Birds Books

Great training for the owner, as well as, the pet bird. Well thought out and presented. Easy to follow, well paced approaches to basic training and a wake-up call for those of us who's been around birds all our lives. Ann Castro breaks down birds' psychological behaviors and shows you great ways to work with them so that you and your bird are both happy! I've owned pet birds for over 40 years and was amazed at the answers I got from this book. Thanks Ann, a book long over due!

Whether you're interested in getting into clicker training or an experienced trainer, I highly recommend this book. It explains the basics clearly and concisely, and presents many very useful behaviors with step-by-step training plans for how to teach them to your birds. Ann Castro works with a wide range of parrots, from tiny budgies and parrotlets to African greys and the largest macaws. The behaviors outlined in the book are not tricks or gimmicks (although those can be fun to teach as well); instead, Castro focuses on truly useful behaviors like stepping up and "drop it." She also discusses how to deal with problem behaviors in a gentle and effective way.

If you're only going to buy one book on clicker training parrots, make it this one!

I've really enjoyed using clicker training as a means to interact with my birds. It's simple, easy, and fun. The birds are suprisingly VERY into it. If I have both of my parrotlets out at the same time they will compete to see who can get to the clicker stick first, knowing that a treat is about to follow. I highly recomend this book and training method to any bird owner, regardless of type of bird, level of training, or age.

I have seen clicker training with dogs, monkeys and even rabbits. But I was skeptical that a small bird could actually be trained. I was wrong! My two budgies are completely different in personality, and clicker training works for both. Schnappi caught on very fast. She learnt to follow the target stick right away und does tricks now, like riding her own little skateboard.
My second bird Snoopy spent time outside before I got her and is afraid of her own shadow. With clicker training she started enjoying life again. She learnt fast what the "click" means and has fewer panic attacks. Soon, she'll be ready for the target stick. Now I can actually "do something" with my birds rather than just talk to them.

The step-by-step instructions in "The Bird School" by Ann Castro are very easy to follow, and the pictures are worth "a thousand words." To my surprise the book came with a clicker and a target stick!

But reading the book also brought back sad memories. Years ago, I had a friend who always showed up with bite marks on her arms, inflicted by her own parrot. I found the explanation in the "Bird School": The bird was lonely and bored. The punishment for biting (screaming and yelling) was his reward, and that's why it never stopped. I wish a book like this had been available then!

Clicker training is a fun activity for budgies and other small birds. For parrots, clicker training is even more important to socialize them and make life enjoyable for birds and owners alike.

This book is a must read for all bird owners; of any kind. It is very informative and beautifully written. It will guide anyone to the clicker way of training. I suggest it for anyone with parrots. After my first session with my bird it was working great! At last, something to read, something to do for your bird/parrot that really works.

This book is fun to read. Each page describes the mother bird on her journey to gather food for her chicks. We bounce as we read "hop, hop, hop on the wire" and flap our wings as she flies over the field, etc. The illustrations are beautiful and I don't think we will tier of this book any time soon!

This has been one of our favorites for a long time. It's fun to follow the cute little red tailed mouse as it scurries over the chair, table, shoe, box etc (all objects have very clever and interesting contours) . The last page when the mouse quickly hides in the hole leaves my toddler in giggles, begging for an encore :).

My 9 month old daughter absolutely loves this book and it has been one of her favorites since she was 6 months old. She loves to follow and point out the mouse on each page. I highly recommend this book for babies and toddlers.

My 14 month old will barely sit through a book most of the time. We really like this one. All the things birds do--hop, peck, flap, etc.--are illustrated page by page. There are many ways to make this book interactive--several of the pages have holes (a bird house hole; a little hole pecked in the ground), and one page is cut along the bird's wing so you can flap it.

The excitement starts on the very first page of this board book with illustrated flaps (smaller pages illustrated on both sides) between each full size board book page.

"Hurry, mouse! Run..."

