BETTER BOOK ON BETTER BIRDING

HOW TO BE A BETTER BIRDER. By Derek Lovitch.  Princeton Press. paperback. 192 pages.  $19.95.

This newly published book is a new take on a well-rehearsed subject.  Over twenty years ago the Peterson FIeld Guide Series came out with a book on advanced birding.  Since then Kenn Kaufmann, Davis Sibley and National Geographic have all published books on improving your birding skills.  A bit further back other books went through regional or national bird lists and gave hints on how to tell similar species apart: sorting the Empidonax flycatchers, or telling gulls apart, or terns, or sparrows.  This book does cover a bit of that well-trod ground.  It has a great chart on the overall body type of different sparrow genuses. But it breaks new ground in its discussions of how, where and when to find vagrants, rarities and lasrge numbers of migrating birds. The book tells how to use online radar images, weather conditions and forecasts and geographical knowledge to help find unusual birds or large numbers of birds on migration. This information is gathered together in book form for the first time. Much of this advice and the needed online links have only appeared in various bird magazines until now. So if the Snow Bunting, Black-headed Gull or Song Thrush is on your target list, this is your book.
Click here for publication info on the Princeton Press website.