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Love Wild Birds? Start Your Reading List Here!
This lens provides recommendations for books on wild birds. Whether you need a field guide or would just like to learn more about birds, you'll find the best here.
Books for Kids? -- See the modules toward the end of this lens.
Birding Lenses by The Curious Wren
Let the Curious Wren be your guide to birding.She has a whole series of lenses about birding, bird feeders, field guides, bird books, gifts and equipment.
Some lenses are "How To" lenses.
One part of her series is Birding USA -- state-by-state guides to birding -- Florida, California and more!
Go to the Curious Wren hub for links to all her lenses.
Field Guides - USA
The Sibley Guide to Birds
The new standard -- very highly acclaimed!
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Amazon Price: $26.37 (as of 12/06/2009) 
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Fifth Edition
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Amazon Price: $16.32 (as of 12/06/2009)
Field Guides for BEGINNERS
Stokes Beginner's Guide to Birds : Western Region
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Amazon Price: $9.99 (as of 12/06/2009)
Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region (Stokes Field Guides)
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Amazon Price: $12.23 (as of 12/06/2009)
Funny Books About Birding Adventures
Tales of a Low-Rent Birder
Dunne's collection of 19 essays and sketches about his adventures chasing birds.
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Amazon Price: $14.95 (as of 12/06/2009)
Kingbird Highway: The Story of a Natural Obsession That Got a Little Out of Hand
Ornithologist Kenn Kaufman's humorous account of the year he spent birding (and hitch-hiking) across America at age 19.
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Books by Great Birders (Serious) About Birding
The Feather Quest: A North American Birder's Year
Dunne and his wife live out the birder's dream of following the birds and the seasons around the United States. In prose that reads as smoothly as the best of John McPhee, Dunne muses on birds, on the 22 birding hot spots they visit, on birders as a group, on famous birders they meet, and on the philosophy, spirit, and almost everything that touches the love of birding. Great reading.
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Golden Wings, and Other Stories About Birders and Birding
Collects 41 of Dunne's recent essays.
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Amazon Price: $19.95 (as of 12/06/2009)
Life List Mania -- and Other Birding Contests
The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession
A journalist follows expert birders as they compete to see the most species in one single year. Very comical stories of mad dashes all over the US just to see a bird.
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Amazon Price: $11.70 (as of 12/06/2009)
To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifetime Obsession
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Bird Songs & Singing
Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song
$27. Book has built-in audio player - hear the song as you study the bird! 250 species and corresponding songs. Also has "lavish full-color illustrations."
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Amazon Price: $31.50 (as of 12/06/2009)
The Singing Life of Birds: The Art and Science of Listening to Birdsong
Comes with a CD.
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Amazon Price: $18.48 (as of 12/06/2009)
Music of the Birds: A Celebration of Bird Song
Book and CD combo by Lang Elliott, one of the leading nature photographers and sound recordists.
He examines bird song from 2 perspectives - scientific and aesthetic. Provides scientific information about bird vocalizations, but also discusses the beauty of bird song and its influence on poets.
Fantastic photos in the book. CD has 50 bird songs. Complex songs are explained - and even slowed down so that we can hear the intricacy involved.
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Amazon Price: $16.50 (as of 12/06/2009)
Bird Families
Hummingbirds of North America: The Photographic Guide
This book gets rave reviews from guides in Southeast, AZ - a true hummer mecca. The great photos make this a great field guide.
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Amazon Price: $19.77 (as of 12/06/2009)
Raptors of Western North America: The Wheeler Guides
Rave reviews on this one. "Tour de force and a labor of love, and the immediate new standard for diurnal raptors in western North America. "
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Amazon Price: $34.65 (as of 12/06/2009)
National Audubon Society Pocket Guide to Waterfowl (National Audubon Society Pocket Guides)
Nat'l Audubon. Pocket-sized 6 x 4 inches.
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Amazon Price: $7.88 (as of 12/06/2009)
Journals
National Geographic Birders Journal
A fully illustrated life list, the journal offers generous space for recording dates and locations of bird sightings.
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Pocket Life List: A Birdwatcher's Life List and Diary of North American Birds
6.6 x 4 inches. 850 species. Each North American species is listed by common and scientific name. Space is provided to record when and where a specimen was sighted, along with other essential notes. Silhouettes in the margin key the sections containing each bird Order. Each species is also indexed by common and scientific name.
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Amazon Price: $14.49 (as of 12/06/2009)
The Birder's Journal
Has black and white sketches of over 500 American species. Use colored pencils to record exactly what you saw. Each bird gets half a page.