(Look to the right and there's a flap showing the mouse scampering over a chair)

"over the chair,"

(Turn the flap, and there's a two=page spread of the mouse climbing up a table)

"across the table,"

And so on. I wondered if the mouse was the chaser or the chasee. He runs down the table (Horacek conveys movement through the mouse's outstretched paws and limbs, and a big trailing tail), and into a box of cookies! On this spread, Horacek gets a 3-D effect through the cut-outs in the pictured box, revealing something almost black on the next page.

That "something" is the mouse's hole, again cut-out for a sensation of depth. Good thing, too, because when you turn the page, there's a BIG black cat with green eyes, and a hungry look, just outside the mouse hole. Through the cut-out mousehole, we now see the little mouse safely inside. IT's almost magical--on one page the mouse is outside his hole, and on the next the mouse is inside! Couple the special effects (i.e., the flaps, the cut-outs) with Horacek's simple but revealing sentences, bright colors and patterns, and familiar objects (cookies!) and you've got yourself a treat for your infant or young toddler!

This is a beautiful tale. It takes a little getting used to at first because the prose is somewhat stilted and obscure...and then you are taken in, and the characters and beauty and tragedy all unfold. A classic.

This short book is about Mattis, a bit of a simpleton that lives out in the woods with his sister; Hege. They've lived this way for many a year and they are both in their 40's by now. Mattis has a hard time getting a job and getting along with others in their modernizing society of rural Norway. Then one day a big bird flies over Mattis' cabin, and he knows in his contemplative mind that "everything is going to change now, the bird didn't fly over my house for no reason". And bit by bit we get to know Mattis and Hege, and their life in the small cabin of the woods.

The book is just great, and it should not be read as a novel that glorifies simpletons, but simply a book that asks us to slow down and find that we as Europeans are still a part of an omnipotent nature. We are surrounded by so much marvel, we need a "simpleton" like Mattis to remind us that we are a part of the great whole. Highly recommended!

(I read a different edition of the book)

This is one of the greatest novels I have ever read in my life. It is deeply human. It tells a simple story of a man and his sister living in the wilderness of Norway. The man is somewhat of a simpleton -- but he is sensitive and reflective all the same. His sister is lonely...until a woodsman comes....
This is a classic tale, and I loved every word.

A masterpiece of Norwegian literature. It's an exploration of the boundaries between madness and "normality", and the story of a young man's sacrifice on the altar of common sense and social unwritten rules. How much reality can we stand before loosing our mind? And how much nature, with its power that dances on our fears and on our weaknesses. It would be a great book to read in the language it was written: a bodily and full consistent Telemark dialect. Something goes lost in the traslation, though it couldn't have been otherwise and the trans-cultural re-codificatoion must have been a hard work. I suggest this book to everybody, especially to those who sometimes ask themselves questions about life.

This book is so tender and sensitive that I could not read more than a few pages in one sitting. It is very simple and easy to read at the same time, but it is important to be concentrated when reading it or else the beauty might be lost.
I have read this book twice now, and I am sure I will read it many more times in my life. I can not say that about any other book.

I was at a party where the hostess had this book out because she had so many different birds frequenting her feeders. Great book, great pictures and I love the way they categorized the birds. Yellow, orange, blue, etc. So you didn't have to know the name, but you look at the colors to find the bird you saw.

I must agree with all the other four reviews. I enjoy watching birds in nature, (Shore, ponds, Cape Cod and house yard), but I am not professional. I found this book (and series) very helpful; it is organized by color (birds that are mostly blue, green, etc..) so it is very easy to use. Each bird is pictured on the left side page. the right page has a small Massachusetts map in which season and where you can find the bird. It also contains description of male, female, juvenile - Information on nest, migration, etc...., then the author's notes.
I did not have difficulty identifying a bird yet, and the amount of information (each page is 4.5 x 6 inches) is just enough for non-professional bird watcher.

