Gift yourself, family or friends some books about birds and nature. Below are several titles we really enjoyed and think you might like to include on your gift list:
Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival – Award-winning author and biologist, Bernd Heinrich offers detailed insights into
how birds and other wildlife survive the rigors of sub zero winters. Fascinating and easy to read, this book is chock full of interesting stories about wildlife and the surprising discoveries Heinrich made through observation about the peculiar
survival techniques of a variety of wildlife. From flying squirrels to grizzly bears, and from torpid turtles to insects with antifreeze, the animal kingdom relies on some staggering evolutionary innovations to survive winter. Examining everything from food sources in the extremely barren winter landscape to the chemical composition that allows certain creatures to survive, Heinrich’s Winter World awakens the largely undiscovered mysteries by which nature sustains herself through winter’s harsh, cruel exigencies.
The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds – Wildlife rehabber and nature illustrator, Julie Zickefoose documents in
heartwarming prose and stunning drawings, personal stories and dramas about dozens of birds she has rescued. This book is about the change that’s set in motion by one single act, such as saving an injured bluebird or a hummingbird, swift, or phoebe.
Each of the twenty five chapters covers a different species, and many depict an individual bird, each with its own personality, habits, and quirks. And each chapter is illustrated with Zickefoose’s beautiful watercolor paintings and drawings. Not just individual tales about the trials and triumphs of raising birds, The Bluebird Effect mixes humor, natural history, and memoir to give readers an intimate story of a life lived among wild birds.
The Seabird’s Cry: The Lives and Loves of the Planet’s Great Ocean Voyagers – Seabirds have always entranced the human imagination and NYT best-selling author Adam Nicolson has been in love with them all his life: for their mastery of wind and ocean, their aerial beauty and the unmatched wildness of the coasts and islands where every summer they return to breed.
Even as we are coming to understand them, the number of seabirds on our planet is in freefall, dropping by nearly 70% in the last sixty years, a billion fewer now than there were in 1950. Extinction stalks the ocean and there is a danger that the grand cry of the seabird colony, rolling around the bays and headlands of high latitudes, will this century become little but a memory.
Over the last couple of decades, modern science has begun to understand their epic voyages, their astonishing abilities to navigate for tens of thousands of miles on featureless seas, their ability to smell their way towards fish and home. Only the poets in the past would have thought of seabirds as creatures riding the ripples and currents of the entire planet, but that is what the scientists are seeing now today.
Birdwatching in New York City and on Long Island – This easy-to-use guide written by Deborah Rivel and Kellye Rosenheim, gives
seasonal information for both popular birding sites and those off the beaten path. Precise directions to the best viewing locations within the region’s diverse habitats enable birdwatchers to
efficiently explore urban and wild birding hotspots. Over 500 species of birds can be seen in New York City’s five boroughs and on Long Island, which also happens to be situated directly on the Atlantic Flyway. In this fragmented environment of scarce resources, birds concentrate on what’s available forcing high numbers of birds into small spaces. Central Park alone attracts over 225 species of birds, which
birders from around the world flock to see during migration. Beyond Central Park, the five boroughs and Long Island have numerous wildlife refuges of extraordinary scenic beauty, and and present an opportunity to see a wide array of songbirds, endangered nesting shorebirds, raptors, and an unprecedented number and variety of waterfowl.