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This page collects together bird related books published by the University of Texas Press.

University of Texas Press pages

Mildred Wyatt-Wold Series in Ornithology

Other bird related books

One More Warbler: A Life with Birds

Victor Emanuel with S. Kirk Walsh

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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Texas Bobwhites: A Guide to Their Foods and Habitat Management

Jon A. Larson, Timothy E. Fulbright, Leonard A. Brennan, Fidel Hernández, and Fred C. Bryant

2010

"Northern bobwhites are one of the most popular game birds in the United States. In Texas alone, nearly 100,000 hunters take to the field each fall and winter to pursue wild bobwhite quail. Texas is arguably the last remaining state with sufficient habitat to provide quail-hunting opportunities on a grand scale, and Texas ranchers with good bobwhite habitat often generate a greater proportion of their income from fees paid by quail hunters than from livestock production. Managing and expanding bobwhite habitat makes good sense economically, and it benefits the environment as well. The rangelands and woodlands of Texas that produce quail also support scores of other species of wildlife. Texas Bobwhites is a field guide to the seeds commonly eaten by northern bobwhites, as well as a handbook for conserving and improving northern bobwhite habitat. It provides identifying characteristics for the seeds of 91 species of grasses, forbs, woody plants and succulents. Each seed description includes a close-up and a scale photo of the seed and the plant that produces it, along with a range map. Using this information, hunters can readily identify concentrations of plants that are most likely to attract quail. Landowners and rangeland managers will greatly benefit from the book's state-of-the-art guidance for habitat management and restoration, including improving habitat dominated by invasive and nonnative grasses."

Woodworking for Wildlife: Homes for Birds and Animals

Carrol L. Henderson

2010

"For everyone who enjoys attracting wildlife to their backyard, farm, woodlot, or lakeshore home, Woodworking for Wildlife is the perfect resource. With all the latest information on how to attract everything from bluebirds, chickadees, purple martins, and wood ducks to bumblebees, toads, owls, and woodpeckers, the book features thirty designs for nest boxes and nest platforms that will accommodate forty-six species of wildlife. It provides easy-to-follow diagrams for cutting out and assembling the nest boxes, accompanied by over three hundred beautiful color photographs - See more at: http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/henwop#sthash.kzm4XhF1.dpuf."

Basic Texas Birds: A Field Guide

Mark W. Lockwood

2007

"Finding all the birds in Texas can be a lifetime pursuit. "Basic Texas Birds", an easy-to-use field guide, will help you identify over 180 species of birds that are found across the state, including a selection of the rarer 'Texas specialties' that draw birders to Texas from around the world. These are the birds that form the basis of a birder's life list for Texas."Basic Texas Birds" is organized by bird families to aid in identifying any bird you see in the wild. It is loaded with resources, including: 200 full-color, close-up photos of the birds; state-of-the-art range maps - the most accurate of any currently available - that show each species' distribution within the state; up-to-date species accounts that provide a wealth of current and historical information, including each bird's appearance, habitat, status, and distribution, and that also identify similar species; a glossary of terms used in bird identification; a list of selected reading for learning more about birds found in Texas; and, the Texas Ornithological Society's list of birds documented in Texas. Much more convenient for identifying common birds than a comprehensive state or national field guide, "Basic Texas Birds" is a must-have resource for both beginning and experienced birders."

Learn about . . . Texas Birds

Mark W. Lockwood

2007

"Children from six to twelve are introduced to the most frequently seen and interesting Texas birds. Youngsters can color eye-catching line drawings of various birds in typical habitats, while an easy-to-read text gives important facts about the birds, and several fun games are instructive and challenging."

