An informative and eye-catching full-color reference book for backyard bird enthusiasts, The Backyard Birdwatcher’s Bible is beautiful enough to be a coffee table book and practical enough to be a guide for both beginner and expert birders alike.
Here, an elegant aesthetic is paired with practical tips on identifying, attracting, and caring for backyard birds, as well as crafting bird-friendly gardens and birdhouses. Did you know that the red-bellied woodpecker “is an opportunistic feeder, taking a wide range of invertebrates, seeds, and nuts, also fruits (it drinks from oranges) and sap”? Photographs include images of both males and females, and maps explain the range of the species.
Packed with information and beautiful full-color photography and art, bird experts and artists Paul Sterry, Christopher Perrins, Sonya Patel Ellis, and Dominic Couzens flock together to offer a cornucopia of information:
- Species profiles: how to identify species, their habitats, their diets, and their status.
- Birdwatching for beginners: expert information about the life cycle of a bird, from hatchling to adult.
- Information about birdsongs, details about territories and nests and eggs, and much more, including essential practical advice for birdwatchers in the field.
- Creating a bird-friendly backyard: information on birdfeeders, breeding shelters, and flowers and shrubbery to plant in order to entice the winged visitors to visit and stay.
- A lively lesson on birds in art: beautiful and educational, with classic and modern art, and photographs. From Audubon to Taiichiro Yoshida, who creates delicate metal work to create bird images, the art is inspiring.
This is the perfect gift for any birder, and one that birders will buy for themselves and refer to again and again.
Hard Cover.
About the authors:
Paul Sterry has written and illustrated more than 50 books, including the bestselling Collins Complete British Wildlife and Collins Complete British Birds. Trained as a zoologist, Paul has been a wildlife photographer for over 20 years and regularly undertakes research expeditions. He has worked as a Research Fellow at Sussex University studying freshwater ecology. Paul is a keen birder and conservationist.
Dominic Couzens is a British author and journalist specializing in avian and natural history subjects. He contributes regularly to BBC Wildlife magazine and is a professional field trip guide. His critically acclaimed books include The Secret Lives of Garden Birds and The Secret Lives of British Birds, and The Secret Lives of Garden Wildlife. He is also the author of A Bird a Day and A Year of Birdsong. He lives in Dorset.
Sonya Patel Ellis is a London-based writer, editor and artist primarily exploring plants, gardens, art, design, sustainability and the interconnections within nature and the botanical world. Authored publications include Collins Botanical Bible (William Collins, 2018), The Heritage Herbal (British Library Publications, 2020), The Collin's Garden Birdwatcher's Bible (William Collins, 2020) and The Modern Gardener (HarperCollins, 2022).
Christopher Perrins is Emeritus Fellow of Field Ornithology at the University of Oxford, and Her Majesty’s Warden of the Swans since 1993. He has won a number of awards for his lifelong service to ornithology, including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Medal, and is a fellow of the American Ornithologists’ Union. Christopher is the author of several books, including Collins New Generation Guide to Birds and The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Birds.
