It's hard to criticise anyone who manages to convey as much enthusiasm for his subject as Sir David Attenborogh. I have seen him as almost a fixture on BBC TV in England for forty or more years. He is the voice of so many nature programmes, and to each he brings his insatiable curiosity and his desire to inform the viewer.

This book, so rich in both photographs and text, is outstanding. It's interesting, readable, amusing, detailed and just plain well-written. It's one of those books I pull out of my bookcase occasionally, just to read a chapter or two, or to look at the stunningly good photographs.

Worth every penny of it's purchase cost. Well done to the BBC for making this TV series. And a special well done to Attenborough for writing such a hugely enjoyable book.

I found The Life of Birds very enjoyable and informative. The author took the trouble to break the information down into a logical set of chapter topics, and the photos are a pleasure to study, especially after reading the accompanying insightful text. I have plenty of good guides to North American birds, but none of my other books have the worldwide scope that this book does, highlighting both the similarities and differences in various species means of handling a given survival skill. Well done! (I enjoyed the subtle humour too!)

The Life of Birds is another fascinating read from David Attenborough. I chose this book solely because he wrote it, not because I was looking for a book about birds. When I came across the book I knew it would be beautifully written and extremely interesting:and it is. Anyone who read and savored The Living Planet will find The Life of Birds to be equally fascinating. The photographs are of the highest caliber. This book can be read and re-read and it will always be interesting. It is a wonderful book to share with children as well. Young one's can benefit from looking at the pictures and having an adult simplify the text. This book is an excellent addition to the home library.

One of the great pleasures of this book (there are many) is the copy. It is incredibly witty and filled with literary and social references that leave the reader in stitches. The "Rose Pierott" is just one example of Bird really hitting her mark!

Ellwand's incredible creations set my imagination on fire. Looking through his designs reminded me of playing in the woods as a little boy, building stone and bark homes for gnomes. He takes my youthful imagination to a whole new level, though.

This is THE catalogue for the well-dressed fairie and a must-own for artist and dreamer alike!

The illustrations in this book are absolutely gorgeous; this is one of the most stunning coffee table books I've ever seen. Since I am not acquainted with the world of couture, I can't tell you how well it succeeds as a send-up of high fashion catalogues. (I've gathered that there are many "in-jokes" within the text: I didn't get them, but it didn't hinder my enjoyment of this in the least).

This isn't just a book, it's a work of art. Highly, highly recommended.

If you want to know who's burning up the runways with the season's haute couture, look no further! Enjoy this detailed catalogue of The Fashion Collection known as Fairie-ality from the innovative and expressive House of Ellwand, designer to the Folk, par excellence.
I would have to say this is the most beautiful book I've seen in years and that it is one of my favorite books in my entire library, if not THE favorite. It is an elegant, beautifully crafted coffee table volume in a gold hard cover edition. It is delightfully witty and captures the fashion world's nuances and idosyncracies in good fun and high style. Whimsical water color sketches of a type from fashion's heyday in Vogue Magazine introduce the various themes and creations while full dazzling color photographs present exquisitely detailed and meticulously handcrafted high fashion of the fairy realm. The commentary is breezy and bright and oh, so, in the know! Charming inserts such as a mix and match catalogue, invitations, and advance notices are sprinkled throughout the book. The artistry is unparalleled and uses the finest of natural materials, including feathers, seeds, and myriad examples of the exotic floral and other botanical resources joined with a master's eye for flair, movement, and color. Enjoy eclectic designs filled with flash from shoes to hats and everything in between. Not only are you invited into this exclusive world of fashion but you are made privy to the parties, the cotillions, moonbeam swims, firefly hunting, midnight dancing and all of the biggest names in fairy society. Fashions for ladies and gentlemen grace these pages as do fashions for the entire wedding party from the flower girl to the bride. As the wedding fashions featured in this collection indicate, it is a very chic bride who will walk the bridal runway on the arm of her proud father this season. There is so much detail here and so much witty humor that this book can be enjoyed for hours upon hours and over and over again with each foray seeming to present new delicacies of fashion delight. The descriptions for the designs are each more breath-taking than the one before as evidenced by this commentary for the astonishing Maid of Honor dress: "Silky crow feathers and a single green parrot feather gather in layers, creating the touch-me velveteen look of the skirt - spellbinding. The bodice and straps are lily leaves; the overbodice, a whispering tracery of skeleton leaf. Sumptuous."
This book is a true work of art from begining to end and I can't think of a single person that wouldn't at least admire it's detail and perfection of execution. Fairie friends will, of course, be enraptured by it. Any creative, artistic, whimsical, young at heart, fashion conscious, costume or dress-up aficionado will treasure it. Get yourself a copy and give several away. It's the pick of the crop. Tre chic!

