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Mainly autobiographical or biographical books about birdwatchers, birders, twitchers, listers, big year-ers, and others who think about or are obsessed by birds.

The books in this section are ordered by publication date with the most recent at the top

 

Waiting for the Albino Dunnock: How Birds Can Change Your Life

Rosamond Richardson

Illustrations: Carry Akroyd

Weidenfeld & Nicolson

2017

"Written by a beginner-birdwatcher with the freshness and passion of a convert, Waiting for the Albino Dunnock explores the world of birds through the seasons of a single year. It describes encounters with particular birds in the landscapes of East Anglia where the author is rooted. Occasional journeys farther afield take the reader to truly wild places in the Outer Hebrides and Eastern Europe. Yet the ordinary experience of birdwatching is also far more than just that. The beauty of birds has the power to change lives, as it did the author's, and as in the case of the all-but-legendary snow leopard, it is more about the search than the result."

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One More Warbler: A Life with Birds

Victor Emanuel with S. Kirk Walsh

University Of Texas Press

2017

"In One More Warbler, Emanuel recalls a lifetime of birding adventures - from his childhood sighting of a male Cardinal that ignited his passion for birds to a once-in-a-lifetime journey to Asia to observe all eight species of cranes of that continent. He tells fascinating stories of meeting his mentors who taught him about birds, nature, and conservation, and later, his close circle of friends - Ted Parker, Peter Matthiessen, George Plimpton, Roger Tory Peterson, and others - who he frequently birded and traveled with around the world. Emanuel writes about the sighting of an Eskimo Curlew, thought to be extinct, on Galveston Island; setting an all-time national record during the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count; attempting to see the Imperial Woodpecker in northwestern Mexico; and birding on the far-flung island of Attu on the Aleutian chain."

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Birds Art Life: A Year of Observation

Kyo Maclear

Scribner Books

2017

"A distilled, crystal-like companion to H is for Hawk, Birds Art Life celebrates the particular madness of chasing after birds in the urban environment and explores what happens when the core lessons of birding are applied to other aspects of art and life. Moving with ease between the granular and the grand, peering into the inner landscape as much as the outer one, this is a deeply personal year-long inquiry into big themes: love, waiting, regrets, endings. If Birds Art Life was sprung from Maclear's sense of disconnection, her passions faltering under the strain of daily existence, Birds Art Life is ultimately about the value of reconnection and how the act of seeking engagement and beauty in small ways can lead us to discover our most satisfying and meaningful lives."

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Odd Birds

Ian Harding

St Martins Press

2017

"A 7-time Teen Choice Award Winner on Freeform's most-watched series, Pretty Little Liars … A social media influencer with over 7 million followers … An avid birdwatcher? Yes, you read that correctly. Ian Harding is all of these things, and so much more. In this memoir, explore the unexpected world of a young celebrity through the lens of his favourite pastime – birding. Odd Birds is more than just a Hollywood memoir or tell-all. At its heart, Odd Birds is a coming-of-age story in which Ian wrestles with an ever evolving question – how can he still be himself, while also being a celebrity. Each humorous and heartfelt story features a particular bird – sometimes literal, at other times figurative. Using this framework, Ian explores a variety of topics, including growing up, life as a television actor and nature lover, and whether it is better to shave or wax one's chest for an on-screen love scene. A funny and heartwarming window into Ian's life, Odd Birds is a must-read for fans of nature writing and memoir alike."

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Flock Together: A Love Affair with Extinct Birds

B.J. Hollers

University Of Nebraska Press

2017

"After stumbling upon a book of photographs depicting extinct animals, B.J. Hollars became fascinated by the creatures that are no longer with us; specifically, extinct North American birds. How, he wondered, could we preserve so beautifully on film what we've failed to preserve in life? And so begins his yearlong journey to find out, one that leads him from bogs to art museums, from archives to Christmas Counts, until he at last comes as close to extinct birds as he ever will during a behind-the-scenes visit at the Chicago Field Museum. Heartbroken by the birds we've lost, Hollars takes refuge in those that remain. Armed with binoculars, a field guide, and knowledgeable friends, he begins his transition from budding birder to environmentally conscious citizen, a first step on a longer journey toward understanding the true tragedy of a bird's song silenced forever."

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Happiness Is a Rare Bird: Living the Birding Life

Gene Walz

Turnstone Press

2016

"Gene Walz's Happiness Is a Rare Bird is a celebration of birding. Through a series of humorous anecdotes detailing his adventures over every continent save Antarctica, Walz brings to life the avian beauty and grace he studies in the field. Glorying in both the common and exotic, he provides a gaggle of glorious details about bird life from a Prairie guy's perspective. Peer deeply into the mind of the birder. Gene Walz affords an insider's look into the hobbyist's passionate drive and quirky lingo. Learn of vagabonds, endemics, fall-out, jinx birds, and lifers. Just as colourful as the birds they seek, Walz sketches endearing and hilarious portraits of the many birders he meets out in the field. Birders are indeed a special breed. Happiness Is a Rare Bird makes a compelling argument for the pursuit of birding, combining an opportunity to enjoy nature with the chance to come together with generous, kindred spirits."

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What Good Are Birds?