As we live a few blocks from Fresh Pond Reservation, my husband and I enjoy some of the best bird watching in the area & needed a simple yet informative guide for amateurs. Birds of Massachusetts is perfect for quick referencing and light enough to keep in one's pocket for daily walks around the pond.

I picked up this guide a couple of yers ago because I wanted to be able to identify birds in my backyard, in a suburb northwest fo Boston. It is incredible! Since it's only for Massachusetts you don't have to skim through a huge book with birds not from the area. I have learned so much and can now identify many birds that I otherwise could not have. Lost on concise info and facts about each bird per page.

Easy to use even as a novice birder. Love sitting out on the deck and being able to tell what is eating at our bird feeder. Love the book so much i'm going to buy a second one for my parents!

I am very happy with this book overall. I have to agree with what others have said about the layout. It is easy to identify the birds that you are seeing without having any prior knowledge of birds. The only bad thing that I can say about this book is that it is printed in China. Would be 5 stars otherwise.

I love this book. I had one of North American birds that I was using, but it's nice to have a book that narrows it down to Michigan. It also gives a lot more information on each bird than the book I had. The descriptions and pictures are wonderful. I would have liked to see pictures of both male and female (not every bird is pictured that way), and would have liked to see pictures of immature birds, but overall this book is exactly what I was looking for.

I've used (and abused) a number of bird books over the years.... and tend to carry a veritable library with me on my forays. But I've been frustrated by most of the identification guides available today. I know they can't be perfect, if only because birds themselves vary so much, but surely they could be just a little better. This one is. I hope Lone Pine Press and Mr. Black expand beyond the Michigan edition. In the meantime, I though, I won't have to carry such a library into the woods. "Birds of Michigan" will suffice by itself.

I agree with the other two reviewers' comments. This book is very easy to use, proving much information in a concise yet digestible way. While it provides a lot of detail, it does not do so in a tedious way--this is a field guide that is actually READable! It is very user-friendly and has helped me clinch idenifications of even rare migrants due to the written descriptions which do not overwhelm the field guide. Large, accurate drawing of the birds are supplemented with written descriptions emphasizing the field marks. The maps are on the same page as the birds, which can help narrow down birds in the field more rapidly. This has been a helpful local supplement to my National Geographic & Peterson Field Guides. I also recommend Stan Tekiela Birds of Michigan book & CD set and Peterson's Birding by Ear: Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guides(R)) (Audio CD)
by Richard K. Walton, Robert W. Lawson, Roger Tory Peterson.

As a child I enjoyed seeing a flash of color flitting among the leaves, listening to bird song, and even sneaking up upon a nest of hatchlings to watch their antics; but with age, I developed a deeper appreciation for the birds in my home state of Michigan. Ultimately I ended up spending hours flipping thru books trying to find the best bird guide for me to use. AND this book has proven to be the best of the best! This guide easily helps me in identifying the birds I'm looking at by providing a clear colored pic for EVERY bird, giving the length and width of each bird, info on feeding habits and habitat(s), and areas for best viewing/finding. In addition the book goes one step better and even tells you what species are similar and how to make sure you have correctly identified your find. Heck, the size of the book is even spiffy since it's light enough to not be a hinderance in your backpack. The only fault I have with the book is in its description of the call/song/or voice of the birds - they try, but, for example, the song of the common house wren does not sound like "tsi-tsi-tsi-tsi oodle-oodle-oodle-oodle" to me. But then I'd be hard pressed to write down exactly what it DOES sound like!

I had this narrowed down to two books. I'm glad I chose this one as it has been a great reference. The book is broken down into color coded pages for the assorted bird colors. The pictures are great for distinguishing between similar birds. We actually keep the book by the sliding door so we can identify any new birds that may come visiting our feeders. Looking forward to the summer months to check out some of the migratory ones.

