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Listening to a Continent Sing: Birdsong by Bicycle from the Atlantic to the Pacific
A birdsong expert's poignant and beautifully illustrated memoir of a bicycle journey across America with his son
Join birdsong expert Donald Kroodsma on a ten-week, ten-state bicycle journey as he travels with his son from the Atlantic to the Pacific, lingering and listening to our continent sing as no one has before. On remote country roads, over terrain vast and spectacular, from dawn to dusk and sometimes through the night, you will gain a deep appreciation for the natural symphony of birdsong many of us take for granted. Come along and marvel at how expressive these creatures are as Kroodsma leads you west across nearly five thousand miles―at a leisurely pace that enables a deep listen.
Listening to a Continent Sing is also a guided tour through the history of a young nation and the geology of an ancient landscape, and an invitation to set aside the bustle of everyday life to follow one's dreams. It is a celebration of flowers and trees, rocks and rivers, mountains and prairies, clouds and sky, headwinds and calm, and of local voices and the people you will meet along the way. It is also the story of a father and son deepening their bond as they travel the slow road together from coast to coast.
Beautifully illustrated throughout with drawings of birds and scenes and featuring QR codes that link to audio birdsong, this poignant and insightful book takes you on a travel adventure unlike any other―accompanied on every leg of your journey by birdsong.
Join birdsong expert Donald Kroodsma on a ten-week, ten-state bicycle journey as he travels with his son from the Atlantic to the Pacific, lingering and listening to our continent sing as no one has before. On remote country roads, over terrain vast and spectacular, from dawn to dusk and sometimes through the night, you will gain a deep appreciation for the natural symphony of birdsong many of us take for granted. Come along and marvel at how expressive these creatures are as Kroodsma leads you west across nearly five thousand miles―at a leisurely pace that enables a deep listen.
Listening to a Continent Sing is also a guided tour through the history of a young nation and the geology of an ancient landscape, and an invitation to set aside the bustle of everyday life to follow one's dreams. It is a celebration of flowers and trees, rocks and rivers, mountains and prairies, clouds and sky, headwinds and calm, and of local voices and the people you will meet along the way. It is also the story of a father and son deepening their bond as they travel the slow road together from coast to coast.
Beautifully illustrated throughout with drawings of birds and scenes and featuring QR codes that link to audio birdsong, this poignant and insightful book takes you on a travel adventure unlike any other―accompanied on every leg of your journey by birdsong.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published May 3, 2016
20 people are currently reading
469 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 30, 2016
This is a comprehensive book. Topics include history, geology, parent-child relationships, and yes...birdsong. Father and son bike across the United States, east to west. The rigors of the trip are enormous. The father is dedicated to studying, to becoming intimate with birdsong--how the patterns change throughout the day and why. Even the drawings of birds are extensive and detailed.
It is important to note that the author is a birder who recognizes birds primarily by their songs, rather by sight. He rarely takes out his binoculars.
This is a book to travel with over a lifetime. As a beginning birder, I found the information overwhelming, like trying to bicycle across the country in a few days. But I know it is there, waiting to guide me as I learn more about birds. For an experienced birder, this book would be a joy.
It is important to note that the author is a birder who recognizes birds primarily by their songs, rather by sight. He rarely takes out his binoculars.
This is a book to travel with over a lifetime. As a beginning birder, I found the information overwhelming, like trying to bicycle across the country in a few days. But I know it is there, waiting to guide me as I learn more about birds. For an experienced birder, this book would be a joy.
August 24, 2019
Sparked so many happy memories of my own TransAm journey. Ended up skimming some of the bird sections, but I did listen to & enjoy the recorded songs on the website (since I can’t deal with downloading a QR code reader). I loved riding along vicariously w/ the author & witnessing his . . . awakening? transformation?
January 16, 2021
Incorporating the QR codes for audio in this book was a poor choice. I didn't like breaking my reading flow to pull out my phone, scan the code, and then listen to bird songs that were several minutes apiece. It would have been better to have shorter snippets of song if they were included at all. I eventually gave up on scanning all of the songs.
I also dropped a full star for the casual sexism from the son. It seemed like Dr. Kroodsma relays some of the David's behavior around women as a cute anecdote. It was so painfully obvious that David would only talk to women that he found attractive, but was more than happy to treat all the men the encounter as actual people. The most egregious example of this was when the pair were in a National Park and David tells his father that "[He] found the ranger's presentation on bats really interesting. But [he] lost interest when [he] spotted the wedding ring on her finger..."
I was surprised how much I didn't enjoy this book. I enjoy birding, bird song, and biking, but this book missed the mark for me.
