This book is neither an illustrated guide to parrot species, nor is it a pet owners handbook. It is remarkable compendium of general information on parrots. It covers everything from the age and distribution of parrots in the fossil record, to parrot behavior in the wild. It also summarizes information on extinct and endangered species of parrots and the reasons that these problems arise. (For specific information on species that are extinct or endangered you would probably desire a more current source as this book was published in 1990.)

The information on parrot behavior seems fresh and accurate and unburdened by much of the poor advice and lousy information that many books, particularly those aimed at pet owners, dispense.

This book is a very enjoyable source of general information for anyone that is fascinated by, or has wondered about parrots.

This is the best "field" guide on Philippine Birds I've seen so far. I've quoted "field" because the book is too big to bring with you for birdwatching. The color plates are numerous and can give you an idea of how the birds look like. Though, I would prefer real pictures over colored illustrations. Nevertheless, this book is the best buy for Philippine birdwatchers until a book with real pictures come by.

A charming tale of adaptation, coexistance and wonder. I highly recommend this book to any bird lover and as a marvelous gift for Mother's Day or for any caregiver.

This is the first book of this type for shore bird decoys that I have seen. Other books generally deal with floating decoys and shore birds as secondary. Photos are great. Nice book.

With vibrantly enchanting illustrations the vaunted Mordicai Gerstein relates the surprising story of John Bardsley and the introduction of sparrows to America.

It was the middle of the 19th century when Bardsley, like so many others, left his native land to find fortune in America. Philadelphia was his city of choice; house painting his work. To his amazement he found that his adopted city was literally crawling with inchworms. One of the little rascals even dove into his shirt, a tickling annoyance.

Soon, the inchworms were devouring the leaves on bushes and trees. Birds that were native to Philadelphia, jays, wrens, robins, and thrushes didn't find the little wigglers appetizing. Even though people were hired to pick the inchworms off the trees it was a losing battle. No one had any idea what to do - except for Bardsley.

He remembered the sparrows he had befriended when he was a boy in England, and believed that they could rid the city of inchworms. Off he went, across the ocean again, and seasick all the way. Yet, he was determined to bring his feathered friends to Philadelphia.

Did the birds accompany him back to America? Did they save the city's greenery? You'll have to read this imaginative, amusing tale by the one and only Mordicai Gerstein to find out!

- Gail Cooke

A very good illustrated book, plenty of informations about all the signs you could find in a wood, a beach, a street.. Just open the book and you'll be able to find out which species of bird flown on your garden, which one eat your loved flowers... Very nice and veru useful!

John Bransbury's book is an invaluable help for birders to find tricky species in Australia. Sadly it is getting old (1987), and some of the information is no longer accurate. Still, do not leave home without it....

The dialogue was trite and unrealistic. The characters did not have different voices and were very flat and superficial. In addition, the dialogue got even worse when more "traditional Natives" spoke, illuminating her views on intelligence on the reservations.

Coel's knowledge about Native Americans and reservation life leaves a lot to be desired. Vicky, the "native" lawyer was more American than a Valley Girl. She appeared to completely embrace American ways and completely abondon her tradition without thought. Although other works might explain her context to the reservation and Native life, I kept having to remind myself that she was Native American since she seems more like the misguided non-native attempting to help rather than a member of the society. This story is structured so that all of the negative elements of reservation life occurred in the past rather than the fact they continue to occur. Coel's work reflects the idea that went behind the creation of Reservations in the first place; keep them on the reservation until they are acculturated into modern society. Her work reflects the idea that Native American culture is a thing of the past and should simply remain there.

For a more accurate view of Native American life read Sherman Alexie or even Tony Hillerman. Both write mysteries and both make the distinction between fact and mere fantasy.

Father O'Malley demonstrates his humanity and detective abilities in The Lost Bird. The women in his life add to the challenges of solving murders. His niece arrives unexpectedly after the death of an elderly priest who returned to the Wyoming reservation seemingly to die. There are questions on the Moccasin Trail (Indian gossip-line) about O'Malley's relationships to his red-haired niece and female colleague.

