How to be a Better Birder

by Derek Lovitch

The essential tools you need to become a better birder

This unique illustrated handbook provides all the essential tools you need to become a better birder. Here Derek Lovitch offers a more effective way to go about identification―he calls it the "Whole Bird and More" approach―that will enable you to identify more birds, more quickly, more of the time. He demonstrates how to use geography and an understanding of habitats, ecology, and even the weather to enrich your birding experience and help you find something out of the ordinary. Lovitch shows how to track nocturnal migrants using radar, collect data for bird conservation, discover exciting rarities, develop patch lists―and much more.

This is the ideal resource for intermediate and advanced birders. Whether you want to build a bigger list or simply learn more about birds, How to Be a Better Birder will take your birding skills to the next level.

Genres: Birds, Nature, Nonfiction, Reference, Science

208 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 2012

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I may have read this book a bit prematurely. I've only recently started birding in earnest. and while there is some fantastic information here, I'm not sure I was ready for it. I'm still working through the basics, I suppose.

Lovitch's enthusiasm for his topic really shines through. It makes me happy that Princeton University Press didn't reign in his exclamation points too much. Or maybe they did? Still, I loved how much he loves what he knows and how badly he wants to share it. Chapter include how to use habitat, weather, geography, and overnight weather radar to identify and find birds. He's most enthusiastic when discussing finding rarities, which I get, but this was really advanced stuff for me. Also, understandably, considering where he lives, he uses the Maine coast for a lot of his examples. His local geography does illustrate his points, but it's not my geography, so...

I'll probably come back to this book when I feel I need it. I just hope it hasn't aged to much. It's almost 10 years old now, and already some of the technology and online resources he discusses have changed a lot. Hopefully, he'll write a new edition of this.

[Paul Kinzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book describes a number of techniques for learning how to see a wider variety of birds while bird watching, from basic habitat & geography, to advanced techinques of weather monitoring and doppler radar analysis. I probably fall in the late-beginner stage of birding experience, a mere 258 life birds in my home state of WI - so some was review for me, though most was new. The stuff about weather and radar gets pretty involved, frankly some of which is tough to follow. The book spends most of its time describing these techniques in the context of the northeast US coast (NJ to ME), so would be most useful to birders living there, less so for midwest folks like me. Still, I learned a few things that I can apply, and also learned a few things that I'm not yet obsessive enough to want to study. I expect this will be a useful reference down the road. While I'm glad to have read it, no book I've come across yet is as helpful as simply spending time on the field, learning on the fly. :)

[Bill Grabin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first Goodreads review of a birding book! I own and have read countless ones, but I usually use them more for reference, rather than reading them straight through.

I know Derek and I'm afraid this book had been sitting on my shelf for years. I've looked at it a fair number of times, but finally picked it up the other day with the clear intention to go right through it. I did, and I wasn't disappointed. A wealth of interesting as well as quite helpful information. Paying attention to weather patterns to guide one's birding is one particular focus of his.

It also provides a wealth of followup resources, both books and websites. Plenty to keep me busy for the foreseeable future. Thanks Derek!

[Stephen Dunstan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw this when Princeton had a flash sale, but picked up a second hand copy. I was concerned it might be a bit out of date, but it isn't really. Low carbon birding and ebird are included, so the main change since it was written is thermal image technology.

Derek's style is very readable. If you're in the defined target of non-beginner birders you probably won't learn that much, but it’s a well written relatively concise book that is a good way of rekindling enthusiasm to go out birding more.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This guy really knows his stuff! I was afraid this book would be too advanced for me and it is, but I think I still learned a lot - and I can come back to it when I’m really ready for the more advanced stuff. My interest in birding is clearly more casual than Lovitch’s but I really appreciate his knowledge and his suggestions of other resources to consult for the basics and for more advanced topics.

[Gv · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5
A number of interesting techniques, but does not really fit the kind of birding I am interested in. Birding as a sport (getting as many birds as possible, the best ones and counting points) has never been my cup of tea and this book emphasizes this aspect quite heavily, making it less relevant for me.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great general topics. A bit dated at this point, particularly regarding the weather section on birding by radar. Birdcast makes viewing migration simpler.

[Dorothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Birders, even non-competitive backyard birders like myself, are always looking for something that will give them that extra edge as they pursue their winged quarry for the purposes of identification and listing. Because, let me tell you, birding is hard. Birds almost never cooperate. They flit around, constantly in motion, as you try to follow them with your binoculars, and just when you get focused in, zip! They're gone. Frustrating little critters. Warblers are the worst.