I also dropped a full star for the casual sexism from the son. It seemed like Dr. Kroodsma relays some of the David's behavior around women as a cute anecdote. It was so painfully obvious that David would only talk to women that he found attractive, but was more than happy to treat all the men the encounter as actual people. The most egregious example of this was when the pair were in a National Park and David tells his father that "[He] found the ranger's presentation on bats really interesting. But [he] lost interest when [he] spotted the wedding ring on her finger..."
I was surprised how much I didn't enjoy this book. I enjoy birding, bird song, and biking, but this book missed the mark for me.
July 4, 2018
This is a fun account of a father/son cycling trip across the country from Virginia to Oregon mostly following the original Bikecentennial route (Adventure Cycling now). As both a cyclist and an amateur birder I enjoyed professor Kroodsma’s descriptions of the birds and people they encountered along the way. The QR birdsong tags are an added bonus. Be sure to read the sometimes fascinating descriptions included with this free add-on.
Great book.
Great book.
June 5, 2021
This is a really interesting and ambitious project. A book about a bike trip to follow the spring dawn chorus with plenty of sound clips scattered throughout. This is a fantastic book if you are interested in birdsong and bird dialects, which I am, but some of my favorite parts were the interactions with the humans which are woven into the story. The ending provided a human element that hits close to home.
April 19, 2018
The book is interesting but the author can get a little too deep into birdsong for me. I was getting a little bit frustrated trying to read every word but after I started skimming the deep birdsong analysis sections, I found it much more enjoyable.
July 19, 2023
Whoo boy, I understand that the author is enthusiastic, but if I were his son I would have gotten pretty tired of his nonstop "did you see it? did you hear it? you have to see it! do you know what it is?" commentary. I'm a birder and I thought man, take a break. I'm sure the trip was a lot of fun for the author.
It's cool to have QR codes that take you directly to birdsong.
A couple of reviews comment on something the son said - about his favorite dogs being the little ones he kicked into the ditch. If this was the author's attempt to show off his son as clever, it failed miserably. I understand that dogs can be a real danger to bikers, but don't be joking about physical violence to animals.
I did enjoy the delightful little drawings by Nancy Haver, and the visit to Ferne Clyffe State Park in southern Illinois. (We did not spend much time in Illinois.) I did not enjoy the endless litany of dead birds found along the way.
This book would have benefited from more general narrative about the trip, and less detail about specific birds and their songs. (I know, I can hardly believe I'm saying this.)
Book discussion tomorrow.
It's cool to have QR codes that take you directly to birdsong.
A couple of reviews comment on something the son said - about his favorite dogs being the little ones he kicked into the ditch. If this was the author's attempt to show off his son as clever, it failed miserably. I understand that dogs can be a real danger to bikers, but don't be joking about physical violence to animals.
I did enjoy the delightful little drawings by Nancy Haver, and the visit to Ferne Clyffe State Park in southern Illinois. (We did not spend much time in Illinois.) I did not enjoy the endless litany of dead birds found along the way.
This book would have benefited from more general narrative about the trip, and less detail about specific birds and their songs. (I know, I can hardly believe I'm saying this.)
Book discussion tomorrow.
July 18, 2023
This book is about a father and son who start on the east coast and finish their journey bicycling to the west coast. This book read a little like a textbook to me.
I enjoyed riding along on their trek listening to the awakening of sagebrush early in the morning awash with the sounds of a thousand tinkling bells. Crossing the mighty Mississippi River, stopping with them on a site where the Pony Express had a relay station. Standing on Indian ground with the horror in the pit of your stomach where warriors, woman and children were slaughtered. Traveling by part of the Lewis and Clark trail.
All of this along with the here and now as the father especially was attuned to the different birdsongs.
When it was said that David’s favorite dog is a little one he’s kicked in a ditch I’m hoping that is just a bad joke. (But it was that comment that dropped the star rating for me.)
I enjoyed riding along on their trek listening to the awakening of sagebrush early in the morning awash with the sounds of a thousand tinkling bells. Crossing the mighty Mississippi River, stopping with them on a site where the Pony Express had a relay station. Standing on Indian ground with the horror in the pit of your stomach where warriors, woman and children were slaughtered. Traveling by part of the Lewis and Clark trail.
All of this along with the here and now as the father especially was attuned to the different birdsongs.
When it was said that David’s favorite dog is a little one he’s kicked in a ditch I’m hoping that is just a bad joke. (But it was that comment that dropped the star rating for me.)
