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This page lists books that provide general information about birdwatching in other countries - mainly the US.

The books are arranged by publication date with the most recent at the top.

Birdwatching Books: UK

Pete Dunne on Bird Watching: A Beginner's Guide to Finding, Identifying and Enjoying Birds

Pete Dunne

2nd edition

2015

"Birding is one of the most popular and fastest-growing outdoor activities, but it can seem intimidating for beginners who don't know where, when, or how to search for birds. Fortunately, Pete Dunne, one of the most popular and respected writers in the field, has written a guide that will help even the most casual observers identify the skills and tools they need to develop their interest in birding. Popular how-to guide revised, updated, and now with color photos For beginners and birders who want to improve their skills Improve your odds of success with tips to get the most out of your equipment."

Better Birding: Tips, Tools & Concepts for the Field

George L. Armistead & Brian L. Sullivan

2015

"Better Birding reveals the techniques expert birders use to identify a wide array of bird species in the field--quickly and easily. Featuring hundreds of stunning photos and composite plates throughout, this book simplifies identification by organizing the birds you see into groupings and offering strategies specifically tailored to each group. Skill building focuses not just on traditional elements such as plumage, but also on creating a context around each bird, including habitat, behavior, and taxonomy--parts so integral to every bird's identity but often glossed over by typical field guides. Critical background information is provided for each group, enabling you to approach bird identification with a wide-angle view, using your eyes, brain, and binoculars more strategically, resulting in a more organized approach to learning birds. Better Birding puts the thrill of expert bird identification within your reach."

Birding for the Curious: The Easiest Way for Anyone to Explore the Incredible World of Birds

Nate Swick

2015

"This book isn't for a birder. It's for the huge audience of people who hike, maybe have bird feeders, and generally enjoy nature. With this book, the naturalist will discover an incredible and rewarding new adventure in the beautiful world of birds. The book is packed with easy and fun activities and information about birds, how to find them and their part in the nature around us. The information in this book will not only help you identify and learn more about birds, but you'll have a blast doing it."

Green Birding: How to See More Birds and Protect the Environment at the Same Time

Richard Gregson

2013

"A US book that features guidance on: where to look for birds close to home; how to get deeper by studying the birds around your home and participating in citizen science and conservation projects; green birding listing challenges and groups the green birder can get involved in; how to adapt your equipment to a new style of birding; and how to attract more birds to your home garden."

1001 Secrets Every Birder Should Know: Tips and Trivia for the Backyard and Beyond

Sharon Stiteler

Perseus Books

2013

"Bird watching is one of the most popular hobbies in America, and "1,001 Secrets Every Bird Watcher Should Know" is the first photographic guide and fact book written in a humorous conversational tone that appeals to every age and skill level. Replete with sound information, "1,001 Secrets "will expose many birding myths: a bald eagle cannot carry off a four-month old baby, and crows do not go sledding for fun.This accessible guide includes fun facts, such as where certain birds got their names, how birds eat, how they find a life partner, and how they build a home for the chicks. Other useful information includes identification tips, migration patterns, and where the best birding vacation spots are. Packed with full-color photos, "1,001 Secrets Every Bird Watcher Should Know" is a fun, informative read for every bird watcher."

The Art of Bird Identification: A Straightforward Approach to Putting a Name to the Bird

Pete Dunne

2012

"How to get good, then better, then even better at identifying birds in the field - and have fun doing it."

How to be a Better Birder

Derek Lovitch

2012

"This unique illustrated handbook provides all the essential tools you need to become a better birder. Here Derek Lovitch offers a more effective way to go about identification - he calls it the "Whole Bird and More" approach - that will enable you to identify more birds, more quickly, more of the time. He demonstrates how to use geography and an understanding of habitats, ecology, and even the weather to enrich your birding experience and help you find something out of the ordinary. Lovitch shows how to track nocturnal migrants using radar, collect data for bird conservation, discover exciting rarities, develop patch lists - and much more."

Bird Watcher's Bible: A Complete Treasury: Beauty, Lore, Science, Know-how

Editor: Jonathan Alderfer

2012

"A lighthearted and broadly cultural and visual approach to learning everything there is to know about birds, bird-watching, birds in history and the arts, and life on the wing. Short narrative pieces are interspersed with sidebars, quotes, top-ten lists, and how-to instructions. Illustrated with photographs, contemporary and archival art, maps, and diagrams, National Geographic Bird Watcher's Bible has lots of cross-references and riches to find on every page. National Geographic Bird Watcher's Bible includes a lively introduction featuring the joys of birds and bird-watching, how birds are everywhere you look, why people enjoy and appreciate them, why they are so amazing and so beloved, and why they have been important to every culture throughout history. Chapters include information on bird anatomy with digressions on feathers, color, beaks, wings, and talons; bird myths, legends, and superstitions; the life cycle of birds, starting with mating behaviors of all sorts of species; early ornithologists; flight and how it works; the basics of bird-watching and how to keep a field-guide; birdhouses, bird feeders, bird baths, bird seed choices, and protecting birds from predator animals in your neighborhood."

The Art of Bird Finding: Before You ID Them, You Have to See Them

Pete Dunne

2011

"Filling a gap in the vast literature on birding, Pete Dunne explains in his distinctive style how to find birds - the often-ignored first step in identifying, observing, and listing bird species."