As always, Margaret Coel handles her subject-matter with sensitivity. Her insight into the man behind the cloth is moving, not sensational.

The denouement will satisfy her fans and attract new readers.

If you like the Native American culture you will appreciate this mystery even more. The characters have depth and you can't help but get emotionally involved in their plight. Good from cover to cover.

Field guides are great to have because they're small and their entire aim is to help you immediately identify a bird you see before you. Every birder should have at least one field guide, and maybe even several - some to keep in the car or by a window.

Being published by the National Audubon Society, you'd expect this field guide to be top-notch, one developed and tested by thousands of birders. Indeed, the photos are very nice, full color and in 'native habitat'. The descriptions are pretty complete - with size, key things to look for, song, hapitat. There's a little map showing range, and the range is also described as well.

The problem is with the layout. All of the pictures are at the front of the book - put into groups by bird type, three to a page. Often there's only one photo of a bird, even though they look different during different years of life or seasons. If you see something that seems it might be right, now you have to go flipping through many pages to track down the actual *information* on that bird. Does it even live where you're looking? Are there other similar birds it might be instead? What are those key features you're supposed to be watching for? By the time you figure any of this out, the bird is probably back in hiding.

It seems with their knowledge of birders and how birders operate, they'd have arranged this book in an easier-to-use fashion. While this is a nice book to have for its lovely pictures, it's not what I grab when I need to bring a field book with me on a trip.

I have used many of Audubon's Field Guides, and they are very helpful and usually organized and easy to understand. However, this one is extremely complex and confusing.

When I find an interesting bird, I would go grab my binoculars and field guide and look it up. I go to the correct catagory and frantically search for the bird. When I find it, it gives me a detailed color picture that helps identify the bird. However, if you want more information, it than refers you to a different page, hundreds of thin pages away. You than need to go and find the page, but by then, the bird is gone. When I do get to the page, it is filled with wonderful detailed information of appearance, voice, habitat, nesting, range, map of habitat, and a brief summary.

The book is nice, but I would recommend buying another one with more organization.

This National Audubon Society field guide to birds has lots and lots of nice, but small, photos of birds. That's nice. This guide also includes most of the birds of the region. Those are the plusses of this book. There are, however, a number of minuses that come along with this book.

First of all, no photograph-based field guide can show the important characteristics needed to identify most birds as clearly as a good illustration can. Next, the only info that accompanies each photograph is the common name of the bird, along with its gender, average size, and a reference to a page number to a section in the back of the book that provides all of the descriptive narrative information for each species. That info includes each bird's physical description, voice (call), habitat, nesting info, and geographic range (with a map by the info -- that's nice). The part that's frustrating for me is that I have to spend time flipping back and forth between the photo section at the front of the book and the info section at the back of the book in order to get the info I'm looking for! While I'm in the field birding, that's a hassle! I therefore much prefer the illustrated format that has pictures and descriptive info of the Peterson Guides to the Audubon guides.

Still, the Audubon guides are useful, though I use mine primarily as a secondary source, and it usually stays inside when I go out -- Peterson is my guide of choice.

I am, by the way, a novice birder myself, and find that the Peterson Guides help me to ID birds faster and with fewer errors than the Audubon guides do.

5 points for photos, but 3 points for ease of use, for 4 points overall.

Good luck,and happy spotting!

Alan Holyoak, Dept of Biology, Manchester College, IN

This book tells where along the North Carolina coast that you might see listed birds and what time of year. I suuppose if you knew all the birds and there characteristics it might help you get around the areas.

This book is a wonderful resource for people who want to know where to go to find birds in North Carolina. It is detailed and thorough. It might be a bit intimidating for newcommers to birding but shouldn't be. It is a wonderful companion to a field guide for anyone lining or visiting in NC. A prior review by Chuck Riddle rated it low because it had no pictures. The reviewer apparently was expecting a field guide and unfortunatly rated the book based on his mistaken expectations.

The quintesential birders guide to NC! Great maps, very accurate driving directions.