The Eyrie

Book Review: Imperial Dreams

 

By Alexandria Simpson

Imperial Dreams—just the title of Tim Gallagher’s new book is enough to create an alluring picture in the imagination. Add the fact the bird, Imperial Woodpecker, is thought to be extinct and you find a recipe for not only an exciting dream, but also a true story full of adventure. 

Birders may remember Mr. Gallagher’s quest for the Imperial’s relative, Ivory-billed Woodpecker, in the Louisiana swamps, but this tale makes that adventure seem like an innocent day birding. Encounters with narcotraficantes (drug growers), AK-47s, and bombs, hikes of miles up and down steep canyons and mountains, and a scary incident with dehydration create drama in this exciting expedition. Make no mistake; this isn’t your average birding trip, or even a good twitch. Danger could be waiting at every bend in the road and behind every tree. So who would be crazy enough to attempt looking for a probably extinct bird in spite of the peril? Only a hardcore birder, aware of, but not bothered by risk.

At least at the start of the quest, Mr. Gallagher thought the bird was worthy of this kind of dedication and risk. A large black bird sporting a long, ivory-colored bill, white wings, and a tall, curved crest—red for males, black for females—certainly makes them majestic, just as their name suggests. 

Throughout the story, not only is the history of the work of scientists searching for Imperial Woodpeckers (or Imperials) woven in, but the history of the area is, as well. Various peoples of ancient Mexico attached legends to the bird:  for example, the Huichol believed the bird protected the sun during its first day and was permitted to wear a scarlet crest because of its bravery. Imperials, known as pitoreales to Spanish speakers, are specialists in old growth pine forests; this is where the problem started—this timber is what loggers desired. Between this habitat loss and hunting, Imperials became rare, with only a few unconfirmed sightings after the 1970s. 

Being a history buff, I enjoyed the historical background, but some readers may not. The author sometimes digresses with personal stories that are not directly related to the book’s topic, which could be irritating to some; I, however, liked them, as I am curious about people’s life experiences.

Before embarking upon his search, the author interviewed old ranchers and others who had seen the bird before it disappeared. His results were mixed: some people could not be located; others had poor memories, but several remembered well the big woodpecker. After gleaning what he could from humans, he, along with a few other researchers and guides, finally began hiking and climbing the Sierra Madres and between 2009 and 2010, he explored various locations in Mexico. 

At each potential site, one of the group would make tapping sounds to attract any woodpeckers that might be in the area. Although no one knew for sure if Imperials made this sound, other members of its family tap this way, so it was hoped Imperials did as well. Time and again, they continued without success. 

Unsuccessful attempts at locating the bird weren’t their only complication. During treks to find untouched Imperial habitat, patches of illegally planted opium poppies were common in cleared areas, and landowners quickly steered the group around them. After one expedition, the escort who accompanied them through the more dangerous areas was not there to meet them, and villagers hadn’t seen him in two days. The researchers were told just to continue on their journey and hope for the best, which, after much discussion, they decided to do. Though Mr. Gallagher often speaks of danger, it never seemed to really strike him that his life was actually at stake. Embarking on this last expedition of the quest, the author stashed his memory cards, notebook, and passport in his pockets, hoping if bandits did attack, at least the trip wouldn’t be in vain. He writes “…if the worst possible thing happened…my body would be identifiable from my passport, and my wife might receive my notes, recordings, and photographs…Maybe she could finish this book for me.” Fortunately, though they encountered many burned homes that had been standing two weeks before, they reached Durango, where they would fly out safely.

This last incident becomes the climax where Mr. Gallagher realizes that it was “time to pass the baton of searching for the imperial woodpecker to others,” and warns those who may want to follow in his footsteps “…you stand a far better chance of getting killed in the Sierra Madre now than of ever seeing a pitoreal.”

The ending invoked a mixed reaction. I was disappointed because after all the danger, preparation, and research there are no results to show for the effort; I guess I was looking for a “happily-ever-after” ending, with even a small population of Imperial Woodpeckers found alive and well in some remote part of the Sierra Madres. However, it was also inspiring because it meant that the potential to be the one to find these beautiful birds is still there. When (or if) the political situation becomes more stable, I would love to join the quest. 

All-around, Imperial Dreams is a great addition to the birder’s bookshelf. Though we aren’t certain that the Imperial Woodpecker still exists, perhaps one young birder who reads this book will be motivated to pick up where Tim Gallagher left off and rediscover this regal bird surviving away from human eyes.