Bird Watcher's Daily Companion: 365 Days of Advice, Insight, and Information for Enthusiastic Birders

Tom Warhol and Marcus Schneck

2010

"Bird Watcher's Daily Companion is a sophisticated way for birders to be inspired, motivated, and educated every day of the year. In this book they will find information on everything from differentiating between look alike species, how to plant a hummingbird garden, to choosing the best travel destinations for your next birding vacation. Bird Watcher's Daily Companion complements bird identification guides and does not compete with them directly. The Daily Companion format - the day by day guide to indulging in a favorite pastime - is meant to be used, not to be stowed away a dusty bookshelf. It is suitable for both beginners and expert birders, augmenting and complementing the information found in standard field guides."

How to Keep a Naturalist's Notebook

Susan Leigh Tomlinson

2010

"For nature-lovers, birders, and students of wildlife and biology, keeping a field notebook is essential to accurately recording outdoor observations. This unique guide offers instruction on how to do it - what to look for, what information should be recorded and how to organize it, basic drawing skills using line and color, and incorporating maps and charts, as well as advice on equipment to take in the field and using conventional field guides. A colorful book that will teach and inspire."

Birding Essentials: All the Tools, Techniques, and Tips You Need To Begin and Become a Better Birder

Jonathan Alderfer and Jon L Dunn

2007

"For the beginning and intermediate birders, "National Geographic Birding Essentials" is a comprehensive and authoritative, yet engaging and user-friendly guide that teaches readers how to get started in and improve their birding, what to look for, and how to make sense of what they see and hear in the field. The book's visual component includes spreads that show actual field guide pages and how to read them, spreads that compare the same bird in photography versus artwork and explain how to use both in your birding, and hundreds of color photographs, illustrations, and maps."

Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion: A Comprehensive Resource for Identifying North American Birds

Pete Dunne

2006

"In this book, bursting with more information than any field guide could hold, the well-known author and birder Pete Dunne introduces readers to the "Cape May School of Birding." It's an approach to identification that gives equal or more weight to a bird's structure and shape and the observer's overall impression (often called GISS, for General Impression of Size and Shape) than to specific field marks. After determining the most likely possibilities by considering such factors as habitat and season, the birder uses characteristics such as size, shape, color, behavior, flight pattern, and vocalizations to identify a bird. The book provides an arsenal of additional hints and helpful clues to guide a birder when, even after a review of a field guide, the identification still hangs in the balance."

The Art of Pishing: How to Attract Birds by Mimicking their Calls

Pete Dunne

2005

"This title contains a book & CD. Learn the arcane yet effective art of pishing from a master. In this unique package, renowned birder Pete Dunne presents an illustrated workshop on how to attract birds by making precise and well-practised hisses, whistles, chips, and squeals (along with some kisses and thumps) that almost guarantee spectacular success in the field. The text explains the how's, why's, and when's of 13 different pishes, including the basic pish, stutter pish, whisper pish, knockdown pish, screech-owl warble, sequential chip, and squeal. The soundtrack features audio demonstrations so you can compare your efforts to an expert's. Together, this book and CD will send you well on your way to becoming a pisher extraordinaire. This first-ever how-to book on this time-proven technique features 13 pish explanations and audio demonstrations by Pete Dunne."

Pete Dunne on Bird Watching: The How-to, Where-to, and When-to of Birding

Pete Dunne

2003

"Pete Dunne has taught birding to beginners for years, but he has never found the right book to help them get started. Now the popular birding author identifies the skills and tools available to people with any amount of interest, great or small, in bird watching. Beginning with backyard birding and moving through a quick but comprehensive survey of tools of the trade, Dunne outlines ten basic, simple steps in bird identification that can make a birder out of the most casual of observers. He goes on to show beginning birders how to use their skills to explore new horizons through birding by ear, birding by telescope, and finding and identifying rare or difficult birds."

Sibley's Birding Basics

David Allen Sibley

2002

"Birding Basics begins by reviewing how one can get started as a birder: the equipment necessary, where and when to go birding, and perhaps most important, the essential things to look for when birds appear in the field. Using many illustrations, David Sibley reviews all the basic concepts of bird identification and then describes the variations (of shape, size, and color) that can change the appearance of a bird over time or in different settings. And he issues a warning about "illusions and other pitfalls"—and advice on avoiding them. The second part of the book, also plentifully illustrated, deals with another set of clues, the major aspects of avian life that differ from species to species: feathers (color, arrangement, shape, molt), behavior and habitat, and sounds. This scientifically precise, beautifully illustrated volume distills the essence of David Sibley’s own experience and skills, providing a solid introduction to "naming" the birds. With Sibley as your guide, when you learn how to interpret what the feathers, the anatomical structure, the sounds of a bird tell you—when you know the clues that show you why there’s no such thing as "just a duck"—birding will be more fun, and more meaningful."

Birding for Beginners: A Comprehensive Introduction to the Art of Birdwatching

Sheila Buff

1993

Reprinted a number of times

"Birdwatching is for everyone. No other outdoor pursuit yields so much enjoyment of nature's ways with so little effort, and Birding For Beginners is the ideal introduction to the pleasures to be found from birdwatching. All the essentials for the beginner to enjoy birdwatching are covered: equipment; identification techniques; field guides; optics for birders; birding by 'ear' and much more.

Making this guide uniquely valuable for the novice are chapters on viewing bird behaviors such as feeding, flight, feather care, nesting, and migration so the birder understands not just what kind of bird it is, but what the bird is doing. Clear black and white illustrations as well as an exquisite four-color photographic insert, bring this exciting world vividly to life. In addition, a selection of appendices cover everything from birding organizations to birding publications.

The most important qualification for birdwatching is a desire to do it - and Birding For Beginners is just the guide to help make that desire a pleasurable reality."