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Audubon Life-List Journal
A keepsake sure to be treasured by both amateur and expert, this Journal provides a special place for birders to record their memories. Entries for more than 700 North American species are accounted for in taxonomic order, and each entry allows ample space to note the date, location, and details of a sighting. Intended for use after excursions in the field, the pages invite comments, sketches, scraps.
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Bird Watcher's Journal
$24.99. Refills available too (at Amazon). Spiral-bound pages encased in a durable water-resistant cover that zips closed. Holds pen too. Look like a real ornithologist!
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Amazon Price: $26.95 (as of 12/06/2009)
MORE BIRD STUFF from The Curious Wren
Check Out My Other Lenses
Best Bird Feeders -- my tried and true recommendations, and most are squirrel-proof!Great Birdbaths and Fountains -- a nice selection of practical baths, drippers, fountains and accessories.
Hummingbirds! -- Facts, feeders, books and fun merchandise for hummer lovers.
Great Gifts for Birders -- Gadgets, Clothing, CDs, DVDs -- everything a birder would love.
Bird Shirts and Hats -- Shirts and hats featuring wild birds!
Attracting Birds
The Audubon Society Guide to Attracting Birds: Creating Natural Habitats for Properties Large and Small
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Amazon Price: $18.21 (as of 12/06/2009)
Natural Gardening for Birds: Simple Ways to Create a Bird Haven (Rodale Organic Gardening Book)
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Attracting Birds to Your Backyard: 536 Ways To Turn Your Yard and Garden Into a Haven For Your Favorite Birds (A Rodale Organic Gardening Book)
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Bird-by-Bird Gardening: The Ultimate Guide to Bringing in Your Favorite Birds-Year after Year
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Amazon Price: $22.76 (as of 12/06/2009)
Bird Behavior
A Guide to Bird Behavior, Volume 2 (Stokes Nature Guides)
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A Guide to Bird Behavior Volume 3 (Stokes Nature Guides)
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Birds of the World
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Birds of the World
512 pages. A beautifully illustrated guide to over 1000 birds from around the world, detailing distribution, habitat, size, feeding and nesting behavior.
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Birds of the World
320 pages. Structured around 12 major themes that enable readers to better understand the evolution, migratory habits, and survival techniques of birds, as well as their place in the world, this thrilling and informative journey is an essential volume for animal and photography lovers alike.
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Amazon Price: $40.00 (as of 12/06/2009)
Individual Birds - A Glimpse Into Their Lives
A Hummingbird in My House: The Story of Squeak
The first of Heidcamp's three books about her adoption of a hummer. She hosts the hummer in her house over the winter, and gets to know the bird intimately.
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Amazon Price: $15.34 (as of 12/06/2009)
Red-Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park
Winn tells a captivating story here of hawks, humans and other denizens of the park over a five-year period. In the spring of 1992, a pair of red-tailed hawks built a nest on a high ledge of a building on Fifth Avenue (Woody Allen's penthouse was across the street). Great excitement and anticipation ensued among Winn's adoptive clan. When, in the third year, the first fledglings appeared, the Regulars maintained a dawn-to-dusk watch on the nest. They observed the hawks mating, hunting, eating (pigeons and rats were plentiful) and bringing food to their young.
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Ornithology
Cornell Lab of Ornithology Handbook of Bird Biology
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Manual of Ornithology: Avian Structure and Function
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Amazon Price: $30.11 (as of 12/06/2009)
Bird Coloration, Volume 1, Mechanisms and Measurements
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Amazon Price: $108.50 (as of 12/06/2009)
Bird Coloration, Volume 2, Function and Evolution
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Amazon Price: $105.00 (as of 12/06/2009)
"How To" Birding Books - for Adults
Pete Dunne on Bird Watching: The How-to, Where-to, and When-to of Birding
This new how-to book on the art and science of bird watching distills years of Dunne's experience and brings together hundreds of tidbits from his published columns. He describes how to attract more birds to the yard by feeding, landscaping, and providing water, then he moves on to the tools needed to see and identify the new additions to the yard, discussing binoculars and field guides and how to choose the best ones. The next chapters cover the fundamentals of birding.
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Amazon Price: $9.60 (as of 12/06/2009)
General Reading (Adults)
The Race to Save the Lord God Bird (The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (Awards))
About the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker.
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Amazon Price: $14.28 (as of 12/06/2009)
Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and Jays
Examines the lives and behaviors of the highly intelligent members of the crow family, corvids, and includes 61 dramatic images from the world's top nature photographers.
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Hope Is the Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds
Even readers with no special interest in birds will be caught up in this marvelous book, a deeply moving cautionary tale about how we have systematically diminished the planet. In recounting the histories of six extinct North American birds, along with stories of the people who killed them off and those who tried to save them, Cokinos, a professor of English at Kansas State University, transforms each extinction into a deeply disturbing tragedy--both for the species itself, and for human civilization.