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About the author: Alexandria Simpson is an avid, sixteen-year-old birder from Santa Anna, Texas. While she wishes she could say she has been birding all of her life, instead she has spent the last four years making up for lost time. She wants to become an ornithologist and someday read scientific papers without falling asleep. Her photography, illustrations, and writings have won awards at local, state, and national levels.

Book Review: Bird Sense: What It’s Like to Be a Bird, by Tim Birkhead

By Alexandria Simpson

What is it like to be a bird? It’s a question that’s been asked for centuries, and it’s still somewhat of a mystery. The answer may very well seem to be, “You have to be a bird.” We can only really imagine what it’s like to stoop at incredible speeds like a Peregrine Falcon, dive down into dark, icy water like a penguin, or feel the urge to migrate south. But even if we can’t feel the way a bird does, we can still learn how their senses work, especially with new technology and knowledge. The new book, Bird Sense: What It’s Like to Be a Bird, by British ornithologist, Tim Birkhead, will help on this quest.

Everybody knows that humans possess five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Birds also possess all these senses, along with magnetic sense, but like us, they seem to rely mostly on sight and hearing. Since they use their eyes and ears so much, as Mr. Birkhead points out, we tend to think that they don’t smell, touch, or taste, though they do. He goes onto say that we often comprehend things by our own standards and limitations, in order to understand. This makes truly understanding how they live difficult, but, with the aid of technology, we can comprehend easier.

Sight, the first sense explored in this book, is one of a bird’s best senses. If you compare bird eyes to mammal eye, you will find that birds do have larger eyes relative to the size of their skull. The reason for this is fairly obvious: they have to avoid hitting objects while in flight, are mostly active during daylight hours, and their prey is usually fast, or camouflaged, or both. Size is important, too: the larger the eye, the larger the retina, the better you can see. The author compares it to television screens; an image is much better on a 36-inch screen than on a 12-inch because there are more pixels available to make up the image.

Next the author addresses hearing, a bird’s second most important sense. Unlike humans, birds don’t have a pinna, or external ear; the function of the pinna is to help collect sound, but having one wouldn’t be aerodynamic in flight. Birds seem to have made up for this lack because they still have excellent hearing. Another difference is that birds replace their cochlea (a space filled with fluid that has a membrane where fine hairs grow) often, while humans don’t; once we damage these hairs, they are permanently damaged. Ever wonder if any nocturnal birds use echolocation like bats? A few species actually do! Scientists were able to prove this by stopping up the birds’ ears. The birds would send out clicking sounds, but since they weren’t able to hear the clicks bounce back, they would fly into walls.

As far as touch is concerned, birds’ beaks are much like our fingers: very sensitive to touch because they have many nerve endings. This is especially true for dabbling ducks, parrots, and other birds that rely on their bills to find food. If you open a duck’s beak, you will notice that tiny pores surround the edge and if you could look at them under a magnifying glass, you could see a papilla (a group of about twenty to thirty microscopic nerve endings) extends from each pore. These are the reason that ducks are so effective at straining out food items from pond muck and mud.

Who says birds can’t taste? Birds do have comparatively few taste buds, around 400 to 500 with Japanese Quail have the fewest of species studied—only 60!—when judged against humans who have 10,000. Despite this, they can still distinguish the same tastes that we can: salt, sour, bitter, and sweet. Hummingbirds can taste the amount of sugar in nectar and fruit-eating birds certainly distinguish between ripe and unripe fruit. But probably the best-known example is of Blue Jays refusing to eat Monarch butterflies because they taste bitter.

And what about smell? According to Mr. Birkhead, many ornithologists do not like hearing that birds can smell. “Ask any of them and they’ll turn up their noses and say no, there’s not much going on in the olfactory department of a bird’s brain,” he notes. The Father of American Ornithology, Mr. John James Audubon himself, was the one to start this myth. Experiments in subsequent years were conducted, but they seemed to prove that birds couldn’t smell. Even when scientists did other tests that proved the contrary, these results were ignored. It wasn’t until 1950 Betsy Bang, a medical illustrator at Johns Hopkins University, proved that birds most certainly did have a sense of smell. As she dissected and drew birds’ respiratory systems, she couldn’t understand how animals with good-sized nasal cavities couldn’t smell. She performed experiments to help prove this fact. Since then, there have been other studies that prove this fact. In spite of this evidence, some scientists still have a difficult time accepting the idea that birds do have a sense of smell.

