Ted Floyd
Autor von Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America
Werke von Ted Floyd
American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of Colorado (American Birding Association State Field) (2014) 12 Exemplare
Birding Vol. 53 No. 1 March 2021 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol 52. No. 8 January 2021 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol. 52 No. 5 October 2020 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol. 52 No. 4 August 2020 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol. 52 No. 2 April 2020 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol. 52 No. 1 February 2020 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol. 52 No. 3 June 2020 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol. 52 No. 7 December 2020 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol. 52 No. 6 November 2020 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol. 53 No. 8 January 2022 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol. 53 No. 2 May 2021 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol. 53 No. 3 July 2021 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol. 53 No. 7 December 2021 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol. 53 No. 6 November 2021 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol. 54 No. 2 April 2022 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol. 54 No. 3 May 2022 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol. 54 No. 4 June 2022 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol. 54 No. 1 March 2022 1 Exemplar
Birding v.43 n.02 (2013) 1 Exemplar
Birding Vol. 53 No. 4 August 2021 1 Exemplar
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Arranged in a calendar year fashion, each section covers various bird-related issues prominent during that season (sort of): the first section, "Spark Bird!" describes unique characteristics of selected species - how do you know a robin is a robin? What do you look for? What can mess you up? (Plenty! Seasonal, geographical, sexual, age-related, and individual variation, for a start.) "After the Spark" gets into more difficult identifications, learning songs, migration patterns, as appropriate in the spring. On through the year, topics like nesting, territories, chick development, fall migration, etc. are covered. Throughout, Floyd guides you to multiple sources of learning: field guides, phone apps, online resources for songs and calls, record and list-keeping, etc.
Herein lies the problem. Floyd's incredible wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm for sharing it means he has way TMI. Compressing it all into 200 one-page "lessons" is just too much to ask. The book also doesn't seem to quite know who it wants its audience to be, so it throws it all out there and hopes it will stick where needed. I consider myself an intermediate-level birder: I know a Dowitcher from a Yellowlegs, I'm pretty good with sparrows, have to look up swallows every spring to remember who's who, and my life list (the only one I keep) is about 300. (I do NOT do gulls!) So some of the information was basic for me, but would be very helpful for someone whose interest has just been piqued by a "spark bird." But Lesson 25 seems to be too much AND too soon to tackle "status and distribution, the calculus of a species' occurrence within a given range." I boggled at the breakdown of subspecies groups of Catharus [Hermit Thrushes]. When he got to molting patterns (eclipse, nuptial, prebasic, alternate...) and spectrograms for song identification, I was way out of my depth - and with only a page or two to cover it, didn't break the surface. The most fun chapters covered Things Birders Do (list, travel, chase, Big Days / Years...); how to learn to bird (alone, or with someone...); books vs electronic sources. There is arcana about bird naming and speciation according to the ABA that may thrill some listers, but not this one.
There are also curious omissions: a basic discussion of binoculars and spotting scopes might have been useful for novices looking to upgrade from the KMart bins they found in their uncle's attic; there is no discussion of guidelines for luring birds with recordings. He tends to assume that everyone plans to photograph and record birds on their cellphones, and that most people will get into elaborate listing schemes. One reason I finally dropped off the online discussion group BirdChat years ago was because it had rather devolved into more discussions of gear and lenses than birds. Chops to him for recommending "bare naked birding" (birding with just your eyes); but what he calls "patchwork" birding (birding often and intimately in a favorite single location) is glossed over rather briefly.
Perhaps the best result from reading this book might be that it will help you figure out just what kind of birder you want to be: a backyard observer, an international chaser, a serious photographer, a citizen scientist submitting data for analysis by observatories and research centers... all good! Maybe don't sit down and read this cover to cover: dip in and out to the chapters that speak to you where you are.
But the bottom line is: get out there. Find some birds. He draws a parallel with going to an art museum, which resonated with this old art history student: identify patterns, recognize individuals, and most of all, savor the aesthetics. Do you want to study every painting and drawing Rembrandt ever made? Or would you rather marvel at the van Gogh in one room and the ancient Cycladic Greek sculpture in the next? You might stumble across a Kandinsky that blows you away. Find 'em, love 'em, look 'em up, learn about 'em, and your life will be all the richer.
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