Birds of Belize

H. Lee Jones

University of Texas Press

2004

"With nearly six hundred identified species of birds - and an average of five "new" species discovered annually - Belize is becoming a birding hotspot for amateur and professional birders from around the globe. Thousands of birders visit the country each year to enjoy Belize's amazing abundance and variety of both temperate and tropical birds in natural habitats that remain largely unspoiled. But until now, despite the growing need for an authoritative identification guide, birders have had to rely on regional field guides that offer only limited information on Belizean birds. Birds of Belize provides the first complete guide to the identification of all currently known species - 574 in all. The birds are grouped by families, with an introduction to each family that highlights its uniquely identifying characteristics and behaviors. The species accounts include all the details necessary for field identification: scientific and common names, size, plumage features, thorough voice descriptions, habitat, distribution, and status in Belize. Full color, expertly drawn illustrations by noted bird artist Dana Gardner present male and female, juvenile and adult, and basic and alternate plumages to aid visual identification throughout the year, while 234 range maps show the birds' distribution and seasonality in Belize. A comprehensive bibliography completes the volume."

The Road to El Cielo: Mexico's Forest in the Clouds

Fred and Marie S. Webster

Drawings: Nancy McGowan

University of Texas Press

2002

"Hidden high in the Sierra de Guatemala mountain range of north-eastern Mexico in the state of Tamaulipas is the northernmost tropical cloud forest of the western hemisphere. Within its humid oak-sweetgum woodlands, tropical and temperate species of plants and animals mingle in rare diversity, creating a mecca for birders and other naturalists. Fred and Marie Webster first visited Rancho del Cielo, cloud forest home of Canadian immigrant Frank Harrison, in 1964, drawn by the opportunity to see such exotic birds as tinamous, trogons, motmots, and woodcreepers only 500 miles from their Austin, Texas, home. In this book, they recount their many adventures as researchers and tour leaders from their base at Rancho del Cielo, interweaving their reminiscences with a history of the region and of the struggle by friends from both sides of the border to have some 360,000 acres of the mountain declared an area protected from exploitation - El Cielo Biosphere Reserve."

Of Birds and Texas

Stuart and Scott Gentling

University of Texas Press

2001

"As John James Audubon's Birds of America was the most magnificent ornithological publication of the nineteenth century, "Of Birds and Texas" may rightfully claim that honour for the twentieth. Originally published in a twenty-three-by-twenty-nine-and-a-half-inch elephant folio limited edition in 1986, this collection of forty exquisitely detailed bird portraits and ten Texas landscapes, with accompanying commentary by the artists Scott Gentling and Stuart Gentling and a personal essay by Texas' most respected writer, John Graves, won widespread acclaim.A. C. Greene praised it as 'the most stunning and prodigious book in Texas history (and possibly forever),' while the "Dallas Morning News" deemed it 'the most magnificent book ever produced in Texas'. This edition is intended to bring "Of Birds and Texas" to a wider audience. Maintaining the high standards of design and production that characterised the limited edition, it amplifies the original publication by including nearly thirty additional bird paintings or remarques, which the Gentling brothers produced for subscribers who helped underwrite the first printing. It also contains a new essay by Stuart Gentling, 'Of Birds and Texas, Audubon and Us,' in which he describes not only how the brothers' deep admiration for John James Audubon led to the creation of this book, but also how their serendipitous discovery of a long-lost Audubon painting saved the project when a lack of funds threatened to end it."

Ecology and Management of Cowbirds and their Hosts

Editor: James N. M. Smith, Terry L. Cook, , Stephen I. Rothstein, Scott K. Robinson, Spencer G. Sealy

2000

"This timely book collects forty essays by most of the principal authorities on the biology and management of cowbirds. The book's goals are to explore the biology of cowbirds, the threats they pose to host species and populations, and the management programs that are being undertaken to minimize these threats. The book is organized into five sections, each with an extended editors' introduction that places the contributions in a broad, up-to-date setting.The sections cover: the changing abundance of cowbirds and the ways in which their numbers can be estimated; host choice by cowbirds, the negative effects of cowbirds on particular host species, and the daily patterns of cowbird behavior; behavioral interactions between cowbirds and specific host species; patterns of cowbird abundance and host use across varying landscapes; and, management programs designed to control cowbirds and protect threatened songbirds."

