The Birdwatcher's Companion to North American Birdlife

Adrian Barnett, New Scientist
"the essential adjunct to field guide and binoculars for anyone serious about North American birds".

Jim Williams , Minneapolis Star Tribune
A wonderful book that I highly recommend. . . . I’ve had the original, encyclopedic book for years and couldn’t do without it.

Scott Shalaway, Pittsburgh Post Gazette
"Encyclopedic in breadth and form, this 1,039-page tome is an essential reference for every serious birder".

Marina Tidwell, Birding Business
" an encyclopedic reference book, is filled with fascinating facts and scintillating comments".

Review
One of the best books ever written on birds and birding. this reference work is not only comprehensive and accurate, but also vastly entertaining. A virtuoso performance.

Book Description
The quintessential A-Z guide, this is a book that anyone interested in birds will want to have close at hand. First published more than twenty years ago, this highly respected reference volume has been fully revised and updated. It captures the fundamental details as well as the immense fascination of North American bird life in a style that is authoritative, yet fresh, witty, and eminently readable. Both a practical handbook for amateurs and a handy reference for seasoned birders, it provides accounts of the basic elements of birdlife, as well as a wealth of easy-to-access information on such subjects as bird physiology and anatomy, terms and jargon, name definitions and etymology, and ornithological groupings. Readers will discover everything from the color of a dipper's eggs (glossy, white, and unmarked) to the number of species of woodpeckers in the world (216). They will also find more than one hundred of the best-known and most colorful colloquial names for birds, alphabetized and briefly defined. Collective nouns relating to birdlife--for example, "an exaltation of larks"--are included in the "Nouns of Assemblage" section. Biographical sketches of persons responsible for describing or naming a significant number of North American species are also included, as well as handsome and accurate illustrations by Gordon Morrison. And for those who want to go beyond reading about their favorite birds and take to the great outdoors, the book offers still more useful information: descriptive entries on a selection of the best-known birdwatching spots of North America.

From the Inside Flap
"Leahy describes everything ornithological, from the simple to the complex, with both accuracy and wit. Find answers to your questions or just simply read--either way, the book is a joy!"--Rick Bonney, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology "If Roger Tory Peterson's Field Guide to the Birds was birdwatching's Rosetta Stone, this book is birding's Magna Carta."--Pete Dunne, New Jersey Audubon Society and Cape May Bird Observatory

About the Author
Christopher W. Leahy holds the Gerard A. Bertrand Chair of Natural History and Field Ornithology at the Massachusetts Audubon Society. He is the author of "The Nature of Massachusetts" and "First Guide to Insects".


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Readers will discover everything from the color of a dipper's eggs (glossy, white, and unmarked) to the number of species of woodpeckers in the world (216). One hundred of the best-known and most colorful colloquial names for birds are presented alphabetically and briefly defined. Collective nouns relating to birdlife -- for example, "an exaltation of larks" -- are included in the "Nouns of Assemblage" section. Biographical sketches of persons responsible for describing or naming a significant number of North American species are also included, as well as handsome and accurate illustrations by Gordon Morrison. And for those who want to go beyond reading about their favorite birds and take to the great outdoors, the book offers still more useful information: descriptive entries on a selection of the best-known birdwatching spots of North America.


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