Antonio Sandoval Rey

Translation: Dave Langlois

Tundra Ediciones

2016

"The author goes birding up and down his local coastline (A Coruna province, in Galicia, NW Spain) seeking answers to the question that forms the title of What Good Are Birds?. Out of his stream of consciousness spill deftly-woven, bird-related tales of spies and shipwrecks, political shenanigans and serial killers, mysteries of the past and even battlefield epics. Meanwhile, the real scenery he moves through kindles all sorts of reflections and memories about its past and present fate, while he also chats with others who, like himself, have managed to turn birdwatching into their livelihood. The net result is a celebration of just how much unspoilt nature can give us and just how much we lose for good by spoiling it."

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The World of Birds and Laughter

Richard Pople

Brambleby Books

2016

"A policeman's lot may not be a happy one, or so we are told, but here the author, a retired policeman, provides an 'arresting' and gripping account of his birding exploits with a band of like-minded chums going ábroad' in search of our rare and exotic feathered friends in order to fill their ever-growing bird lists. En route they encounter all kinds of problems and episodes, some of their own making, others due to the people and circumstances they meet. However, they try to master these with their friendship and humour... and a good supply of beer."

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Lost Among the Birds: Accidentally Finding Myself in One Very Big Year

Neil Hayward

Bloomsbury Publishing USA

2016

"Birding was a lifelong passion. It was only among the birds that Neil found a calm that had eluded him in the confusing world of humans. But this time he also found competition. His growing list of species reluctantly catapulted him into a Big Year--a race to find the most birds in one year. His peregrinations across twenty-eight states and six provinces in search of exotic species took him to a hoarfrost-covered forest in Massachusetts to find a Fieldfare; to Lake Havasu, Arizona, to see a rare Nutting's Flycatcher; and to Vancouver for the Red-flanked Bluetail. Neil's Big Year was as unplanned as it was accidental: It was the perfect distraction to life. Neil shocked the birding world by finding 749 species of bird and breaking the long-standing Big Year record. He also surprised himself: During his time among the hummingbirds, tanagers, and boobies, he found a renewed sense of confidence and hope about the world and his place in it."

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Feather Brained: My Bumbling Quest to Become a Birder and Find a Rare Bird on My Own

Bob Tarte

University Of Michigan Press

2016

"For much of his life, the closest Bob Tarte got to a nature walk was the stroll from parking lot to picnic table on family outings. But then a chance sighting of a dazzling rose-breasted grosbeak in wife-to-be Linda’s backyard prompts a fascination with birds, which he had never cared about before in the least. Soon he is obsessed with spotting more and more of them—the rarer the better—and embarks on a bumpy journey to improve his bumbling birding skills. Along the way, Tarte offers readers a droll look at the pleasures and pitfalls he encounters, introduces a colorful cast of fellow birders from across the country, and travels to some of the premier birding sites in the Midwest, including Point Pelee, Magee Marsh, Tawas Point State Park, and even Muskegon Wastewater System. This funny, heartfelt memoir will appeal to birders of all skill levels as well as to anyone who knows and loves a birder."

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Bird Droppings: Writings about Watching Birds & Bird Watchers

Pete Dunne

Stackpole Books

2016

"Pete Dunne, one of the foremost birding writers in the country, shares 33 funny, poignant, whimsical, and informative tales about birders and birding in his first collection of birding essays in more than ten years."

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Why We Bird

David C. Rice

Illustrations: Robin G. Pulich

Golden Gate Audubon Society

2014

"In Why We Bird, David Rice organizes a lifetime of observation into insightful short essays on the allure and attraction of birding. Flight, song, and color; Identifications; Games; Surprises; Conservation; Stories; Solace: a Bay Area psychologist and longtime birder, Rice illuminates all these reasons to bird through personal anecdotes and reflections from other bird lovers. There is the beauty of calling cranes and flying geese. There is the challenge of identifying (and mis-identifying!) birds. We can keep lists – of birds seen in our yard, our state, our life. We can see the world anew with every unexpected sighting. We can share stories and be part of a community of people who care about the natural world."

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The Search for the Rarest Bird in the World

Vernon R.L. Head

Jacana Publishers

2014

"In 1990 an expedition of Cambridge scientists arrived at the Plains of Nechisar, tucked between the hills of the Great Rift Valley in the Gamo Gofa province in the country of Ethiopia. On that expedition they found three hundred and fifteen species of birds; sixty one species of mammal and sixty nine species of butterfly were identified; twenty species of dragonflies and damselflies; seventeen reptile species were recorded; three frog species were filed; plants were listed. And the wing of a road-killed bird was packed into a brown paper bag. It was to become the most famous wing in the world. When the specimens finally arrived at the British Natural History Museum in Tring it set the world of science aflutter. It seemed that the wing was unique, but they questioned, can you name a species for the first time based only on the description of a wing, based on just one wing? After much to and fro confirmation was unanimous, and the new species was announced, Nechisar Nightjar, Caprimulgus solala, (solus:only and ala:wing). Twenty-two years later an expedition of four led by Ian Sinclair set off to try to find this rarest bird in the world. Vernon R.L. Head captivates and enchants as he tells of the adventures of Ian, Dennis, Gerry and himself as they navigate the wilderness of the plains, searching by spotlight for the elusive Nechisar Nightjar. But The Search for the Rarest Bird in the World is more than a boy's own adventure in search of the rarest bird in the world. It is a meditation on nature, on ways of seeing, on the naming of things and why we feel so compelled to label. It is a story of friendships and camaraderie. But most of all it embraces and enfolds one into the curious and eye-opening world of the birdwatcher."