Wildlife Sanctuaries and the Audubon Society: Places to Hide and Seek

John M. "Frosty" Anderson

University of Texas Press

2000

"National Audubon Society sanctuaries across the United States preserve the unique combinations of plants, climates, soils, and water that endangered birds and other animals require to survive. Their success stories include the recovery of the common and snowy egrets, wood storks, Everglade kites, puffins, and sandhill cranes, to name only a few. In this book, Frosty Anderson describes the development of fifteen NAS sanctuaries from Maine to California and from the Texas coast to North Dakota. Drawn from the newsletter Places to Hide and Seek, which he edited during his tenure as Director/Vice President of the Wildlife Sanctuary Department of the NAS, these profiles offer a personal, often humorous look at the daily and longer-term activities involved in protecting bird habitats. Collectively, they record an era in conservation history in which ordinary people, without benefit of Ph.D.'s, became stewards of the habitats in which they had lived all their lives. It's a story worth preserving, and it's entertainingly told here by the man who knows it best."

Great Texas Birds

John P. O'Neil

University of Texas Press

1999

"What makes any bird a 'great' bird? For some birders, it's the rarity of a species that they've finally added to their life list after years of patient watching. Others will tell you that the great birds are the most beautiful ones. But most people know that the great birds are simply the ones we like the best, rare or common - the ones that have imprinted themselves indelibly on our lives. This beautiful book presents exquisite paintings of forty-eight Texas birds chosen by John O'Neill and Suzanne Winckler as their own personal 'greats'. Some of the birds are as common as they are beloved. Others are definitely life-list birds - rare, beautiful, exotic-sounding, or all three at once. The authors have also gathered a flock of well-known Texas birders and nature writers to offer personal, scientific, or literary observations about each bird. In all, forty-eight writers, one to a bird, are included here. These beautifully detailed paintings and the observations that accompany them make a convincing case that these are, indeed, the great Texas birds. Whether you're a serious birder or simply a backyard bird watcher, you'll find in this book a 'lovely edifice' where people who care about birds can be together."

A Field Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Adjacent Areas: Belize, Guatemala and El Salvador

Ernest Preston Edwards

3rd edition

1998

"More than a thousand species of birds occur in Mexico and in the adjacent countries of Belize, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Of these birds, a unique mixture of temperate-zone and tropical species, less than half are found in the United States, and many cross the border only a short distance into the southwestern states. This practical field guide contains detailed annotations for easy identification of all of Mexico's regular species. The descriptions include the English, Spanish, and Latin names; a general range statement for each bird, along with its specific occurrences in the region; its typical habitat(s) and abundance; and its physical characteristics, including size and plumage. Excellent color plates with drawings of over 850 species make this the most fully illustrated guide to the region. Published by the author in 1972 and 1989, this convenient take-along guide is now totally revised, updated, and re-designed to provide handy assistance and enjoyment to professional ornithologists and amateur birders alike."

Small-headed Flycatcher. Seen Yesterday. He Didn't Leave His Name and other stories

Pete Dunne

University of Texas Press

1998

"This book brings together thirty-two vintage essays that Dunne originally wrote for publications such as "American Birds", "Bird Watcher's Digest", "Birder's World", "Birding", "Living Bird", the New Jersey edition of the "Sunday New York Times", "WildBird", and "Wild Bird News". Encounters with birds rare and common is their shared theme, through which Dunne weaves stories of his family and friends, reflections on the cycles of nature, and portraits of unforgettable birders whose paths have crossed his, ranging from Roger Tory Peterson to a life-battered friend who finds solace in birding. A cliff-hanger story of the bird that got away gives this book its title."

Before the Echo: Essays on Nature

Pete Dunne

University of Texas Press

1995

"In these twenty-nine essays, one of America's top nature writers trains his sights on the beauties and the vulnerabilities of the natural world. Writing to infuse others with a sense of the richness and diversity that nature holds, Pete Dunne ranges over topics from the wonder of the year's first snowfall to the lost art of stargazing to the mysterious forces that impel people to hunt - and not to hunt. Running like a thread through all the essays is Dunne's desire to preserve all that is "natural" in nature, to stop our unthinking destruction of wild places and wild creatures before we humans find ourselves with "the last chair, in an empty room" on an impoverished earth."