How do birds find their way to and fro from their winter grounds to their breeding grounds? For centuries, people have wondered this. Releasing seabirds like shearwaters many miles from their nests and documenting their return straight home seemed to prove they had some kind of navigating instinct. After many, many years of research, it was discovered birds did indeed have an internal magnetic compass. Not only that, birds have a “magnetic map” which works somewhat like a GPS system, the author says. Instead of satellites, though, birds rely on the earth’s magnetic field. Even birds that don’t migrate, like chickens, have this magnetic sense.

The author also discusses avian emotions. Afraid that they would be attaching human qualities and sentiments to birds, most scientists, and many birders, don’t like to think of birds as having emotions. As Mr. Birkhead writes, there is a “difficulty of trying to imagine how the mere firing of neurons can create a sense of awareness or feelings of discomfort or euphoria.” Just as we don’t always understand how a person is feeling, we can’t understand what feelings a bird possesses.

One of the features I liked best about this book was the fact the author does not just tell you what we now know about bird senses; he describes how we came to that knowledge, over the years, a few times going all the way back to the ancient Greeks. Despite the fact it deals with some fairly technical information, it is easy to read and understand. I enjoy learning about all aspects of birds and birding, but I must admit: I’m drawn to scientific research. I think birders who, like me, enjoy reading about scientific studies and discoveries, will find this book a must-read. Perhaps we don’t possess magnetic sense like birds do, but we are attracted to them like metal to magnet.

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About the author: Alexandria Simpson is an avid, sixteen-year-old birder from Santa Anna, Texas. While she wishes she could say she has been birding all of her life, instead she has spent the last four years making up for lost time. She wants to become an ornithologist and someday read scientific papers without falling asleep. Her photography, illustrations, and writings have won awards at local, state, and national levels.

Larkwire Master Birder: An iPhone App review

by Sarah Toner

NOTE: This app offers a variety of versions with different song packs available for Apple devices, mainly iPhone and iPod. The computer version has the same song packs but is played on the internet, so you can play it on anything that has an internet connection. This review is for the iPhone Master Birder version.

Learning birdsong used to be a challenging endeavor. Before the days of recordings and field guides, the only way to learn bird songs was to track down the bird and ID it. Field guides brought written descriptions of bird songs, but these are poor substitutes for the real song. Once recordings came along, people could hear and learn bird calls without having to find the bird. CDs such as Peterson’s Birding by Ear and the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs are still some of the most popular ways to study songs and calls. In addition, MP3 players can store hundreds of bird songs and calls, and most smart phone field guide apps also integrate songs. However, many of these recordings are sorted taxonomically, like field guides, rather than being sorted by how the birds sound. Winter Wren may be next to Sedge Wren on the CD, but the two birds sound radically different. Baltimore Orioles, American Robins, and Scarlet Tanagers sound similar, but they are in three different families, scattered throughout the song pack. With the taxonomic method, comparing the songs of any species is difficult unless you sort all 700 ABA area bird species into their own song groups.

Finally, with Larkwire, a new bird song learning app, Michael O’Brien, Phil Mitchell, and Mark Johnston have done that sorting for you.

Part trivia game, part serious learning, Larkwire teaches users by narrowing bird songs into groups that slowly expand to include every species. As the introduction to the app notes, learning these songs is still a matter of weeks and months, but Larkwire makes it efficient, logical, and fun. The game seems to be endlessly customizable: you can vary which and how many groups you play, which level of difficulty you play, whether to choose field vs. gallery mode, and whether to review groups or learn new ones. Groups such as “Robin-like” and “Warblers 2: Squeaky Wheels,” range from two to sixteen or more birds in each group. You can select your own groups or let the program select them for you.

Once you’ve selected groups, there are two ways you can play. The gallery allows you to learn the songs by narrowing them down to four species at a time. The field mode is more like birding in the field; it plays you a song and you have to come up with the name yourself. You can choose gallery or field mode in the settings, or let Larkwire decide for you. Larkwire automatically gives you gallery mode to learn a group, and switches to field mode to review that group.