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Birds: Coping with an Obsession: One Man's Journey Through 50 Years of Birdwatching

Derek Moore

New Holland

2013

"Passionate birdwatcher and conservationist Derek Moore has been an instrumental figure in British ornithology for more than half a century. Renowned as one of birding's best story-tellers, Derek takes a nostalgic journey through the past five or six decades, recounting many highly entertaining tales, from huge falls of migrant birds engulfing his cricket pitch in the 1960s to heated run-ins with land owners and developers during the years when he was instrumental in establishing a network of key nature reserves along the coast of East Anglia. During his lifetime Derek has seen a sea change in every aspect of birdwatching and conservation, and his hugely engaging style of writing will make this book a 'must have' for all birdwatchers and conservationists."

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A Big Manhattan Year: Tales of Competitive Birding

David Barrett

2013

"What is it like to spend nearly every day for a year trying to observe as many bird species as possible within the confines of Manhattan? In 2012 I did just that--it's called having a "big year"--and I was not the only one. In this book I tell how I learned to bird and how I went on to become a competitive birder. Then I give a detailed account of my 2012 battle with one of the nation's best, ornithologist Andrew Farnsworth, and others to have the biggest of big Manhattan years. You may be surprised that each year over 200 species of birds reside in or migrate through Manhattan. Observing and accurately identifying them requires special skills. You need to know what they look like, what they sound like, and where and when they are likely to appear. Birding can be a leisurely walk in the park, or it can be something much more challenging. Manhattan is home to a number of talented and obsessive birders for whom birding is a test of brains, logistics, and physical stamina, requiring both an understanding of nature and a knack for technology."

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Scilly Birding: Joining the Madding Crowd

Simon Davey

Brambleby Books

2013

"Scilly Birding is a humorous account of the passion, joys, highs and lows experienced by a dedicated bird enthusiast in his pursuit of an experience with rare birds on the Isles of Scilly."

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A-Z of Birds: A Birder's Tales from Around the World

Bo Beolens

Brambleby Books

2013

"Twenty-six anecdotes from around the world were written to amuse and show why the author (and so many others) are so keen on birding. Each 'chapter' is a bird name, beginning with a different letter of the alphabet."

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Birduder 344: A Life List Ordinary

Rob Sawyer

Brambleby Books

2012

"Birds have captivated Rob Sawyer for almost 50 years. In Birduder 344 he tells of the highs and lows of his hopeless, but highly enjoyable, birdwatching 'career', sharing his great love of birds, whilst he tries to work out where he fits, if at all, on the birdwatching ladder."

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Extreme Birder: One Woman's Big Year

Lynne E. Barber

Texas A & M University Press

2011

"In 2008, Lynn Barber's passion for birding led her to drive, fly, sail, walk, stalk, and sit in search of birds in twenty-five states and three provinces. Traveling more than 175,000 miles, she set a twenty-first century record at the time, second to only one other person in history. Over 272 days, Barber observed 723 species of birds in North America north of Mexico, recording a remarkable 333 new species in January but, with the dwindling returns typical to Big Year birding, only eight in December, a month that found her crisscrossing the continent from Texas to Newfoundland, from Washington to Ontario. In the months between, she felt every extreme of climate, well-being, and emotion. But, whether finally spotting an elusive Blue Bunting or seeing three species of eiders in a single day, she was also challenged, inspired, and rewarded by nearly every experience. Barber's journal from her American Birding Association-sanctioned Big Year covers the highlights of her treks to forests, canyons, mountain ranges, deserts, oceans, lakes, and numerous spots in between. Written in the informal style of a diary, it captures the detail, humor, challenges, and fun of a good adventure travelogue and also conveys the remarkable diversity of North American birds and habitat. For actual or would-be "travel birders," Lynn Barber's Extreme Birder provides a fascinating, binoculars-eye view of one of the best-loved pastimes of nature lovers everywhere."

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Birdman Abroad

Stuart Winter

New Holland

2011

"Stuart Winter's "Tales of a Tabloid Twitcher" earned many plaudits in 2010, as the birder journalist who brought the subjects of birdwatching and conservation to millions of red-top readers over a period of more than a decade shared some of his most captivating 'scoops'. This second installment of tales follows a similar format and covers stories from around the world. Each of the 20 or so chapters covers a range of tales and issues at a rapid pace, and is accompanied by a series of amusing line drawings. Once again there are stories of sin and scandal mixed with serious messages about bird conservation and the environment. Thanks to Stuart's role as news editor on a national newspaper the title is guaranteed to be heavily promoted to a wide audience of interested readers of his "Birdman" column among "The Sunday Express'" weekly readership of 600,000 people, as well as in the birding and wildlife magazines for which he regularly contributes."