A book which is thoroughly enjoyed by our 14 mo. old. The vivid pictures, rhyming text and simple yet sweet story all combine into a winning mix. Just a couple of lines of text every other page make this an easy read for toddlers with a short attention span. This book never sits on the bookshelf. It is the first book she reaches for in the morning and the last one read at night. We are looking forward to reading more about the adventures of Little Bird, Biddle Bird. Strongly recommended.

I bought this book for my 19 month old because in the past I have bought other David Kirk books for my older children. My toddler loves this book. The illustations are beautiful- in true David Kirk form. The colors are vivid and I am finding that I can also teach her colors when we read it. The story is very sweet...it features a little bird and it's Mommy. The story sort of reminds me of an "old fashion" story book, which is refreshing for me so I enjoy reading it to her again and again.

This is the first book I bought for my son, who is now 5 months old. He and I both love it, and I read it to him almost every day. It's just a great little book. I will keep it forever.

I came into this book with some interest in learning to identify birds around the yard to a greater extent. This is the first book that I've seen to go beyond the basics of shape and color. It's actually a virtual biology lesson on birds with fine details about feathers, and molting among other topics. Very detailed materials that help the reader understand how to see the parts of the bird beyond quick impressions in order to make identifications. But I also gained a new insight into an animal that I took for granted just seeing every day. Sibley is an incredible artist and liberally demonstrates his concepts with sketches and drawings of a wide variety of birds. The combination of beautiful art, and clear, educational writing makes one of the best introductions I've ever seen to birds, and how to know and appreciate them. Highly recommended for the casual as well as serious bird enthusiast.

Perfect for the aspiring or beginning birder, veterans will wonder how they got started without it. Sibley begins with the simplest, logical advice - equipment, where to go to find birds (did you know Central Park, NY, rates with Cape May and the Monterey Peninsula for sighting migrating birds - it's the largest patch of green for miles), keeping records and avoiding mistakes. The bulk of this slim book is devoted to identifying, from behavior and voice to body configuration, feather arrangements, color patterns, structure of tail and wings, molt and more. Clear color illustrations provide plentiful examples throughout. Sibley teaches how to see and what to look for, depending on time of year, weather and habitat, and provides lots of useful information about common and unusual birds by way of illustrative examples.

I was fortunate enough to attend a talk by David Allen Sibley at the Princeton University Bookstore a couple of weeks ago. He's a shy person, but once he starts talking about his favorite subject (birds, of course), he's as talkative as the most garrulous of people. Even in person, then, his knowledge of all minutiae of the avian world is staggering. That doesn't mean he doesn't understand the common pitfalls of the struggling, novice birder who wants so much to identify that giant bird with the colors of a goldfinch or the raptor as small as a songbird. He told us a couple of amusing stories about bird misidentification, one of which involved a mistake he made years ago... which just goes to show that if Mr. Sibley can make a birding mistake, there's hope for the rest of us.

Anyway, "Sibley's Birding Basics" does, indeed, serve as the introduction to his bestselling field guide that he'd originally hoped to include in the field guide. He covers all the essential bird identification topics in a clearly, if scholarly, written manner, from the importance, structure and groupings of feathers; to the bird's outer anatomy; to birdsong; to clues to bird identification (behavior, molt patterns, feather wear-and-tear) that aren't covered at all in other field guides. And the illustrations, a talent for which Mr. Sibley is justifiably famous, are the most meticulous you'll find anywhere, whether the drawing shows a comparison between a summer tanager and a northern cardinal or simply of feather types.

Finally, "Birding Basics" includes a brief but to-the-point admonition to birders who might venture too close or too noisily to the objects of their fascination. For example, you read about the usefulness of "pishing" in other books and hear about it from other expert birders, but Mr. Sibley believes this technique is overused and has the potential to harm many birds' ability to go about their difficult daily existence.

In conclusion, run, don't walk, to the nearest computer and order this book from amazon.com!

There are now two editions of Boyle, the older version with an orange cover and the Barred Owl, and a newer version with a photo of a Hooded Warbler on the front. You'll want to make sure you get the latter, since many things have changed over the years.

