Birds of the World

DK Smithsonian Handbooks

by D.K. Publishing, Alan Greensmith, Colin James Oliver Harrison (Editor)

Shows and describes more than eight hundred species, and provides information on distribution, characteristics, and behavior.

Genres: Birds, Nonfiction, Reference, Animals, Nature, Science, Biology

416 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 1993

About the author

Dorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.

Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Colleen Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Unle Alsn Greensmith. Though passed a while back. I am very happy that his work is doing well, still. He was always traveling. Although his Aunt, my grandmother live in the States , he always had time to chat. Spent his life on birds. 🦜

[Hannah Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

What do you know about the hyacinth macaw ?? Did you know that they are the tallest species of macaw ?? Or that they are native to South America ?? If you didn’t know this before, you definitely will after reading this book…. (And maybe you’ll find other birds/ducks to peak your interest 🤭😉)

[Red · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good guide, likely somewhat outdated now. Great illustrations.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great illustrations, succinctly descriptive of behavior and small enough to carry around while birding without too much inconvenience.

[Jennefer Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative but really very few birds that i was familiar with were discussed.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like any book of world birds which is limited to any reasonable size, this one covers only a small fraction of the species: "only" 800 (a roughly US-size selection), or about 1 out 12 of world species. So it is not useful as a local guide for anywhere in the world. And its incompleteness makes it fairly useless as a true reference book, but, in true DK-fashion, the presentation is certainly beautiful. Its selection of species covers pretty much all the families of birds via representatives. Each of the selected species is covered in some detail. So this book seems to be conveying the message that birds are beautiful, diverse and fascinating, and there are lots of them, and there is a lot of information out there about them, and even though this book is really thick, this is, in fact, just a tiny glimpse. But, as I said, it is a pretty book, so one could, from time to time, just open it at random, like a coffee-table book, and read about a bird or two. I did read it cover-to-cover, though, as very few people would, I expect.

[Bre Teschendorf · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has taught me so much and really helped me to start "birding". I use it (almost) daily and enjoy flipping through it and reading about the different birds, if I have seen them or not, very much.

It is hard to find a book for the "world" rather than a region and as I have used it in 2 continents (so far!) I really appreciate the wide variety... Also, looking at birds from the entire world is inspiring! I can't wait to go see some of those gorgeous Australian birds.

I love this book.

[Cws]

J598Har

[carl theaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok it's a reference, haven't read the entire thing, but use for backyard research. Haven't spotted any condors yet.

[Rrb17960 · Rating 4 out of 5]

i like book .it a info book . it about how the birds live in he wild how the make they nest

[Emiline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for info! It's formatted great!