You can't help but become interested in attracting birds to your yard while reading this book. We homeschool our 3 kids and used this guide as a main source of information for our unit study. Stan's notes on each bird are excellent and the layout of this guide is so easy for all of our children to flip through as they try to identify the bird resting on the feeder.

We also love the "The Beginner's Guide to Birds - Eastern Region" by Stokes - because they give information on how to attract certain species to your yard with specific seed types, bathing habits, and bird houses. However, living in NJ, this guide by Stan Tekiela was much more useful for identification because of our locale. The photographs in both books are beautiful. The range maps in this NJ book are obviously more detailed to NJ and the Introduction section goes much more in depth on different types of Migration habits, why NJ is a great place to watch birds and the different types of nests birds build. This book contains 122 most common of the 440 species having been sighted in NJ. It also includes an illustration of a bird and it's basic body parts.

If I only had enough money for one book and I lived in NJ - this book would be it. I do however love combining it with Stokes' because they've helped us bring these beautiful creatures into our yard up close.

Its a great little book, many of the birds featured in it i've seen in my yard. There's good info about each species.

This book is great! I bought it for my children and I'm glad I did. I don't even have to find the birds for them. They can watch the feeders and flip to the color coded pages that matches the birds color. You can't get any easier than that!

This book single handedly got me started bird watching, first learning about the birds at my feeders. Then at the beach, the park, even local shopping center parking lots. Great for everyone from beginners to experts. Plus I think Mr. Tekiela has put a book out on each state, I also bought his Birds of Wisconsin book because I have family there and frequently visit.

This is a great addition to any home or collection. This book has the family, species(latin name),length, wingspan, plumage habitat, weight, nesting, and more for over 930 species of North American birds on over 1000 pages.

Just got home from B&N, where I saw this book -- I spent a LOT of time flipping through it ... talk about lust! I must have this book ... must must must. After this review I'll buy it now at [...]. I knew [...] would have it at a discount (no discount on it at B&N), plus this tome is very heavy ... and I already had a stack of books (seriously discounted) that I couldn't part with. I'm not even a serious birder, but I love birds and keep track of those that visit my Brooklyn patio (you'd be amazed at the variety!). Can't wait 'til it shows up ... this is truly a handsome book, chock full of terrific photos and info. Splurge and treat yourself!

If you love birds, you may want to add this book to your collection. Clearly it is not a field guide: too heavy and bulky. It does, however, contain a great deal of information that will help in the never ending quest to find and identify another bird. Each bird listed has a section on song, behavior, breeding habits, nesting, population, and conservation. Flight patterns, nest identification, and habitat are also described iconically. Good range maps are included. The "photos" will not help much in identifying birds, but a complementary guide such as Sibley's can fill in the gap nicely. Place this book on your coffee table, open it often to learn another tidbit about one of those birds you haven't yet seen, and I don't think it will be disappointing.

This book has more information than any other book I own. You will find birds listed here that you won't find elsewhere and the information offered is second to none. Considering the cost of this book, the value is tremendous. You will find common names, scientific names, very specific identification notes and interesting facts on all the birds listed. In the upper right hand corner of each page is a diagram showing the relative size of the bird to the size of this book and this is very helpful. You'll also find information on breeding, nesting and basic behavioral aspects of each listing. I personally recommend this book to any casual or enthusiastic birder.

Birds of North America written by Fred J. Alsop is one of the most complete books on birds of North America that I've seen.

The contents of this book is comprehensive and has a very well-written introduction and a how the book works section, this describes how the books pages are set-up for easy indentification of the birds you find in the wild. The guide to visual references helps again to further refine your classification and a identifing of the bird you've found.

There is an anatomy, topography, and variations sections; also a how to identify birds, birds in flight and by silhouette, but to further hone your indentifing of your birds, there is a behavior, abundance and distribution; classification and how to watch birds in the backyard, along with those in the field.