In the gallery mode, Larkwire lets you review the songs of the four species and then plays a song for you to match to the correct species. Incorrect answers dock points from both your answer and the correct one. Once you have five points for all of the birds, you’ve completed the gallery and can replay it, start on a new group, or refill the gallery with more birds from that group.

Gallery mode

The field mode has a twist: it relies on your honesty to gauge your progress. It plays you a song from the selected group(s), and you have to answer whether you know it. It then shows you the correct answer, and you indicate whether you were correct. Larkwire then uses your answers to determine which species you need to study more.

Field mode

The level of difficulty is one of my favorite features of Larkwire. In four steps, from beginner to master, Larkwire increases the number of groups and species you have to study. As you increase your skill level, Larkwire presents you with more challenging comparisons and more species to learn and choose from.

Phew! You’ve finally worked your way through all twenty-eight groups in the Intermediate level. But what’s this? Larkwire suggests that you review Robin-like songs?? Hopefully, you’ve learned, in school and life, that you can’t just cram a hundred songs into your head in one setting and expect to remember all of them. When you haven’t studied a group for a while, Larkwire recommends that you review it. Even if you‘ve got the “Warblers 2: Squeaky Wheels” down pat, if you learned them in July, you’ll probably have forgotten them by the time Black-and-white Warblers arrive next April. The reviewing section of Larkwire supports constant maintenance of your memory’s birdsong library.

This app is excellent, with only a few limitations. Because Larkwire tracks an individual’s progress, anyone else who wants to use it has to buy it separately. My mother wants to learn the bird songs using Larkwire, but she’s at the Beginner level and I’m at the Advanced, and if she used my app, she’d skew my progress. Therefore, the ability to have separate accounts within the app would help. Also, as you might have noticed, there are 700+ breeding species in the ABA area but only 344 species in the Master birder app. Obviously, gulls and other species that don’t sing are excluded, but the app is missing a few birds that sing, such American Bittern. Least Bittern is included because it sounds like Black-billed Cuckoo; Wilson’s Snipe is the only shorebird included, because it sounds similar to Boreal Owl. Finally, the app is exclusively for learning songs and important calls. It won’t help you learn warbler and sparrow chip notes, thrush calls, or night flight calls. However, the Larkwire process could be applied to these calls once they were grouped and recordings were obtained. I smell a sequel...

If you want it downloaded onto your iPhone, Larkwire offers different song packs, from backyard birder (25 species based on your state/province) to Master Birder, with 344 species. Backyard birder is $3.25, Birder Core (with the essential land birds for East or West versions) is $8.95, Birder Pro is $16.95 for either the Eastern or Western version, and Master birder is $24.95 for all the songs.

 

If all of these customizations and modes seem complicated, you can experience the app for yourself on Larkwire’s website, using the free trial of the computer version. Try out the glossary, research the text, and play around with gallery and field modes. Larkwire’s website also has articles about how to get the most out of Larkwire and extra information explaining Larkwire on their website. You can purchase the app from the iTunes store.

Overall, Larkwire is a great app that can be used to learn bird songs and continue year-round to refresh your memory of birdsongs. I’d highly recommend it.

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About the author: Sarah Toner, 15, has been birding since she was 8. She lives in southeast Michigan but wants to move to beautiful Whitefish Point, Michigan. She doesn't have one favorite bird, but likes drab, brown northern birds such as Clay-colored Sparrow, Boreal Chickadee, and Rough-legged Hawk. She was a member of the 2011 ABA Tropicbirds team in Texas and attended the 2011 Camp Colorado. Sarah also received first place in the 10-13 year-old writing division and third place in the illustration division of the 2010 ABA Young Birder of the Year contest.

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Birding with Technology

Book Review: How To Be A Better Birder, by Derek Lovitch

By Alexandria Simpson

“No matter what level of birder you are, or think you are, there is always more to learn…”  Derek Lovitch reminds us of this fact in his new book, How to Be a Better Birder. Of course, being out in the field observing is one of the valuable ways to increase birding skills, but many times a book can serve as a catalyst to greatly expand birding abilities. One of the author’s main points is the “Whole Bird and More” approach—looking at the bird, what habitat it’s in, and what it’s doing. The second is learning to make the most of today’s resources, knowledge, and technology.

