For The Birds: An Uncommon Guide

by Laura Erickson

In 365 day-by-day sketches, Laura Erickson brings more than 250 birds right into your living room-from rare hawk owls to elusive sedge wrens to plastic lawn flamingos. Light-hearted, yet authoritative, For the Birds is brimming with fascinating birdlore. Did you know that you can mail three chickadees with a single stamp? That Black-billed Cuckoos flourish on a diet of army worms? That winter finches are especially attracted to feeders offering grit and eggshells? Enjoy Laura’s entertaining observations and record your own in For the Bird s-an uncommon guide.

Paperback

First published October 1, 1993

Reviews

[ELDEE · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a bird watchers journal. Every day of the year she researches a bird and reports info or personal experience about the observed bird. It makes for a good read and a great reference.

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mother was the nature lover in our family, and I inherited this book from her. But as a life-long New York City resident, I do appreciate the field guides she gathered. It's great how they can make you better appreciate your surroundings, by helping you identify the fauna and flora around you. Above all though, my mother was a birder--and I know this book gave her a lot of pleasure. It's not the usual guide book, but a portrait of a different bird for every day of the year--oriented towards Michigan, where Erickson lives. Today is September 16, for instance, and if you turn to the page for that day you'll find an entry about the warbler, and their migration by night along Lake Superior, with lines for notes of your own. I admit that orientation does make this book less appealing to me, and no doubt I appreciate it less not being the birder my mother was.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laura Erickson is my favorite bird author. She didn't start birding until after she got married and got her first bird book for Christmas.

[RH Walters · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm always ducking in and out of this book at certain times for certain birds and it's unfailingly delightful and enlightening.