay Gould also explains this well, and he's a really engaging writer.
People study these things rigorously for decades in order to better understand how it all works. It makes much more sense to look at their results and conclusions than to just wonder about these things yourself, without the necessary background.
https://www.amazon.com/Beak-Finch-Story-Evolution-Time/dp/067973337X
Two books i regularly bring with me are this for edible plants and this one for medicinal plants, between the two i haven't come across a plant i couldn't identify. IIRC Peterson makes a mushrooms guide too. I'm unsure how good it is because honestly getting a mushroom ID wrong scares the crap outta me to the point id rather just steer clear.
One tip- plants are easy to spot when they are flowering, but you may not always be foraging when they are in bloom. What i do every spring (and thru the fall) is go out with a notebook and the aforementioned books, and just search for stuff in bloom, and jot down when it blooms, where i've come across it (environment they like), and what the plant looks like besides the flower. Then ill keep an eye out and try and ID the plants when they are no longer in bloom. After a few seasons of doing that it started becoming second nature.
Does your mum already have The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America?
Looks like there's a new-ish sequel too: The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of the Whole Stupid World
>Yes, evolution takes place over long periods of time, but there are also hard start and stop points.
I'm going to need you to either explain that more fully, or provide evidence for this.
>At one point, one of our ancient ancestors gave birth to the first being
that would meet the biological criteria of being a modern human.
No. This simply isn't true. That's not how any of this works.
>That being was indeed the first modern human, and it was birthed by a non-modern human mother.
What are you basing this on?
> Individual organisms do not evolve into different organisms over the course of their lifetime.
Of course they don't.
>Evolution occurs because sometimes enough genetic mutations occur in a
single organism that when it is born it comes out as a different species
than its parents.
That's simply not true.
The changes accumulate in a population over a long period of time. That population slowly becomes a different species. At any individual point in time, the population looks pretty uniform. Over the course of 100,000 years? You can see the differences emerge.
A mother gives birth to a child of the same species. That child may have some small differences that don't distinguish it as a "different species". Maybe those traits get passed on to subsequent generations. That child grows up, reproduces, and produces children of her own. Maybe that child has further changes in her DNA - but she still looks like the same species as her parents. And on and on, down the genetic line. Everyone looks basically like their parents, and the differences between generations are fairly small.
It's the time that's the key. Evolution, after all, is change over time.
You should read up on the Galapagos finches to get a good idea of how divergence happens in the real world. The Beak of the Finch is a superb read, if a little dated.
https://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-Field-American/dp/0679428526
I've had a copy of this since I was a kid and it's served me well. They've got a amphibian/reptile one too that's pretty sweet too.
Oh yep! I have the book about Alex- its one of the most amazing heartwarming and wrenching books- HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence--and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process https://www.amazon.com/dp/0061673986/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_C2CXZKNX3HD2KN7J0EVP
I would reccomend the Peterson Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants and the National Audobon Society Field Guide to Northeastern Trees
That's what I've been using and enjoying but a lot of people would reccomend a local expert before you (if you decide you want to) eat a wild plant. If you want to know the uses., other than eating, that a plant has than I'm not so sure how to help with that as I've never really seen a book be specifically about that, I'm sure one exists but I havn't seen it. I learned a lot of stuff through the internet as well, it can be really helpful I find.
If you haven't already read these books I would recommend them. Gift of the Crow and The Genius of Birds. The first is more of a deep dive into Corvids, and the second has a lot of parts about Corvids given they are some of the smartest birds on Earth.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/039592622X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_XePPFbQZXXBH1
Peterson's North American edible plants. All hand drawn illustrations of plants, loads of info. More about idintification than growing though.
A book I picked up and enjoyed recently is the Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America – she might get a kick out of it if she has a good sense of humour and doesn't mind profanity. You can read the preview pages on Amazon to see if you think she'd like it.
I’d say go with Sibley! He does have Eastern/Western North America guides, but the general guide to North America is more than enough to get you started. The free Merlin app is also very handy for figuring out what’s in your area. Happy birding!
My girlfriend got me the Field Guide to Dumb Birds as a gift and I love it, it's got hilarious descriptions
https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Birds-North-America/dp/1452174032
A little broader focused than GTA specifically, but The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America is a really good starter field guide (Peterson and National Geograpic are two others).
And, if your mom is a reader I'd also suggest Kyo Maclear's Birds Art Life which is the story about a Toronto author discovering birds in the area while she deals with her dying father.
The Beak of the Finch is a fantastic book for non-scientists curious about evolution. I read it in high school and it's probably what led me to science in the first place.
I lived in CA for a while and the one thing i wish I had done was visit the redwood trees. Tons of state and national parks there. Well worth the time. Take a swim in the ocean. Be prepared that it will be colder than you expect. A snorkle and mask and some flippers will make it even better. Try surfing if you can.
Peterson's guide to wild edible plants is a personal favorite.
I have two on my list that I am excited about. One is about Edible Plants. The other is paracord projects. Both are on my Amazon Wishlist. I can't decide which one I want more.
Really great memoirs about the whole starting of this study by Dr. Irene Pepperberg
Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence--and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process https://www.amazon.com/dp/0061673986/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_rlGIybGJC4J5W
If you haven't read it, the book "Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans" is a fantastic read!
Learn how to identify and use wild plants within your area. There are many edible species that grow wild and in abundance; this is a practice that essentially every human generation prior to this past century was skilled at yet it is becoming a lost skill. Get a guide to edible plants and spend time out in the wild learning to identify which is which. /r/whatsthisplant is also a good resource for identification and there is a large (20k+) group on Facebook which is an excellent resource full of knowledgeable gardeners and naturalists.
About 2 years ago I started really getting into wild plants, sense then I have learned many plants edible, medicinal, and poisonous.
this is where I started https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Edible-Wild-Plants/dp/039592622X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1465766026&sr=8-2&keywords=petersons+field+guide along with youtube.