There is a very fine glossary and index with this book to get the birder to the species you've found. this book classifies birds by species... this I found is the best and fastest way to find and classify to birds you're looking for.

I highly recommend this book for those who really need a book for their birding experience. Along the outside margins of the pages, there is a place for a date, time and location on the page for you when you spot a bird species.

All in all, this is by far, one of the best bird book that I've seen. Excellent choice for a gift for the birder in your family or to get the children involved in what is around them while the are with you on walks through the woods.

Great book! This book, Blues for Bird, is worth all the other biographies of Charlie Parker combined. A concise and direct evocation of the jazzman's life, it tells the tragic story of his rise and fall, and the tragic decline of his later years--it censors nothing, it tells the story better than a more detailed biographical volume, And does it with a poet's ear and eye! Alright! Be-bop!

How can you write an epic today when the world is no longer 'story-shaped'? You can go back and translate 'Beowulf', as Seamus Heaney has done, or you can be like Martin Gray and write an epic life in quantum bursts of three-stress energy.

Somebody ought to make a bunch of CDs, with an actor reading these highly accessible poems against a backdrop of Charlie Parker's music. They'd be a wow!

Great book! This book, Blues for Bird, is worth all the other biographies of Charlie Parker combined. A concise and direct evocation of the jazzman's life, it tells the tragic story of his rise and fall, and the tragic decline of his later years--it censors nothing, it tells the story better than a more detailed biographical volume, And does it with a poet's ear and eye! Alright! Be-bop!

How can you write an epic today when the world is no longer 'story-shaped'? You can go back and translate 'Beowulf', as Seamus Heaney, has done, or you can be like Martin Gray and write an epic life in quantum bursts of three-stress energy.

This book is great! We have enjoyed reading it together as a family. The illustrations are incredible. Can't wait for the next book!

Brewster the Rain-Making Rooster was an incredible book with a cute and educational story accompanied by beautiful illustrations. Written for children but enjoyed by everyone who reads it. I can't wait for the follow-up book.

I recently purchased this book for my grandchild and her excitement sent me back online searching for more Professor Wigglestix books...very cute writing and pictures. I can't wait for the new one!

As an elementary teacher I'm always on the hunt for exceptional books for our reading times...on a tip from another teacher I found Brewster the Rain Makin' Rooster...my kids loved the writing and the beautiful illustrations...I highly recommend this book!

I recently presented Brewster the Rain-makin' rooster to my second grade class and it was the hit of the year...the writing is very clever with a Dr.Suess style and the artwork was very compelling to my students. I recommend this book very highly and look forward to the next book by Professor Wigglestix

The entire "Busy" series is engaging and fun for kids and parents alike. A great way to introduce your child to books, nature, language.

This Board Book is beautiful colour glossy photographs of busy penguins, doing what penguins do, like:

penguins splashing

penguins dashing

penguins sliding

penguins diving

penguins drooping

(and the anti - Freudian)

penguins pooping.

It's great fun in the Tundra for all ages! Reviewed by TundraVision, Amazon reviewer

"Busy Penguins" is one of my 18-month-old daughter's favorite books. The photographs are incredible, and the text has a gentle rhythm that she finds engaging.

The fascinating photos and playful text will surely make your kid smile as they get a closer look at penguins doing various things. Penguins are so cool!

This book was highly recommended to me by a clerk at a small children's bookstore who told me that for some reason toddlers seem to find it very captivating. I bought it for my daughter for her first birthday, and she loves it. The photographs are beautiful and there's something about the penguins that seems to really grab my daughter's attention. At 14 months she seeks out this book and will "read" it to herself. I agree with the reviewer below who said that the "penguins pooping" page is a real attention-grabber for the toilet training set, and though it could be gross, something about the fact that it's a penguin who's pooping is strangely charming and humorous (if you can stomach that type of thing!). Overall five stars for a book that my daughter and I both love - a great thing for a parent who has to read it over and over.