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Ornithology books:
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![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 Ornithology books:
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/
Sibley sibley sibley all the way.
The phone app is honestly even better, with features like side by side comparison, allowing you to narrow down possibilities by region, and sounds of calls, but sounds like you want a book :)
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.
We recently bought
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 7th Edition
and
Off Amazon and I LOVE them! We opted for a Non-Amazon seller and we paid less than $5 each WITH shipping. I am very impressed with the layout, I have found it a pretty fast flip to find a species while looking at it.
Sibley's book of birds, the west is very good:
I've got the Sibley guide pretty well used, and my Nat Geo guide is older than a lot of people I know, so it's probably time to get the updated edition to complement the Sibley guide.
Here's the Amazon link for the 7th guide book.
https://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Field-Guide-America/dp/1426218354
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/
Sexual selection is the underrated Darwinian theory and yet it seems to be more prevalent then previously thought... The Evolution of Beauty is a great exploration of SS. Pardon the amazon link (all other links dealt with fashion), def try your local bookshop if interested: https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Beauty-Darwins-Forgotten-Theory/dp/0385537212
Where are you located? The link below is for a book widely used in the US. If you are in the US, there are also books specific to regions or states.
https://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Field-Guide-America/dp/1426218354
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
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.
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!
I always use a Sibley Guide for identification (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307957926/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_4GZlFbJ1G6R6S). The Merlin app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is also a great resource for IDing birds!
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.
thanks for that recommendation, I'll look it up! I definitely like the idea of not carrying extra things around with me; the only drawback would be using battery on your phone and not being able to make notes in the book. But I'm definitely going to consider that, I like packing light when I travel.
The only suggestion I can give is a bird book for North America, I really like the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America; this is the 7th edition, I have the sixth. A lot seems to be based on personal preference of bird organization and whether they use drawings or pictures, but I really like this one!
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!
Collins Bird Guide is definitely the best, most comprehensive field guide for Europe. If you just want UK however, the RSPB make some good field guides.
According to Marzluff's book if you feed them they can bring gifts (e.g., shiny things). More than that may be setting the expectations too high.
Yep, and he could also count, identify colors and shapes. Here's the book written about their work together. Here's one of my favorite videos showing him in action.
Guides depend on where you're from. For Europe Collins is without a doubt the best guide there is.
As for binoculars, I would recommend getting a simple 10x42 or 12x42 (the first number is the times it magnifies, the second number is the diameter of the objective lens in mm) to start with. A big objective lens is useful because that way the binoculars will get more light and therefore the image will be clearer in low light situations. Too big, however, and your bins will be too big and heavy. They don't have to be expensive at all. Getting a scope and three binoculars + six guides is bad advice for a beginner and completely unnecessary. It will make the hobby seem more complicated and expensive than it really is. All a beginner really needs is one pair of binoculars, one guide and a lot of patience.
As for the bins you recommended, I would only go for the bigger one and leave the two smaller ones. Especially the 8x21 will be quite useless. 8 times magnification is too little for most practical birding and 21mm objective lens will be too dark in forests and when when it's cloudy or starting to get dark. Furthermore a scope is completely unnecessary for a starting birder. It will just be another thing to haul around which you definitely don't want at all when you're just casually starting to discover the hobby.
Okay, I want to see this alleged letter shredding and whatever other chores a fucking owl is helping out with.
Also, I read this book, Wesley the Owl, a few years ago. It's about a biologist who adopted a barn owl chick and raised him for almost two decades.
Apparently if you fuck with an owl once (yell at it or hurt it, even accidentally) it'll remember that shit forever and not trust you again.
I like barn owls too. Have you read Wesley the Owl? I highly recommend it :-)
not entirely true, if you look into this book: Wesley The Owl You'll see that it's possible to do it legally. A girl who works at a wildlife conservatory/rehab adopts the baby Owl because the other owls weren't taking to him. she raised him to an old age.
Also, maybe the owl escaped, it's entirely possible.
I'm not saying i know what happened, but your entire statement was a little much, considering. the whole "if this was in America" comment is entirely stupid because it could have happened that way in ANY country.
If you want to see what it'd take to have an owl of your own you should snag Wesley the Owl. It's written by a researcher who raised a barn owl from a tiny nestling. It was nothing like owning a pet.
They look like little gremlins when they're little! The book is called Wesley the Owl, it's really well-written for an animal book. :)