Lovitch does not claim the information, tips, and advice in his book to be the only ways to become a better birder. His goal is simply to introduce birders to new methods, ways of thinking, and other disciplines to help you dig deeper and grow as a birder. He doesn’t even define what a better birder is: “So while I hesitate to define just what being a ‘better birder’ really is, my goal with this book is to give some helpful hints, spur additional study, and simply provide some information that we can apply to our own birding in pursuit of becoming better birders, whatever that means to you.”

How to Be a Better Birder is divided into these basic approaches to birding:

• Whole Bird
• Birding by Habitat
• Birding by Geography
• Birding by Weather
• Birding at Night
• Birding With a Purpose
• Lovitch then discusses vagrants, patch listing, and gives a case study.     

First is the “Whole Bird and More” approach. The author points out several examples of the details we usually use to identify birds that cannot always be seen, but instead of seeing a familiar bird close up, identifying it, and moving on, he recommends pausing to study the entire bird. Learning how to narrow a bird down to genus, by aspects like behavior and shape, is also very important to becoming a better birder. He suggests several books for the birder’s library to expand your “Whole Bird” approach as well.

Birding by habitat is spotlighted next. This may sound like, “Duh, I won’t look for a Sanderling in a heavily wooded area.” However, the kind of birding by habitat Lovitch discusses is much more specific. Is identifying Empidonax flycatchers usually a nightmare for you? It certainly is for me! Well, he provides tips on learning specific habitats to make it easier to identify. This approach does not work for migrating birds, but is very helpful for wintering and breeding birds. Of course, you have to learn trees and shrubs, and he recommends several books for different areas of the US.

Closely linked to birding by habitat is birding with geography. Again, most birders use this in varying degrees, knowing the birding “hot spots”. Lovitch talks about why Cape May is such a great birding location, and then helps you use these aspects on a local level (near your home).   Also discussed is the importance of familiarity with bird distribution and seasonal status on all levels:  local, regional, and continental.    

Birding with weather can be one of the most spectacular ways to bird:  think “migrant “fallout”. When I was fairly new to birding, I witnessed this on South Padre Island, Texas. I added at least 20 species to my life list in about 30 minutes. By studying weather reports, birders can find any storms blowing against the migrants and get ready to do some great birding. 

The book further explains how to make the most of birding at night. For example, bright ground lights often distract migrating birds, so going outside on a calm night during migration can reward you with excellent views.

The chapter on “birding with a purpose” helps both you and the birds. Most birders will probably never be able to earn a living birding. By participating in citizen science projects such as eBird, Christmas Bird Counts, Project FeederWatch, Great Backyard Bird Counts, and Breeding Bird Surveys, you can help scientists see patterns of bird distribution. You can also have your own projects such as learning every song and call of your area, or taking photographs of all the birds on your life list.

The last part of the book discusses applying all these approaches to birding your “home area”. How many of us really spend time in one small area nearby, taking notes and learning what is there? I’m often guilty of wishing I lived in a birding “hot spot” again. Picking an area easily combed in a short time and taking time to thoroughly learn it is a great way to actually learn the birds. As an added benefit, thoroughly knowing a small area and its bird species means that you are more likely to spot rarities when they show up! Also, learning how to find and document rarities and predict them from what other people are seeing in states around you are just a few of his excellent points.

How to Be a Better Birder offers something for all levels of birders. All that is needed is the desire to improve your birding skills. Because each chapter can stand alone, you can read this book cover to cover or choose a chapter that sounds most interesting. I feel the author achieved his goal of helping me become a better birder.

I’m off to apply the “Whole Bird and More” Approach to my birding today!

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About the author: Alexandria Simpson is an avid, sixteen-year-old birder from Santa Anna, Texas. While she wishes she could say she has been birding all of her life, instead she has spent the last four years making up for lost time. She wants to become an ornithologist and someday read scientific papers without falling asleep. Her photography, illustrations, and writings have won awards at local, state, and national levels. She currently serves as one of the student blog editors for The Eyrie.

 

A Book Review: Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America

By John Shamgochian

Born in 1908 Roger Tory Peterson lived his life as a super birder, creating his first guide in 1934. A Field Guide to the Birds (east of the Rockies) was an instant success; the 2,000 copies sold out in the first 2 weeks. The reason his guide was so popular was probably due to the fact that no one had ever created anything like what Peterson created. It was the world's first field guide. That guide was the foundation of all modern field guides. Peterson died in 1987, but his legacy and his books live on.