It is one of the milder species of blasphemy, I suppose, to call any book one's "bible"; but since its appearance 17 years ago (!), Bill Boyle's NJBFG has served thousands of the birding faithful as ritual object and authoritative companion alike. My own copy of the first printing, with its ugly laminated binding in shreds and the bookblock bulging from tipped-in notes, photocopies, and clippings, is probably the single most used volume in my birding library: field guides come and go, but for nearly two decades now, Boyle has come and gone wherever I have.
Just how intensive my use of the book has been came clear to me with the arrival--"long-awaited," in the reviewer's cliche--of the second edition. As I read through the new treatments of areas long familiar to me, I discovered that (like many NJ birders) I'd actually memorized verbatim great chunks of the first edition, and that I noticed every new word and every new turn of phrase in the revised accounts. If it is true that every obsession is at its base religious, then this book truly is the birder's bible.
The birder's bible: divine in inspiration, certainly, but here and there the mortal nature of its human author peeks through. As anyone who has ever written anything knows, it is even more difficult to revise than to write, and this revised edition has some flaws that were not apparent in the first. There are far more copy-editing errors this time around, and the index--more important than ever, given the new book's rather breathless layout--is not an infallible help (just try to find the main entry for Merrill Creek!). Compared to the enjoyably expansive style of the first edition, the new entries strike me as occasionally a bit too concise, a problem that might have been eased by simply eliminating even more of the old sections treating sites that, like the Institute Woods, now offer (in Boyle's words) "the mere shadow" of their former glory; valuable space is also sacrificed to a number of new full-page illustrations.
These things having been said, the book is still an outstanding example of the bird-finding guide. The maps seem to be largely up to date and accurate (Sussex County birders: are Rockport and Blackdirt marshes really the same place?), the annotated species list is even more useful than in the first edition, and the binding isn't likely to crackle and peel. It will take only weeks, I am sure, for New Jersey birders to start quoting this new Boyle, chapter and verse.

This book is just as useful for seasoned birders as it is for the beginner, or the person new to New Jersey. Beginners will appreciate its review of New Jersey's best birding destinations; seasoned pros will enjoy the depth of the information and the amount of detail on nesting species and accounts of rarities.

For us locals, "Bird Finding" is great for those days when you want to hop in the car and travel to somewhere a little different, or if you want to explore a familiar destination a little more closely. The book offers detailed directions (although some of the exit numbers and streets have changed since its publication date), including which trail to follow, which tree to investigate, etc. Its accuracy is remarkable. It's clear Bill Boyle knows each location intimately and visits them often.

This is a must-have for any birder living in the state (and there are lots), and any vacationer planning to spend more than a weekend in New Jersey.

I can't believe this book is still talked about! Like so many others who have reviewed it, I got this book in the 1950s (from the Weekly Reader Book Club) and it was one of my favorites. "The Pink Motel" and "Follow My Leader" also were from that period and they too seem to be alive and well, but now in paperback. I still have these three books and several others from the WRBC and the Young America Book Club that I treasure to this day.

I re-read "David and the Phoenix" about 3 years ago when I found it in a box of books packed away for ... what, posterity? The story is just as powerful now as it was then--perhaps more so. David's love for this mythical creature come to life is so strong, so pure! I cried like I did 40 years ago when...well, that would be telling.

But you know what I liked best about that book? I remember dreaming of flying like David on the back of the mighty Phoenix. Sigh....

I was never much of a reader. However, the summer of 1975, just before seventh grade, I picked my mothers old worn copy of the book that she had had since her childhood from her shelf and began to read it. I was enthralled immediately and was unable to put it down. I have never forgotten the excitement I felt while reading of David's adventures. Not only did this book launch me into a wonderful, unforgettable journey with David and the Phoenix, it put reading and fantasy into a new light. I have loved reading ever since and will never forget the book that showed me you can see without pictures. This book is exciting to all who read it and is definately a classic.

Unfortunately my mother no longer has her copy of the book, but I am determined to get another. I have children of my own now and it would be a terrible loss not to be able to share this story with them.

"David and the Phoenix" is an unforgettable learning adventure for all ages!!