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Winging It: Birding for Low-flyers

Andrew Fallan

Brambleby Books

2011

"Do you have a passion for wildlife, and do you enjoy watching birds? Are you also hopeless at identifying some of the more difficult ones? Do you feel lost without a field guide, and can you count on both hands the number of birds that you can identify by their calls alone? If the answer to these questions is yes you are not alone. In 'Winging it: Birding for Low-flyers', Andrew Fallan recounts the highs and the lows, the trials and tribulations, of being an avid birder in a world seemingly populated by experts and high-flyers. All those with an interest in birds and other wildlife will identify with and enjoy these engaging tales. Hence, they are invited to join an often humorous and irreverent journey around the U.K.: from the heavily industrialised Thames estuary to Minsmere and the north Norfolk coast, from the Scilly Isles to the majestic scenery of Wales, all the way in fact to the rocky grandeur of the highlands and islands of Scotland. Against the backdrop of our green and pleasant land, the author examines, through his own experiences, the often spectacular beauty of our wildlife, and encourages us to seek solace in the simple enjoyment of birds."

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My Life as a Birder: A Collection of Stories from Attu to Zambia

Harriet Davidson

Createspace

2011

"Long before the sport was popular, Harriet Davidson and her husband, Bill, began a lifetime of birding, first across the North American continent, then all around the world. Harriet has identified 5,343 birds, among them 175 hummingbird species. These intriguing stories include accounts of bird chases, travel adventures, and native life in many remote areas throughout the world."

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The Jewel Hunter

Chris Gooddie

WildGuides

2010

"A tale of one man's obsession with rainforest jewels, this is the story of an impossible dream: a quest to see every one of the world's most elusive avian gems - a group of birds known as pitas - in a single year. Insightful, compelling, and laugh-out-loud funny, this is more than a book about birds. It's a true story detailing the lengths to which a man will go to escape his midlife crisis. A travelogue with a difference, it follows a journey from the suburban straitjacket of High Wycombe to the steamy, leech-infested rainforests of remotest Asia, Africa, and Australia."

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The Biggest Twitch

Alan Davies and Ruth Miller

Christopher Helm

2010

"Most people dream of packing in their humdrum city life, selling up and heading off into the unknown for a life of adventure. For Ruth Miller and Alan Davies this dream became a reality, albeit with a twist; they decided to pack in their jobs, sell their house and take on the ultimate birder's challenge - to smash the world record for the number of species seen in one calendar year. This book is the story of their great expedition, searching for birds from Ecuador to Ethiopia via Argentina, Australia and Arizona. We follow this birding odyssey as they rachet up the species and the stamps in their passports, sharing in amazing birding experiences such as monkey-hunting Harpy Eagles in the Brazilian rain forest, seedsnipes in the Peruvian highlands and lekking bustards in South Africa, all leading to the ultimate question - will they break the magic 4,000? Written in an accessible style, this book will be of great interest to birders, readers of travel literature, and to people who simply enjoy a good adventure!"

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Wild Birding Colorado: The Big Year of 2010

Cole Wild, Nicholas Komar

Outskirts Press

2011

"In Wild Birding Colorado, naturalist Cole Wild offers an insider's view into the world of competitive bird watching in Colorado. The book weaves the thrilling tale of Wild's amazing feat of establishing a new record for most bird species observed in one year (known as a 'Big Year'). Wild's record 412 species in 2010 has beaten the old Colorado Big Year record of 391 set in 2008. Wild Birding Colorado rivals other birding Big Year stories such as Mark Obmascik's The Big Year and Kenn Kaufman's Kingbird Highway. The author's entertaining spoken narrative, transcribed to the written word by wildlife biologist and co-author Nicholas Komar, recounts numerous tense situations encountered during Wild's extensive travels through the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains of Colorado. The text offers a treasure chest of birding tips for where and when to find the state's rarest species such as White-tailed Ptarmigan and Black Swift. Wild photographed many of the species he saw while achieving his Big Year. Some of his best photos are featured in the book."

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Tales of a Tabloid Twitcher

Stuart Winter

New Holland

2010

"It may come as a surprise to some people, but tabloid newspaper coverage of the ornithological world does actually extend beyond cheap innuendos about tits and shags. For this we can thank one journalist more than any other - Stuart Winter. A birder since childhood, he has maintained a constant presence in the world of the tabloid news since the mid-1990s, bringing innumerable stories about birds and birdwatchers to the masses in the process. This enthralling book offers a window into the sometimes shady worlds of tabloid journalism and birdwatching. In the process it explores the full stories behind the very best scoops. You may think that birdwatching would be a rather refined hobby, but you would be very wrong indeed. There are tales of obsession - travelling the length and breadth of the country in pursuit of rarities; tragedy - risking life and limb in the line of duty; celebrity - both human and avian, from Jeremy Clarkson and David Attenborough to 'Sammy the Stilt'; crime - from felony to rivalries that turned nasty; and scandal - just what is the most debauched use of a bird hide?"

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Life List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds

Olivia Gentile

Bloomsbury

2009

"After her four kids were nearly grown and she was about to turn 50, Phoebe Snetsinger was told she had less than a year to live. Snetsinger, a St. Louis housewife and avid backyard birder, decided to spend that year traveling the world in search of birds. As it turned out, her doctors were wrong, but Phoebe's passion had been ignited and she spent the next eighteen years crisscrossing the globe recklessly staking out her quarry. En route she contracted malaria in Zambia, nearly fell to her death in Zaire, and was kidnapped and gang raped on the outskirts of Port Moresby. Yet none of this curbed her enthusiasm. By the time she died in a bus accident while birding in Madagascar in 1999, Phoebe was world renowned and had seen more species - 8,500 of the roughly 10,000 - than anyone in history. A fascinating portrait of a hobbiest whose obsession contributed to both her success and her demise, Life List brings Phoebe Snetsinger and the wild world of amatuer ornithology to vivid life."