The newest edition to his classic guide was published by Houghton Mifflin in 2008. The guide was updated by a number of famed birders, who added new range maps, 40 new paintings and new text by renowned bird artists and authors, and digitally updated paintings. As well as new editions to the eastern and western guides, the publisher also came out with a new guide to all the birds of North America, which I review here.

The Great
This guide is arranged in the classic order, with paintings on right and text and some extremely detailed maps on the left. One of my favorite things about this guide are the statuses which are given next to the English and scientific names, above the body of the text blocks. The status describes how common each species is in North America (e.g., "Fairly common," "Uncommon" etc.)

Next to the status is a large letter "M" and then a number. The "M" stands for map and the number matches up to the number on the map. Now you may be wondering why the maps need a number if they are right next to the text. The answer is simple: there are, in fact, two maps for each species (excluding vagrants). In addition to the map that accompanies the text, the authors also provide a second map as an appendix in the back of the book. In addition to being much larger, these second maps also include notes on the likelihood of vagrancy to other parts of the country and details about migration and other range related things. These pages are nicely arranged and very educational to flip through.

There are a number of excellent plates demonstrating birds in flight. These plates show the bird on the right-hand page, while the left-hand page provides descriptions of their different wing plumages.

Sizes of the birds are given under the name. Descriptions are very informative, discussing habitat, voice, and similar species. This guide also contains many rarities and vagrants, as well as introduced species.

Before every family of birds are a few interesting and useful lines describing the family. For example, after reading the section about corvids, I learned that they are found worldwide, with the exception of southern South America, something I never would have been able to tell you before.

This guide has a very nice illustrated introduction on identifying birds, very useful for any beginning birder. Before the introduction on page number one is a one-page index, which lists bird families in alphabetical order from Albatrosses to Yellowthroats. 

In the back of the book, squeezed tightly between the range maps and the index, is a "Life List" that follows the ABA checklist. This list contains more species than the book. The book does not mention Xantus's Hummingbird, for example, due to its code 5 status in the ABA area (code 5 birds are accidental, or species that have been recorded five or fewer times in the ABA Checklist Area, or which have fewer than three records in the past 30 years). The Life List section of the new Peterson field guide, however, includes this bird and many other species which the main text of the book lacks.

The very last few pages of the field guide are taken up with one of my favorite sections of the whole book: silhouettes. There are three separate spreads. The first depicts a black and white shore filled with water loving species. The second shows a mixed flock of birds in flight (26 species are silhouetted). On the last spread is a colorless painting of a country roadside, showing 32 different species. These are fun pages to use for quizzing yourself by covering up the list of species names and practicing identification.

The OK
The gulls are separated into two sections; adults and immatures. This may require you to flip around a bit more in order to be able to correctly identify a bird.

The paintings, while not completely stunning (in general), are very useful for tough identifications. All the field marks are pointed out with black arrows and many of the birds are shown in flight. Generally, species are shown in a few different plumages.

The bottom edge of each page is colored in order to help the reader find the birds with more speed. For example all the shorebirds are color tabbed olive green. To me, this doesn't seem like it would be all that useful.

The Bad
My only real problem with this guide is that it is very big. It would be hard to carry a book like this out into the field with you unless you bring a backpack.

Summary
I would recommend this guide to any birder, though I think it would be better for a beginning birder to start out with a smaller guide, which is easier to take out into the field.

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About the author: John Shamgochian, 12, is from East Providence, Rhode Island. His  favorite birding spots include: "The Meadows" in Cape May, Plum Island in Ipswich Massachusetts, Monomoy in Chatham, Massachusetts , and Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, Rhode Island. John is one of The Eyrie's Student Blog Editors. Check out more of his writing on his blog: http://johnsbirdingblog.blogspot.com/.

 

Book Review: Birds of the Middle East

“Always accept a cup of tea, unless you are going to miss your flight home, and even if you don’t take sugar.” –Birds of the Middle East, Code of Conduct, p. 13

 

 
 Palestine Sunbird, Cinnyris Osea, found in Israel, western Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and southern Oman

 

Recently released by Princeton University Press, the second edition of Birds of the Middle East by Richard Porter and Simon Aspinall is a must-have for birders wishing to visit the Arabian Peninsula, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, or Cyprus. The guide covers over 800 species, arranged with color plates on the right and text on the left. The text includes physical descriptions and descriptions of habitat and voice. Range maps are displayed directly to the left of the text and specify whether the species is a resident, migrant breeder, or seen in passage/winter only.