But help is on the way. Derek Lovitch has written a book which is useful for birders at any level of proficiency from the beginner to the obsessive lister.

It is a short book, only 179 pages in the edition which I read, and very accessible. He explores best practices and gives tips on advanced field identification, birding at night, birding and habitat, geography, and weather. He writes about how to anticipate vagrants, those birds that show up in wildly out-of-range places where they really shouldn't be. Understanding the area that you are birding and knowing what is likely to be found there, as well as having some idea of what might turn up unexpectedly, is more than half the battle in this hobby.

One thing that I particularly liked about Lovitch's book was his emphasis on "birding with purpose." He is (as I am) an enthusiastic proponent of citizen science projects. He argues for the importance of birders of all levels participating in events such as the Christmas Bird Count, Great Backyard Bird Count, and Project FeederWatch and he strongly advocates for birders contributing checklists to the online data collecting resource, eBird. The data collected by all these citizen science projects are important to the efforts of conservationists to protect and defend birds and their habitats.

Lovitch has a clear and readable style of writing and he includes links to additional resources for readers who want to learn more about a specific subject. No matter what being a "better birder" means to you, this is a book that can help you reach your goal.

(A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher for the purposes of this review.)

[Corrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book could be useful to all levels of birder, from those just starting out looking for and identifying birds, to more "expert" birders. I know that it has helped me become a better birder already, and I plan to look back through it in years to come. There is so much information and so many tips or techniques he suggests (such as various resources to research before heading out into the field, or specific tricks like using weather radar to track bird migrations) there is no way you could adopt them all at once. There are also many resources listed in each chapter, giving opportunities to find out more on the subjects that interest or apply to the reader most. It is true, as some other reviewers have noted, that a large portion of his examples relate to the east coast (of North America); however the overall topics he talks about can be applied to just about any area.

[Trish Remley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chad and I went on a combination birds and beers day trip with this author. Birding first - craft beers later riding the Maine Brew Bus. Enjoyed the focus on shore birds and finally walking the Scarborough marsh. How to Be a Better Birder had many interesting topics I never thought about before. Besides birding by habitat and geography, this book also addresses birding and weather (the use of regular radar to help determine in what direction and how many birds may be migrating and possibly where they might be landing was especially interesting), birding at night (not what you think), and how to increase your odds of finding vagrants and specific bird species in general. This book does not take long to read and if you like birding I can just about guarantee you will get some worth while information from it.

[David R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovitch's approach to the Birder Improvement genre is better-than-average, but is rather more out-of-left-field as well. For one, he's a devotee of the "whole bird" method of identification, putting him squarely opposite the Petersonians (i.e., ID via field marks). He's also obsessed with arcana of geography and meteorology, making him the first birder I've encountered in any way who uses overnight doppler radio images as a critical resource. I think most beginning and intermediate birders will find Lovitch's method difficult to aspire to. But we must give him points for a different perspective.

[Chris Leuchtenburg · Rating 2 out of 5]

As an avid birder with intermediate skills, I really wanted to learn from this book. Unfortunately, it contains very little advice, useful or otherwise. The best content is a few references to other sources, birdingonthe.Net and some books on bird migration. It did motivate me to spend some time learning how to read the weather radar, but it provided very little guidance on how to do that. Repeatedly, his advice boils down to "get out into the field and look at birds." Disappointing.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful read for birders looking to develop their birding (especially bird-finding) skills. There is a strong emphasis on using clues like habitat and weather to find uncommon species. Specific examples for how to do this generally come from New Jersey and Maine, since Lovitch has done most of his birding in those two states.

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much help--a rarities guy.

[Kerry]

I have to put this on hold for a bit; I have too many library books and Book Club books to read at the moment. (6/3/14)

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will never be the kind of birder this book is written for. That being said, I did lean a lot and
found out about a lot of good resources. I also felt validated for the way I enjoy birding.

[Marla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read through this how-to on the plane rides to and from family reunion in Florida. Some good tips for specific areas, what is what I wanted.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out promising, but the focus on rarities and eastern US birding didn't relate to my area.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what I was getting into with this book and was pleasantly surprised by the content. I enjoy birds and birdwatching at our feeders in the backyard. I can now see a whole new dimension to the process of birding and look forward to applying many of the concepts to develop my own "patch" and "patch list ". It was slow to start and got better the deeper into the book you got. Good read especially if you are a birder to start with!