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Birdwatchingwatching: One Year, Two Men, Three Rules, Ten Thousand Birds

Alex Horne

Virgin Books

2009

"Comedian Alex Horne's dad has always been an avid birdwatcher, a fact Alex could never quite come to terms with. But faced with the prospect of becoming a father himself one day, Alex resolved to get to know his own dad better and finally understand why (and how) he does what he does. The best way to bond, he decided, would be some father-versus-son competitive birdwatching. Over the course of one year, they would each attempt to see as many species of bird as possible governed by three basic rules: the birds had to be wild, free and alive; they had to actually see the birds; and they could travel anywhere in the world to do it. From Barnet to Bahrain, taking in a twitchy stag-weekend in Wales and an unfortunately birdless trip to the Alps, this is a hilarious and dramatic true story of obsessive behaviour, friendship and fatherhood."

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The Reluctant Twitcher: A Quite Truthful Account of My Big Birding Year

Richard Pope

Dundurn

2009

"The human side of birding comes to the fore in this book, a serious yet humorous account of birds and birding and the art of chasing rarities. Richard Pope, a lifelong birder, had successfully avoided this latter pursuit for many years but capitulated in 2007 when he embarked on his "Big Year", the object being to record at least three hundred birds in Ontario within that calendar period. Almost instantly, a relatively normal birdwatcher morphed into a 'twitcher', albeit reluctantly, pursuing rare species of birds from Rainy River to the Ottawa and well beyond his wildest expectations. Though it was a challenge that was not without trials and disappointments, Pope describes all his adventures with self-deprecating humour. Not just another book on birding, Pope's unique approach is supported by an array of exceptional colour photographs."

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A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See It All

Luke Dempsey

Bloomsbury

2008

"It began innocently enough, when two eccentric guests at L uke Dempsey's weekend home pointed out a small bird flitting through his garden. Dempsey, entranced, found himself falling head over heels. Before he knew it, he and his friends were off on an epic birding journey down the backroads of America, in search of the country's rarest and most beautiful birds. A Supremely Bad Idea is the hilarious story of their trip - what WildBird magazine calls "as close as we have to Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods."

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Arrivals and Rivals: A Duel for the Winning Bird (2nd edition)

Adrian M. Riley

Brambleby Books

2007

"Birding is becoming one of the fastest growing outdoor activities, especially in the UK. In this book, Adrian Riley provides entertaining and highly illuminating insights into the obsessions - and passions - when he set out to become the nationally recognised 'Birder of the Year'. Here is a classic tale, set amidst the beautiful British countryside, involving a rivalry so strong that all else is forgotten - save the birds and the desire to see them, despite the many costs both mentally and physically. This is the 2nd edition of the bestseller Arrivals and Rivals - A Birding Oddity with a stunning new 'Firebird' cover, more colour photos and an extra chapter on how to prepare for such fantastic, madcap adventures."

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UK500: Birding in the Fast Lane

James Hanlon

Brambleby Books

2006

"An anecdotal, humorous and highly personal account of some of the author's most memorable - and amusing - missions to add new birds to his ever-increasing British life-list. Complemented by his own photographs, paintings and illustrations, he recounts car crashes, stormy sea crossings, plane convoys and even a coastguard rescue, all encountered during his quest to see 500+ bird species in Britain and Ireland, a quest which has spanned 17 years. If you never thought the simple pleasure of bird watching - now one of the fastest-growing recreational activities in the world - could be described as 'extreme', you should read this book."

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To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son and a Lifelong Obsession

Dan Koeppel

Michael Joseph

2005

"There are nearly 10,000 known species of bird on the planet and Richard Koeppel has seen over 7000 of them. But what drives a man to travel to sixty countries and spend a fortune to count birds? Because the price he paid was more than just financial. His relentless pursuit of birds was cause and effect of a failed marriage, the breakdown of his relationship with his son, and obtuse career decisions. Koeppel's obsession began at the age of eleven in Queens, New York, when he first spotted a Brown Thrasher and jotted down the sighting in a notebook. It became the first bird on his life list'. Several decades later, he added an astonishing 517 birds to that list on a single trip to Kenya. And that was when the list really took over. He ended the last romantic relationship he would ever have, scaled down his medical practice, and decided to see every bird on earth. In doing so he became a member of a sub-culture of competitive bird-watchers all pursuing the same goal. To See Every Bird on Earth explores the thrill of the chase, the all-absorbing crusade at the expense of all else, and travel to places exotic, dangerous and commonplace. It's also the story of obsession and how it defines us. But most of all, it's the story of a father and son and of how the very thing that pushed them apart also provide the route towards reconciliation."

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The Big Year

Mark Obmascik

Bantam

2005

"Each year, hundreds of people set out across North America determined to set a new record in a spectacularly competitive event. Is it tennis? Golf? Racing? Poker perhaps? No, it's bird-watching, and a contest known as the Big Year - a grand, gruelling, expensive (and occasionally vicious) 365-day marathon to identify the most species. THE BIG YEAR is the rollicking chronicle of the 275,000-mile odyssey of three unlikely adventurers who take their bird-watching so seriously it nearly kills them. From Texas in pursuit of the Rufus-capped Warbler to British Columbia in search of Xantus' Hummingbird, these obsessive enthusiasts brave roasting deserts, storm-tossed oceans, infested swamps and disgruntled lions (not to mention some of the lumpiest hotel mattresses known to man) as they vie to become North America's number one bird-watcher in what would prove to be the biggest Big Year of them all."