This field guide became my faithful companion on my recent ten day trip to Israel, where I visited Haifa and Akka (also called Akko). The format of the guide is reminiscent of National Geographic’s Field Guide to the Birds of North America, and I found it easy to use because of this familiarity. Also of note is a table comparing various aspects (wing-tips, bill, leg color, and status) of large white-headed gulls. Although I did not have much time to pick through gulls along the Mediterranean, I would imagine this table is immensely helpful in narrowing down gull identifications.

Perhaps least helpful were the vocal descriptions. They were minimal and often included phrases comparing the song to another species, which isn’t too helpful if you’re not familiar with most of the species in the Middle East. That said, the authors acknowledge the “limitations of phonetic transcription” (12). They suggest acquiring a sound guide or using internet recordings.

I highly recommend this field guide to any birder, beginner or advanced, visiting the Middle East. Most of the plates are true to life and the physical description thorough. More importantly, the information is packaged in a user-friendly format.

Book Review: Nightjars of the World

A Book Review of Nigel Cleere’s Nightjars of the World, Princeton University Press

 

            Nightjars are among the strangest birds in the world. Though cryptically colored and nocturnal, they are not an owl and their habits are vastly different. Indeed, seeing my first nighthawk is one of my most memorable birding experiences. I was thirteen and participating in a twilight hike at a nature center near Colorado Springs. I saw the boomerang-shaped wings of a shadow and the leader promptly identified it as a Common Nighthawk. At the end of the hike, each participant was asked what they enjoyed most about the hike. Many named the fawns or Great-horned Owl. But the fast-flying nighthawk with an insect-like chirp remained in the forefront of my mind.

            Related to nighthawks are potoos, frogmouths, owlet-nightjars, and the oilbird, all members of the order Caprimulgiformes. In his book Nightjars of the World, Nigel Cleere brings to nightjar enthusiasts a wealth of information concerning these ghouls of the night. The book features over 580 photographs and species accounts for all 135 known species of nightjars, including species which have not been seen since their original discovery. Looking through the color rich photographs and ample text, the reader also realizes how much has yet to be learned about these bizarre birds. For many of the species, downy chicks have never been described and breeding dates are estimations yet to be detailed out. No doubt their nocturnal habits and cryptic plumage make them among the most difficult species to research.

            The book begins with information on distribution, plumage, taxonomy, and general biology of the Caprimulgiformes. Here Cleere offers a variety of information for all levels of interests. In these pages, Cleere explains the function of a nightjar’s cryptic, variegated, or spotted plumage, the distribution of the various families across the seven continents, breeding biology, and much more, sprinkled with interesting facts. For example, the Oilbird is one of the few birds known to hunt by echolocation. Their chicks gain so much fat in the nest that local people would collect the chicks and boil them to extract the fat to use as oil (hence the name oilbird). The book also includes a section on the breeding habits of Caprimulgiformes, including photos of the eggs, nests, and chicks of a few species. Here Cleere states that nest sites and/ or eggs of 29 species remains completely unknown.

            I highly recommend this book for birders at any level who find themselves lured to the obscure members of the order Caprimulgiformes. Even those of casual interest will find fascinating the large, full-color photographs of wide-eyed nightjars and frogmouths or potoos blending in perfectly with a vertical branch.  

Book Review: Birds of Europe

 

Compact, beautifully illustrated, and crammed with information, the Princeton Field Guide second edition of Birds of Europe is a wonderful resource for any birder planning to visit Europe. That said, I don’t plan to visit Europe soon. And I’m sure many young birders would rather visit South America first. So why would you or I be interested in this guide?

 

As an avid young birder who dreams of the world outside her own North American bubble, my shelves are full of exotic field guides: Mexico, Costa Rica, Africa, Australia. I wait for the day when I can visit these places and learn about habitats and birdlife different from my “usual”. I’ve been told Europe’s not exactly a birding hotspot, but perusing the plates of this field guide awakens my curiosity. The salmon-bellied Bullfinch, the petite baby-faced Robin, bee-eaters splashed in blue and green. Yes: I want to visit Europe, too.