The Birds of South America, Volume 2, The Suboscine Passerines

Robert S. Ridgely & Guy Tudor

1994

"The Birds of South America, projected to be a four-volume work, thus fills a critical void. Starting from a museum approach, the authors have examined specimens of each subspecies, comparing them visually and trying to discern the patterns in their plumage variation, both intra- and inter-specifically. They take a new look at bird systematics, reassessing relationships in light of new information. Perhaps most important, they combine this review and analysis with extensive field observations to give an accurate, incisive portrait of the birds in nature. At a time when rapid development is devastating millions of acres of tropical habitat in South America, this record of an endangered resource becomes crucial. If the birds and other plants and animals of South America are to be saved, they must first be known and appreciated."The Birds of South America" is a major step in that direction. Volume II includes: the Ovenbirds and Woodcreepers, Antbirds, Gnatcatchers, and Tapaculos; Tyrant Flycatchers; and Manakins and Cotingas.

More Tales of a Low-Rent Birder

Pete Dunne

Foreword: Kenn Kaufman

University of Texas Press

1994

"More Tales of a Low-Rent Birder brings together twenty-five recent essays that originally appeared in major birding publications. In these pieces, Pete Dunne ranges from wildly humorous to sadly elegiac, as he describes everything from the "field plumage" of the dedicated birder to the lingering death of an accidentally injured golden plover. Running like a thread through all the essays is Dunne's love and respect for the birds he watches, his concern over human threats to their survival, and his tolerance, even affection, for the human "odd birds" that birding attracts. Truly, these essays offer something for everyone interested in birds and the natural habitats our species share."

Tales of a Low-Rent Birder

Pete Dunne

Foreword: Roger Tory Peterson

University of Texas Press

1994

"Tales of a Low-Rent Birder is a collection of nineteen essays and sketches written between 1977 and 1985. It was originally published in 1986."

Birding Mexico, A Guide to Selected Sites

J. Curson

1991

A 70 page guide to birdwatching sites.

Audubon's Great National Work: The Royal Octavo Edition of The Birds of America

Editor: Ron Tyler

1993

"Virtually all of the scholarly attention paid to Audubon has been devoted to the double elephant folio of The Birds, published in Great Britain between 1827 and 1838. But, as Ron Tyler reveals in this ground-breaking study, even before the larger work was completed, Audubon was contemplating a 'petit edition' which would bring his birds to a much larger - and more profitable - audience. This was the royal octavo edition, one of the handsomest publications created in America during the first half of the nineteenth century ….. Ron Tyler offers an engrossing narrative of the "little work's" conception, production, distribution, and reception. He mines a rich store of hitherto neglected sources, including Audubon family account books, newly discovered original drawings for the octavo edition, numerous proofs for the plates, sales records, and personal correspondence, for a fresh look at this important aspect of Audubon's career. This study carefully reconstructs the processes that produced the most popular natural history book of the nineteenth century."

The Birds of South America, Volume 1, The Oscine Passerines

Robert S. Ridgely & Guy Tudor

1989

"The Birds of South America", projected to be a four-volume work, thus fills a critical void. Starting from a museum approach, the authors have examined specimens of each subspecies, comparing them visually and trying to discern the patterns in their plumage variation, both intra- and inter-specifically.They take a new look at bird systematics, reassessing relationships in light of new information. Perhaps most important, they combine this review and analysis with extensive field observations to give an accurate, incisive portrait of the birds in nature. At a time when rapid development is devastating millions of acres of tropical habitat in South America, this record of an endangered resource becomes crucial. If the birds and other plants and animals of South America are to be saved, they must first be known and appreciated."The Birds of South America" is a major step in that direction. Volume I includes the Jays and Swallows; Wrens, Thrushes, and Allies; Vireos and Wood-warblers; Tanagers, Icterids, and Finches.

A Field Guide to the Birds of Mexico

Ernest Preston Edwards

1972

300 pages with 24 colour plates.

Field Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Central America

Louie Irby Davis

1972

264 pages.