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The Big Twitch: One Man, One Continent, a Race Against Time: A True Story About Birdwatching

Sean Dooley

Allen & Unwin

2005

"This work shows one man's quest to realise a boyhood dream and break a national record. It is an outrageously funny combination of travelogue, confessional, and major ornithological achievement! Sean Dooley seems like a well adjusted, functioning member of society...but beneath the respectable veneer he harbours a dark secret: he is a hard-core birdwatcher! Taking a year off to try and break the Australian record - Sean has to see more than 700 birds in 12 months. Travelling the length and breadth of the continent, he stops at nothing in search of this birdwatching Holy Grail, blowing his inheritance, his career, not to mention any chance he has of finding a girlfriend. Part confessional, part travelogue, this is a true story about obsession, seeking the meaning of life, and searching for the elusive Grey Falcon."

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Bird-Witched!: How Birds Can Change a Life

Marjorie Valentine Adams

Foreword: Greg Lasley and Chuck Sexton

University of Texas Press

2005

"Birding can become an addiction. It starts when you hang a bird feeder in the backyard. Then you buy a bird book to identify the birds you see. Then, before you know it, you're keeping a life list and travelling the region, the country, perhaps even the world to catch glimpses of rare birds. Marjorie Adams' birding passion progressed through all these stages and continues today in her tenth decade.In this engaging and informative book, she looks back at her evolution into a full-fledged birder and the concurrent growth of the sport of birding, to which she contributed significantly as a founder of the American Birding Association, a newspaper columnist on birding, and a teacher and producer of educational wildlife films with her husband and lifelong birding partner, "Red" Adams. As one who was there from the beginning, Marjorie Adams is uniquely qualified to recount the astonishing rise of birding to a major pastime and recreational industry. She describes the founding of the American Birding Association and profiles its first director, James A. Tucker.She vividly recalls many of her and Red's birding adventures, from southern Canada to Mexico, as well as their encounters with a host of highly regarded birders, including Roger Tory Peterson, Pete Dunne, Victor Emmanuel, Charles Hartshorne, and Roy Bedichek. She also explains how her and Red's love for birds led them to become conservation activists and how they produced an award-winning film on the endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler."

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A Bird in the Bush: A Social History of Birdwatching

Stephen Moss

Aurum Press

2004

"Stephen Moss's book traces the history and development of this singular pastime, on both sides of the Atlantic, all the way from Gilbert White, the country parson who wrote The Natural History of Selborne in the 18th century, through the British servicemen who studied Black Redstarts from their German prisoner-of-war camp, to today's driven life-listers and twitchers who think nothing of hurtling the length of the UK by planes, automobiles and even boats in pursuit of a Grey-Tailed Tattler temporarily landfallen in the Shetland Isles."

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Arrivals and Rivals: A Birding Oddity: A Year of Competitive Twitching

Adrian M. Riley

Brambleby Books

2004

"An account of competitive twitching by two leading British birders, this book describes in an informed and lively manner the struggle in 2002 to become nationally recognized 'Birder of the Year', a competition involving much traveling and sometimes a little guile too. It contains accounts of the many bird species encountered, as well as descriptions of the habitats visited - some wild, some urban. It is also a story of the competition between the two main birders in the field, the author and his arch rival Lee Evans (author of "Finding Birds in Britain")."

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Chasing Birds Across Texas: A Birding Big Year

Mark T. Adams

Louise Lindsey Merrick Natural Environment Series #35

Texas A & M University Press

2003

"On the morning of January 1, 2000, Mark T. Adams started counting birds. His goal was to find the largest possible number of species in one year in Texas, an undertaking known in birding parlance as a Big Year. By the evening of December 31, he had tied the record of 489 species seen or heard within the state's borders in a single calendar year. Traveling 30,000 miles across Texas by car and 18,000 miles by plane, Adams alone saw 92 percent of all bird species reported in the state in 2000. In Chasing Birds across Texas, Adams invites birders and others with a broad interest in the outdoors to join him in exploring Texas' varied habitats on his quest for birds - from the upper coast to the lower coast; into the Hill Country, the Panhandle, and the Chihuahuan Desert; and up the Davis, Chisos, and Guadalupe Mountains. As he happily celebrates the bounty of the Valley's spring migration or desperately searches for a Panhandle rarity, we watch him grow as a naturalist, exult in the Texas landscape, and benefit from the company of some of the world's best birders. Informative, inspiring, and great fun, Chasing Birds across Texas conveys as perhaps no other bird book can the humor, obsession, dedication, and adventure that are all part of the sport of birding."