 

This field guide is set up similarly to the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, with text on the left page and plates on the right. Lines are drawn directly on the plates to point out key features of each bird: a red throat, a blue shoulder patch. Range maps are arranged at the bottom of the left page. The paragraphs of information on each bird are sprinkled with snippets of trivia. For example, the Swedish colloquial name for Pine Grosbeak is “silly fool”, because in the winter Pine Grosbeaks act “quite fearless”. Many of the plates are accompanied by illustrations of the bird in habitat, often demonstrating a commonly observed behavior, such as perched up on a rock or singing on a reed. I would imagine these illustrations are particularly helpful, giving the plates context (after all, we never see a bird as they appear in a plate, perfectly posed on stark white paper ;)

 

Although useful and interesting, the vast amount of text and information crammed onto each page is overwhelming. The text is small, and some may need to squint to read it. Creating a compact field guide with all the necessary information inevitably calls for a compromise in space. Readers may find themselves digging through the text for the information they want fast. In the field, I bring my Sibley guide so that I can whip it out and quickly check a field mark or vocalization. Birds of Europe is the kind of book I would leave at home and check later.

 

It’s hard to beat North America’s concise Sibley guide, but Lars Svensson’s lengthy descriptions have their plus side, too. The thorough notes on nesting behavior, song, and habitat preferences are captivating. I highly recommend this book, whether you plan to visit Europe or just enjoy perusing through field guides of the world.

Book Review: Small-headed Flycatcher

By Neil Gilbert

 

You can’t go wrong with Pete Dunne. He’s one of my favorite authors; I’ve been reading his books since I was ten. That’s why, upon receiving a gift certificate to Bueto Books, I ordered Small-headed Flycatcher. It was one of the few books by Dunne that I had not read.

Like several of Dunne’s other books, Small-headed Flycatcher is a collection of essays about birds, birding, and birders. With his usual creativity, Dunne infuses his stories with wit and humor. Dunne has a way of presenting serious topics from a humorous angle. For example, in “Separating Hoagies,” Dunne approaches the delicate topic of rare bird committees—by comparing rare birds to sandwiches.

 

Young birders appear frequently in Small-headed Flycatcher. I found it fascinating to read about Dunne as a young birder, as many of his experiences matched those of modern young birders. I could relate to several of his stories. For example, I’ve had encounters with condescending older birders just like in the story “Passing Sights and Sounds,” in which a penniless young birder has to tolerate a rich older birder who…

I shouldn’t spoil it for you.

   

Small-headed Flycatcher has my solid recommendation. Hardly surprising. I knew it would be good before I even cracked it open; after all, you can’t go wrong with Pete Dunne. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy—and try to read it faster than I did (two days.)

Book Review: Wild America

By Neil Gilbert

Chronicles of big years (quests by birders to see as many species of birds as possible in a calendar year) abound. My favorites include Kingbird Highway, by Kenn Kaufman, The Big Year, by Mark Obmascik, and The Big Twitch, by Sean Dooley.  Many consider Wild America, by Roger Tory Peterson and his British colleague James Fisher, to be the original big year book. The journey describes Fisher’s first visit to America and throughout the book we see Fisher’s excitement as he explores a new country with new birds. I would argue that Wild America isn’t really a book about a big year at all, but rather the diary of two intrepid naturalists on an epic road trip across the continent. Indeed, the cover describes the book as “The Legendary Story of Two Great Naturalists on the Road.”  Regardless of its genre, Wild America is a classic tale that should be read by anyone interested in nature.

 

Peterson and Fisher make their trip in 1953. Beginning in Newfoundland, they roughly follow the perimeter of the North American continent, ending up on the Pribilof Islands of the Bering Sea. During their trip, spanning three months, the pair bird deserts, mountains, marshes, open ocean, rain forest, and every other imaginable habitat. In addition to birds, they study and photograph mammals, reptiles, rocks, butterflies, and anything else they come across. In other words, they were superb all-around naturalists.

           

The two men take turns narrating; the book is split roughly half-and-half between their writings. Reading the book offers a unique opportunity to glimpse what birding was like over a half-century ago, before the advent of rare bird alerts, bird-finding guides, cell phones, and other gadgets that are widely used among modern birders. They relied on Roger’s field guide and knowledge of North American avifauna, as well as advice from park rangers, friends, and guides.  Every time I re-read Wild America I wish I could have been there to roam the continent with them. I highly encourage anyone with an interest in birds to skip over to the local library and check it out. It may be wiser to simply purchase the book, since you will find yourself returning to re-read your favorite chapters.