Complete Birder Pa

by Jack Connor

Book Overview

Lively, anecdotal, and authoritative, this guidebook takes the birder by the hand and leads him or her into the field showing exactly what is needed and not needed to be a better birder. 50 line... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395468078
• ISBN13: 9780395468074
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 285 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Ain't No Such Thing as a 'Trash Bird'

I'll say, categorically, that Jack Connor's book, The Complete Birder, is the best single introduction to birding I've ever seen. Period. It will greatly shorten a beginner's learning-curve, and it will help reinforce good birding techniques in the more experienced. And--bonus!--it's a totally great read! Listen, being a beginning birder has to be one of the hardest things in the world. There's a gazillion things to memorise or to look at depending on whether a bird's male or female, young or old, or molting its plumage, or it's a certain subspecies, or color-form, or time of year, or the direction of light, or the moon's in Capricorn. There's a further kabillion calls & songs to learn, and if you're like most people, your auditory memory is about on a par with your ability to whistle all the parts in Wagner's Ring Cycle. There's migration stuff, which can get pretty complicated sometimes. To a beginning birder, far too many bird species just look and sound just the same and it can drive you nuts for the first little while until, as the British birders put it, 'you get your eye in' on them. But learning how to become a birder is more than just memorising plumage patterns, flight-styles, calls, & songs; it's more than getting the best bird guides, & optical rig, & software, etc. It involves many things you just won't know until you find them out, that's where Jack Connor gives us such a gift with his book, 'The Complete Birder'. He helps organise that initial chaos with an easy humor (check out his 'warbler four-count', and his wry account of his run-in with a certain hawk in Florida), shared wisdom, and a hard-headed practicality. He understands the places where beginners are likely to run into technical & conceptual snags and head down blind alleys, and he helps you avoid them with solid advice & suggestions. He understands the interior processes of birding and describes them simply and compellingly so that you can appreciate them consciously as well. Especially, he helps you learn to pay attention to what's important, to be a complete observer. So you'll never see a 'trash-bird', a bird so common & familiar that it becomes furniture in front of that hot rarity, or wallpaper behind it: instead, every bird will be an object of wonder & curiosity. That sounds simple yet it's anything but, and Connor's wonderful book will help you achieve it better & quicker than just about anything else I've ever heard of. I've had my copy for nearly fifteen years (the optical stuff is a bit dated but his general advice is still totally valid), and I still re-read it, not only for new insights & salutary reminders, but just for the heck-yeah fun of it.

Essential birdwatching reading

For any active birdwatcher who goes beyond their backyard this volume is essential reading. Connor writes in a lively, entertaining, but also very educational style. Chapter on optics will be very helpful for beginners, but probably best are his chapters on various bird groups where individual species can be difficult to learn (I especially like the chapters on warblers, hawks, and shorebirds). Out of the multitude of birdwatching books available there are few, if any, that fill quite the same intermediate niche as this volume does so well. Warning: there are no color pictures or photos here for those especially interested in such, but this now classic instructive text is well worth the price for avid birders.

The Complete Birder--THE Essential Guide

As a novice birder, Jack Conner's guide impressed me as the #1 essential book next to the field identification guide of your choice. Although it's over 12 years old, the Complete Birder has slightly dated but still essential info on optics, chapters on acoustics & migration, and lots of tips for identifying birds. The chapters on warblers and hawks should be required reading for all birders! Those living near the shore have similar chapters. It's full of important information beautifully presented. Don't miss the forward by Roger Tory Peterson!

Take your identification skills to the next level

This is a GREAT book that takes you beyond the basics and the common field marks in field guides. It has chapters on optics, seasonal birding, gulls, warblers and shorebirds, etc.Years of experience are condensed into simple approaches to identification and topics like identifying shorebirds by their habitat choice and behavior or identifying all warblers by their head and face patterns only, a great help on our recent warbler migrationt trip.I can't recommend this book highly enough if you want to get to the next level of birding. It's also very well written with lots of anecdotes and examples.