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Birding on Borrowed Time

Phoebe Snetsinger

American Birding Association

2003

"The posthumously published memoirs of the woman who saw more birds in her lifetime than any other human being in the history of the world. Phoebe's quest to see as many birds as possible only began at the age of 34, when she first laid eyes on a resplendent Blackburnian Warbler. After her belated awakening to the avian marvels around her, Phoebe began traveling across the globe, to all seven continents, observing and learning as much as she could about the world's thousands of bird species. The intensity and urgency of her quest were quickened when a cancer diagnosis led doctors to give her one year to live. Instead of succumbing to despair, Phoebe pursued her passion and strove to live what remained of her life to its fullest. Miraculously, she defied her death sentence, living on to see more of the world and more new birds for 17 more years. Along the way, she faced other hazards: a brutal assault and rape in New Guinea, a shipwreck, earthquakes, and political upheaval, along with recurrences of malignant melanoma. But in the end she triumphed over adversity and fulfilled her lifelong dream by becoming the first person to see more than 8,000 of the world's birds - a remarkable achievement that required passion, knowledge, skill, dedication, and persistence. Both a lively chronicle of birding adventures and a profoundly moving human document, Birding on Borrowed Time is the memoir of a truly extraordinary woman."

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City Birding: True Tales of Birds and Birdwatching in Unexpected Places

Editor: Mark Allison

Contributors: Kenn Kaufman, Clay Sutton, Marie Winn, Ann Zwinger, Paul A. Johnsgard, Kim Todd, John Nichols, Judith A. Toups, Mark S. Garland, Paul Kerlinger, Julie Zickefoose, Lawrence Kilham, Curtis Badger, Nikki Weinstein, James Gorman, Michael Harwood, Mary Durant

Stackpole Books

2003

"The waterways of New York-New Jersey, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the French Quarter of New Orleans -- all unlikely spots for bird-watching. For the careful observer, however, these urban locations and others like them can be settings for memorable birding experiences. In this unique book, some of the country's best-known birders observe birds in places where thriving bird life comes as a surprise. Funny, informative, and thought-provoking, the true stories collected here demonstrate the amazing adaptability of birds, which sometimes seem to thrive in almost any setting humans create: city parks, busy marinas, cemeteries, sewage lagoons. They also illustrate the vulnerability of the natural world in an increasingly man-made environment, and show how the excitement of bird-watching can exist in the most unexpected places."

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Blokes and Birds

Editor: Stephen Moss

Foreword: Bill Oddie

New Holland Publishers

2003

"Blokes and Birds is a humorous, one-of-a-kind look at 40 British and Irish birders and their wild escapades in the pursuit of their 'art'. It's a quirky look at the personalities and the passions hidden behind the twitching beards, binoculars and birding paraphernalia. Readers will delight in madcap tales of trips taken over a 1,000 miles to see birds that have flown, a doctor's tale of a bird landing on his dining table along with the roast beef, and intrepid birders' brave battles with hail, mud, fences, lighthouses, foreign militia and more. The fascinating story told by each bloke of his most bizarre or strange birding experience is accompanied by candid photographs of each birder at his best."

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The Verb 'To Bird': Sightings of an Avid Birder

Peter Cashwell

Paul Dry Books

2003

"All around the world, birds are a subject of intense and even spiritual fascination, but relatively few people see the word "bird" as a verb. Peter Cashwell is one who does. This is a whimsical and critical book about his many obsessions, including birds, birders, language, literature, and pop culture. It begins with an irreverent examination of birding as a historical, cultural, and even religious phenomenon and describes how a thirty-something student of academic and popular culture ends up an active participant in organized bird counts. Birding alone is compared to birding in company, and the pleasures of feeding birds outside are contrasted with the irrational terror of encountering them indoors. It also includes a birder's travelogue in which the author recounts the high (and low) points of trips all around the nation: from Virginia, where geese of unusual size appear out of nowhere, to South Carolina's Low Country, home to some of America's most beautiful birds and most ravenous biting insects; from Long Island, where, against all odds, nature still exists, to the river, city, and state of Iowa, where nomenclature is in short supply."

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Mad Twitching

David Houghton

The Pentland Press

2002

"At the ripe old age of 40 [the author] took up the pastime of bird watching, and subsequently joined a birding club, where he met and married a dedicated 'twitcher' and environmentalist, Kath Shurcliff. Mad Twitiching tells of some of their many adventures together in pursuit of birds and describes some of the fascinating species they have encountered in far flung exotic places."

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Birding Across North America: A Naturalist's Observations

Philip E. Keenan

Timber Press

2002

"From the author of the award-winning Wild Orchids Across North America comes an informative, beautiful - and at times poetic - summary of one man's life as a birder. Journeying from the swamps of Alabama to the icy waters of Québec's Gaspé Peninsula, from the sky islands of Arizona to the birdfeeder in his New Hampshire backyard, Keenan describes the remarkable pageantry of North American birdlife. More than a mere journal or travelogue, however, Keenan's book offers the incisive observations of a passionate naturalist for whom no question pertaining to birds is insignificant or irrelevant. With more than 100 color illustrations, it is as much a treat for the eyes as it is for the mind."

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Birders: Tales Of A Tribe

Mark Cocker

Cape

2001

"Since 1972 Mark Cocker has been a member of a community of obsessional people, almost all male, who sacrifice most of their spare time, a good deal of money, sometimes their chances of a partner or family, even occasionally their lives, for birds. Birders is the story of this community, of its characters, its rules, its equipment (only a certain type of notebook will do), and its adventures - often hilariously funny, Birders is also a work of love - the story of what birds can do to the human heart."

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Kingbird Highway

Ken Kaufman

Houghton Mifflin

2001

"The author recounts his trek across the country at age sixteen in search of birds and his efforts to set a record for the most North American species seen in a year."