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A Parrot Without a Name: The Search for the Last Unknown Birds on Earth
Scientists go to the remote Peruvian jungle to search for an undiscovered species of parrot. Fascinating
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The Life of Birds
In this companion to a 10-part PBS TV series of the same name, Attenborough examines the ways of bird species from prehistoric times to the present, writing, as he admits, from the viewpoint of an amateur with a particular interest in animal behavior. Graced with 180 color photographs, Attenborough's book will delight birdwatchers, students of animal behavior, and admirers of good writing alike.
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Amazon Price: $23.10 (as of 12/06/2009)
Migration - The Long Journeys
How Birds Migrate
This is an excellent, popular, yet authoritative explanation of bird migration by the former director of Cape May Bird Observatory. Each chapter focuses on a single aspect of migration, revealing the unusual complexity underlying questions about bird migration processes. Ornithologist Kerlinger provides a lively blend of case study questions and scientific answers which include plenty of maps for at-a-glance details
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Amazon Price: $13.84 (as of 12/06/2009)
Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere With Migratory Birds
Fascinating story of long-range migration.
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Amazon Price: $10.88 (as of 12/06/2009)
Birds of Two Worlds: The Ecology and Evolution of Migration
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Amazon Price: $87.79 (as of 12/06/2009)
Coffee Table Books
Birds: The Art of Ornithology
This remarkably beautiful volume gathers together a selection of the most important and vibrant ornithological art from London's Natural History Museum. Birds tells the remarkable story of the development of ornithological art through the ages, from the earliest images of birds in the Renaissance, through the Age of Exploration, to the present day.
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Field Guides for Kids
Birds (Fandex Family Field Guides)
50 die-cut cards to get started on bird identification. Great for kids.
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Amazon Price: $9.95 (as of 12/06/2009)
Backyard Birds (Peterson Field Guides® for Young Naturalists)
For grades 4 to 7.
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Amazon Price: $5.95 (as of 12/06/2009)
Backyard Birding for Kids
For grades 4-8.
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Amazon Price: $9.95 (as of 12/06/2009)
Peterson First Guide to Birds of North America (Peterson First Guides)
128 pages.
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Amazon Price: $5.95 (as of 12/06/2009)
Fun Activity Books for Kids
Beginning Birdwatchers Book: With 48 Stickers
Each page includes space for sticker image of bird, plus information on size, habitat, nesting and eating habits, number and color of eggs, and range.
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Amazon Price: $5.95 (as of 12/06/2009)
Birds Calls (Play the Sounds, Pull the Tabs)
Ages 4 to 8. Play the bird songs!
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Amazon Price: $12.91 (as of 12/06/2009)
Bird Log Kids: A Kid's Journal to Record Their Birding Experiences
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Amazon Price: $9.95 (as of 12/06/2009)
Draw 50 Birds: The Step-by-Step Way to Draw Chickadees, Peacocks, Toucans, Mallards, and Many More of Our Feathered Friends (Draw 50 Series)
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Amazon Price: $8.95 (as of 12/06/2009)
Kids' Books About Birds
About Birds: A Guide for Children
For ages 3-8.
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Amazon Price: $7.95 (as of 12/06/2009)
Birds, Nests & Eggs (Take-Along Guides)
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Amazon Price: $7.95 (as of 12/06/2009)
The Burgess Bird Book for Children (Dover Science Books)
Renowned naturalist and author of children's books on wildlife successfully blends information and entertainment in his book about birds, among them saucy Jenny Wren, Redwing the Blackbird, Melody the Wood Thrush, Spooky the Screech Owl, Creaker the Purple Grackle, Downy the Woodpecker, and other feathered friends. 32 black-and-white illustrations. Learn all about birds' physical appearance, eating and nesting habits, migration patterns, songs and call.
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Amazon Price: $8.95 (as of 12/06/2009)
Birds in Your Backyard (Sharing Nature With Children Book)
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Coloring Books for Kids
Fifty Favorite Birds Coloring Book (Dover Coloring Book)
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Amazon Price: $3.95 (as of 12/06/2009)
Audubon's Birds of America Coloring Book
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Amazon Price: $3.95 (as of 12/06/2009)
Birds of Prey Coloring Book (Coloring Books)
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Amazon Price: $3.95 (as of 12/06/2009)
Birds: Peterson Field Guide Coloring Book (Peterson Field Guide Coloring Books)
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by nancoix
Check out my 30 other lenses. Most are about birding, but also about iPods, kitchen stuff and Trader Joe's.
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