I found this book in my Aunt's house when I was a young child, 12 - 15 years ago. "David and the Phoenix" made a lasting impression on me. I never liked to read much, until I read this book. My family lives at the base of a mountain and we did and still do a lot of hiking. Hiking and my love for all animals helped me relate to this book and I have loved to read ever since. My Aunt can't find this book anymore, probably one of her grandchildren got a hold of it, but I wrote down information about the book when I was a kid, hoping to find a copy for myself. I just happened upon that piece of paper and found that it was a 1958 Edition - Selection of the Weekly Reader, Children's Book Club - Education Center published by Follett Publishing Company, Chicago. Manufactured in the United States of America by American Book-Stratford Press, Inc., NY. Published simultaneously in Canada by Ambassador Books, Limited. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 57-8280. I recently tried to find a copy and had no luck. This is my last hope of finding the book so that the children I hope to have someday soon can enjoy it too.

I have both the big version and this version. Without doubt you need both. One for back at camp reading and the Field Version for, well, the Field. This is quite packable and the layout makes field Identification pretty easy.

A sign of environmental health and richness of biodiversity is the number of birds that a given area supports. Kenya then qualifies as a rich ecosystem with over 1,000 different species of birds.

This book was not around when I was a youngster living in Kenya but thumbing through it as an adult has brought back some fond memories of days out in the bush in Amboseli and Masai Mara or at lakes Nakura, Naivasha, and Victoria. Kenya is a birders paradise whatever your interest. There are fairly familiar Eurasian visiting seabirds and shorebirds and unique and beautiful East African sunbirds, weavers, rollers and bee-eaters. There are multitude birds of prey including the unmistakable tiny-tailed Bateleur Eagle and the most impressive hunting bird i've ever seen - the African Crowned Eagle. I can recall like it was yesterday watching one pluck a male colobus monkey right out of the tree tops. All of the birds are here in splendid color with the most appropriate profile presented to assist in making identification easy. You'll find the underside views of the birds of prey very useful.

While you probably won't see a Crowned Eagle on a casual birding visit to Kenya, any guided trip into the game parks will guarantee you at least 100 different species - probably in a single day! In the right locations, prepare to have your head on a swivel as the variety of birdlife you will behold has to be seen to be believed. You will find yourself regularly flipping through the pages of this book. This book is absolutely essential for your Kenyan trip.

I live and work in East Africa, and this is the book the park rangers all carry in their open Land Rovers. They cover it with canvas so it won't get beat up too fast, and it gets marked with brown circles from the thermos of coffee on the 06:30 game drive. Go to Masai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya for a long weekend with this book, and you'll come home with 150 species. Don't worry about the weight of the book, I started with the Collins field guide and had to buy my copy of Zimmerman in the middle of my first stay because I outgrew it. Buy Zimmerman to start with, you won't regret it.

This well done book fills in the gaps that field guides and bird identification books create. It is a logically laid out, valuable tutorial on each bird family. While the chapters are not highly detailed with species-level information, you get a general flavor of each family of birds. I highly recommend this work to birders and to those who are interested in learning more about our beautiful, feathered friends.

I am not a bird expert; I am a homeschooling mother who is interested enough in birds to feed them and provide nesting boxes in our yard. I enjoy watching birds and this has lead to a curiosity about what they are doing and why.

This hardback version is wonderful and will grace our family library shelves for years. The paper stock is heavy and fine. There are beautiful and detailed watercolor illustrations and very detailed explanations of bird life and behavior. This book picks up where the bird identification books leave off and is more comprehensive than other books I have read about bird identification and behavior.

The index is easy to use for quick referencing about specific birds. There is loads of information here, probably everything you'd want to know about birds. Amazon has over 50 sample pages for you to view, including the detailed table of contents, so I won't repeat that information inside of my review. The information is detailed but not intimidating for amateurs such as myself.

As a homeschooling mother this has already come in handy for discussions about the activities of our chimney swifts and Eastern Bluebirds that have taken up residence in our yard and home.

Even if you are an amateur birdwatcher, I encourage you to buy a bird identification book and then this book, rather than others on the market. Once you see this hefty volume and all the information it contains you will see the price is worth it! This is a reference volume that will be used for years.

I bought THE SIBLEY GUIDE TO BIRD LIFE AND BEHAVIOR for myself for Christmas. I wanted Sibley's Guide because I am an avid birdwatcher, interested in books, articles, films, etc. about birds. I had read glowing reviews about this book (here and elsewhere) and thought it must be the best bird book ever. Also, several reviewers noted that like JJ Audubon, Mr. Sibley was a gifted artist who depicted birds rather beautifully.