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How Many Birds is That?: From the Forty Spotted Pardalote on Bruny Island to the White-tailed Tropicbird on Cape York

Sue Taylor

Hyland House

2001

"This is a humorous and informative account of the author's quest to notch up sightings of 600 not-so-common Australian birds. A so-called 'twitcher', Sue Taylor is a bird lover who will go to any lengths and travel any distance to achieve her goal. Here, she documents - in a light and chatty style, and accompanied by many photographs - the trips, the birds, the Australian landscape, her frustrations and her excitement."

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The Life History of a Texas Birdwatcher: Connie Hagar of Rockport

Karen Harden McCracken

Texas A & M University Press

2nd edition

2001

"The diminutive birdwatcher nicknamed Connie was reared as Martha Conger Neblett in early twentieth-century Texas, where she led a genteel life of tea parties and music lessons. But at middle age she became fascinated with birds and resolved to learn everything she could about them. In 1935, she and her husband, Jack, moved to Rockport, on the Coastal Bend of Texas, to be at the center of one of the most abundant areas of bird life in the country. Her diligence in observation soon had her setting elite East Coast ornithologists on their ears, as she sighted more and more species the experts claimed she could not possibly have seen. (Repeatedly she proved them wrong.) She ultimately earned the respect and love of birders from the shores of New Jersey to the islands of the Pacific. Life Magazine pictured her in a tribute to the country's premier amateur naturalists, and she received many awards from nature and birding societies."

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Wild America: The Record of a 30,000 Mile Journey Around the Continent By a Distinguished Naturalist and His British Colleague

Roger Tory Peterson & James Fisher

Houghton Mifflin

1997

"In 1953 renowned American ornithologist and painter Roger Tory Peterson and British seabird specialist James Fisher undertook a whirlwind, 100-day tour of America's great wildlife refuges and corridors. This wonderful book recounts that sometimes madcap voyage, which took them to familiar places such as Long Island and the Smoky Mountains, but also to less traveled venues such as Big Bend and the then-remote Everglades. Along the way the authors document such things as the courting behavior of dragonflies and the arrival of the first cattle egrets in North America. This is a classic of nature writing and a great pleasure to read."

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Lifebirds

George Levine

Rutgers University Press

1995

"In the best tradition of nature writing, George Levine mediates on the way birds and birding are entangled with the most ordinary and the most important aspects of our lives. He is a birder, not a professional ornithologist; but on his way to describing the entanglements of his birding activities with his work, family, and friends, he provides plenty of detail about the birds themselves. Lifebirds is primarily a consideration of the experience and human significance of watching birds rather than of the birds as objects of systematic study. It conveys a rich sense of the extraordinary variety and excitement of birding, the complications and subtleties of bird identification, the implication of birding in the imagination, and the ways in which the world of birds can parallel and illuminate the human world."

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The Feather Quest: A North American Birder's Year

Pete Dunne

1992 / Penguin

2001 / Houghton Mifflin

"When a flash of pink was spotted in a cloud of gray gulls over Newburyport, Massachusetts, ten thousand people descended on the town in hopes of seeing a rare Ross's gull from Siberia. Among them were Pete and Linda Dunne, who set off from there on a year-long odyssey. Dunne had poured the most remarkable stories, birds, and characters into this unforgettable book about their once-in-a-lifetime adventure."

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Best Days with British Birds

Editor: Malcom Ogilvie and Stuart Winter

British Birds

1989

"An account of the most exciting, frustrating, enjoyable and memorable days of birdwatching chosen and revealed by 35 of Britain's most well-known birders, including the likes of John Busby, Peter Grant, Bill Oddie and Malcolm Ogilvie. Illustrated throughout with line drawings from a number of well-known bird artists. A fascinating read, and a must for all birdwatchers."

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On Watching Birds

Lawrence Kilham

Chelsea Green Publishing

1988

"Lawrence Kilham begins this remarkable book with a simple premise: surely there are many people who aren't scientists who nevertheless take great satisfaction from observing nature and the creatures that inhabit it. Eschewing species lists and the charts-and-graphs approach of professional ornithologists and competitive birders, Kilham's On Watching Birds elegantly balances the aesthetic and humanistic with the scientific. The author offers a philosophy of embracing nature through discovery rather than a methodology for categorizing it."

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A World of Watchers

Joseph Kastner

Alfred Knopf

1986

Subtitled "An Informal History of the American Passion for Birds - From Its Scientific Beginnings to the Great Birding Boom of Today."

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Connie Hagar: The Life History of a Texas Birdwatcher

Karen Harden McCracken

Texas A & M University Press

1986

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A Twitcher's Diary: The Birdwatching Year Of

Richard MIllington

Blandford Press

1981

Reprint 1990

"In Great Britain in one calendar year it is possible to see 300 species of birds. This diary shows in notes and illustrations what those birds were for the author in 1980 and it concentrates on the rarer species."

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Wild America: The Record of a 30,000 Mile Journey Around the Continent By a Distinguished Naturalist and His British Colleague

Roger Tory Peterson & James Fisher

Collins

1956

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Wild America: The Record of a 30,000 Mile Journey Around the Continent By a Distinguished Naturalist and His British Colleague

Roger Tory Peterson & James Fisher

Houghton Mifflin

1955

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Last updated August 2017