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A review by sindri_inn_arsaeli
How to Know the Birds: The Art and Adventure of Birding by Ted Floyd
5.0
This quietly wonderful book is one that I may not crow about to every other book lover I know, but which I will still cherish and re-read for years to come.
This is not a bird guide, or even strictly a birding guide. It does not tell you in methodical terms how to make a field ID, what to wear and bring, or how to act on a birding venture. This is a subtle, yet often lyrical, celebration of birds and birders and every step forward that avian science and birding has made for that past half century!
Ted Floyd's short essays, (each topic is restricted to a single page,) are easy to read in whatever stolen moments you may have, and each one can be read on its own as well as in its place in the whole. His background in magazine editing is a strong asset here. While some of the topics may seem truncated or vague, almost incomplete, their purpose is always to make the reader think about the topic presented, without giving a ready conclusion to accept or reject. This book is easily read by both long practicing birders and those who have just met their "spark bird". Floyd expertly defines any technical terms in easy and quick to understand language, and he offers links directly in the text to any on line references.
More than any of the technical qualifications and the expert background he offers, his pure joy is pervasive and contagious. His own sense of wonder, for the birds, yes, but also for the advances and evolutions of we humans watching them, is wholesome and gratifying. He is ecstatic about what people pre internet accomplished as a global community with just phones and early listservs, and he marvels at the inclusiveness of the lastest technology behind eBird, and all the while he waxes poetic about the joys and benefits of "bare-naked" birding without phone apps, cameras, and binoculars. He revels in thinking of sharing birding with the youngest generation, and in reaching out to the new initiate who still balks at traditional dawn excursions. His overarching theme is one of finding beauty and joy in a fellow species, and sometimes discovering something about ourselves in the process.
I have read an entire book of essays by a different birder attempting to do exactly that, (self-discovery through watching the birds,) and Floyd managed to be more rewarding on this subject, while simultaneously also actually teaching more about birds that I expected. I may not be any better at the end of this book at IDing a fox sparrow from a swamp sparrow, but my range of appreciation for all things bird, and many things human, has grown. It was a pleasure I will gladly share with those I know will appreciate it.
This is not a bird guide, or even strictly a birding guide. It does not tell you in methodical terms how to make a field ID, what to wear and bring, or how to act on a birding venture. This is a subtle, yet often lyrical, celebration of birds and birders and every step forward that avian science and birding has made for that past half century!
Ted Floyd's short essays, (each topic is restricted to a single page,) are easy to read in whatever stolen moments you may have, and each one can be read on its own as well as in its place in the whole. His background in magazine editing is a strong asset here. While some of the topics may seem truncated or vague, almost incomplete, their purpose is always to make the reader think about the topic presented, without giving a ready conclusion to accept or reject. This book is easily read by both long practicing birders and those who have just met their "spark bird". Floyd expertly defines any technical terms in easy and quick to understand language, and he offers links directly in the text to any on line references.
More than any of the technical qualifications and the expert background he offers, his pure joy is pervasive and contagious. His own sense of wonder, for the birds, yes, but also for the advances and evolutions of we humans watching them, is wholesome and gratifying. He is ecstatic about what people pre internet accomplished as a global community with just phones and early listservs, and he marvels at the inclusiveness of the lastest technology behind eBird, and all the while he waxes poetic about the joys and benefits of "bare-naked" birding without phone apps, cameras, and binoculars. He revels in thinking of sharing birding with the youngest generation, and in reaching out to the new initiate who still balks at traditional dawn excursions. His overarching theme is one of finding beauty and joy in a fellow species, and sometimes discovering something about ourselves in the process.
I have read an entire book of essays by a different birder attempting to do exactly that, (self-discovery through watching the birds,) and Floyd managed to be more rewarding on this subject, while simultaneously also actually teaching more about birds that I expected. I may not be any better at the end of this book at IDing a fox sparrow from a swamp sparrow, but my range of appreciation for all things bird, and many things human, has grown. It was a pleasure I will gladly share with those I know will appreciate it.