Sibley's Guide is a beautiful book bird watchers will want to add to their collection (hardcover, please). Those who already know the difference between Bewick's Wren and a Carolina Wren may appreciate Sibley's Guide more than those who can't tell a White Throated Sparrow from a pigeon. However, sooner or later every bird enthusiast needs to understand the ecology of birds, and this is the strength of the Sibley Guide.

I've been a bird lover since I was a child, and lucky enough to have parents and grandparents who were bird fanciers (my dad was an ecologist, my grandmother raised tamed birds). As a result, I know a great deal about birds and their environments. Sibley's book appeals to me because its central message is that all living things are connected and that the environment matters. One should never take the continuing presence of birds in the back yard as a given as their habitats are threatened.

The Sibley Guide is not as well suited for fieldwork as the Smithsonian's Handbook, BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA (regional versions), or THE AUDUBON BACK YARD BIRDWATCHER. For example, on p. 440, the Sibley guide has an illustration titled "Troglodytid diversity" which shows the very small Winter Wren and the very large Cactus Wren. The Smithsonian handbook contains separate entries for each of these birds (and many other wrens) and each entry has a separate map showing the individual bird's range. You will immediately know from the Smithsonian Guide that the Winter Wren has an Eastern and Northern range while the Cactus Wren is more likely to be found along the Southwest border and in Northern Mexico.

In contrast, Sibley's book contains a paragraph on "habitats" in the "wren" section and it says Winter Wrens can be found in the Pacific Northwest old-growth forests and the Cactus Wrens can be found in the Chihuahuan Desert. In an earlier part of the guide Sibley has described these areas with lovely maps. You can figure out the approximate ranges of each bird with a bit of page flipping, but you may not quickly deduce that the Winter Wren is also found on the East Coast.

The Sibley Guide is nifty because it groups birds based on DNA results and discusses them as well as their general ranges, habitats, food and foraging behavior, and various aspects of breeding. The Sibley Guide promotes a deeper understanding of the ecology of birds. You will not want to take the Sibley Guide to the field for birdwatching, however.

I checked this book out of the library prior to a trip to London, and now I'm going to buy a copy for my library. This is such a well laid out book, and the perfect size for the field. The information on the covers is particularly nice, with black and white illustrations of members of all the families so that you can quickly determine where in the guide to look for details. This is very helpful because there are many unfamiliar birds there that don't fit into the categories of birds we're used to in the states. And right inside the front cover is a color-coded index to help you quickly get to the section you need. I also liked the interesting facts about the birds that you don't see in many field guides. If you need a guide to birds for this area, this is definitely the one to have!

I ordered this book for a trip to Northern Germany and really lucked out. I read previous reviews, liked the format and size and gave it a shot. It was perfect for my needs. I recommend it highly.

Before our vacation in Denmark this month, I purchased this guide and based my selection on the 2 previous reviews and its small size. Boy, did I get lucky! This is one great field guide! Not only is all the pertinent information for each species located on one page, but that one page is also full of all sorts of interesting items (such as behaviors and flight patterns), written and/or pictured. If the authors would compile a similar guide for our North American species, it would surely replace my almost-worn-out National Geographic (my previous favorite)!

I bought this calendar through Amazon and, while I can't say I'm disappointed in the calendar or that there is anything wrong with it, it is not what I expected. I expected a picture of one bird, or possibly two, each month. That's the way the listing described it. Instead, each month features six to eight smaller pictures, of one bird or of two closely related birds. The pictures do not show the birds in natural settings, as I had hoped, but are like illustrations from a birding guide (which they are, and maybe I should have expected that).

The calendar is highly informative and detailed. I'm sure that birding enthusiasts will love it. I'm not sure about the rest of us. I'll probably get used to it; it just is not what I had expected.

I bought The Sibley Calendar 2002 ed. for my husband at Christmas, 2001. For the past six months, I have enjoyed reading and looking at the featured birds. The size of the calendar offers a poster type view with exquisite renderings; making markings easy to identify, and lacking shadows as is common with photographs. The best feature is having 29 to 31 days to study the birds of the month! I will be watching for the 2003 edition.
...don't pass this up- This is such an awesome reference guide. ... I highly recommend it.

This is the item that may finally give me the courage to be a real birder rather than a well-meaning but uneducated spectator.
The detail, the beauty, and the sheer volume of information, all in a calendar, defies description.

I recommend this calendar to anyone who enjoys birds, and to those whose children enjoy them as well. What a perfect family gift--an easy way for every member, young and old, to increase their enjoyment of the birds in their garden. My son and I are already digging out the binoculars!