June 9, 2018
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A travelogue combined with birding and cycling. Donald Kroodsma is to birdsong what Bela Fleck is to the banjo. The book is also a great introduction to his son David Kroodsma who I am now very motivated to learn more about!
I read this book out loud from cover to cover and found my impressions of birdsong get significantly better as a result!
Highly recommended.
I read this book out loud from cover to cover and found my impressions of birdsong get significantly better as a result!
Highly recommended.
August 18, 2022
"My favorite dogs," David wrote in his journal yesterday, "are the little shitty ones who run up to my ankles and then I kick them into the ditch."
It would've been better if the author kicked David into the ditch and continued on without him, but here we are.
It would've been better if the author kicked David into the ditch and continued on without him, but here we are.
June 9, 2016
“Listening to a Continent Sing: Birdsong by Bicycle From the Atlantic to the Pacific” by birdsong expert Donald Kroodsma (Princeton University Press) was released this week just in time for Father’s Day.
The book chronicles the adventures of the author and his son, David, as they traveled along the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail from Yorktown, Virginia, to the Oregon Coast in 2003, listening to and recording the calls and songs of birds along the way.
While most cyclists start this trek at the Pacific to take advantage of the prevailing winds, they had several reasons for going the opposite direction. First of all, they reasoned that the sun would be at their backs. And as the sun sweeps from east to west, so does the birdsong. Starting in May, they could take advantage of the springtime birding through Virginia and Kentucky. If they chose to travel from west to east, they would arrive in those states during the heat of the summer and miss out on the springtime serenades.
Thirty-five years of scientific experience in ornithology enabled Kroodsma to not only identify the bird species, but to listen and understand what might be happening in their world. In the book he told his son, “I hear each bird not as a species to be identified and listed, which is a rather limited endgame, but as an individual with something to say, much as I listen to any human individual with something to say, not just someone to be identified. And when a bird sings or calls, it tells what is on its mind, which varies from moment to moment, so that every listen is new and different and interesting.”
Readers can listen to the birds heard along their nearly 5,000-mile journey by using a QR code reader on a smartphone to link to the audio recordings. A simple click on the code in the book will play the sounds of a particular bird. These 381 recordings include the sounds of caterwauling barred owls from the men’s first night in Virginia, to the duet of wrentits on their final day at Land’s End, Oregon.
While the book may be categorized as a birding adventure, it is also the story of a father and son deepening their bond as they cycled by day and camped by night together for 10 weeks. At the time, David had just graduated from college, while his father was struggling with the decision whether to leave his professorship at the University of Massachusetts. Through it all, they manage to appreciate each other’s philosophies and habits. David believed it “best not to get up before the sun,” while his father enjoyed the birds’ finest hour before dawn.
The book chronicles the adventures of the author and his son, David, as they traveled along the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail from Yorktown, Virginia, to the Oregon Coast in 2003, listening to and recording the calls and songs of birds along the way.
While most cyclists start this trek at the Pacific to take advantage of the prevailing winds, they had several reasons for going the opposite direction. First of all, they reasoned that the sun would be at their backs. And as the sun sweeps from east to west, so does the birdsong. Starting in May, they could take advantage of the springtime birding through Virginia and Kentucky. If they chose to travel from west to east, they would arrive in those states during the heat of the summer and miss out on the springtime serenades.
Thirty-five years of scientific experience in ornithology enabled Kroodsma to not only identify the bird species, but to listen and understand what might be happening in their world. In the book he told his son, “I hear each bird not as a species to be identified and listed, which is a rather limited endgame, but as an individual with something to say, much as I listen to any human individual with something to say, not just someone to be identified. And when a bird sings or calls, it tells what is on its mind, which varies from moment to moment, so that every listen is new and different and interesting.”
Readers can listen to the birds heard along their nearly 5,000-mile journey by using a QR code reader on a smartphone to link to the audio recordings. A simple click on the code in the book will play the sounds of a particular bird. These 381 recordings include the sounds of caterwauling barred owls from the men’s first night in Virginia, to the duet of wrentits on their final day at Land’s End, Oregon.
While the book may be categorized as a birding adventure, it is also the story of a father and son deepening their bond as they cycled by day and camped by night together for 10 weeks. At the time, David had just graduated from college, while his father was struggling with the decision whether to leave his professorship at the University of Massachusetts. Through it all, they manage to appreciate each other’s philosophies and habits. David believed it “best not to get up before the sun,” while his father enjoyed the birds’ finest hour before dawn.
August 16, 2016
This book covers a lot of ground! It isn't just the bird song, but history, geology etc. A really interesting book.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews