The Joy of Bird Feeding: The Essential Guide to Attracting and Feeding Our Backyard Birds

by Jim Carpenter

The Joy of Bird Feeding is the ultimate reference for backyard bird watchers and bird feeders. It offers practical tips and solutions to attracting and identifying birds, offering the best foods for the birds you want to see, and how to deter those unwanted guests to feeding stations. Each chapter focuses on an important aspect of the hobby and guides readers to the essential steps of bird feeding mastery: Founder of Wild Birds Unlimited, Jim Carpenter brings a lifelong passion for birds and bird feeding along with real solutions to make anyone’s backyard a paradise for the birds and for bird watchers.

Genres: Birds, Nonfiction, Nature, Animals, Ornithology

432 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2017

About the author

In 1981, Jim Carpenter opened a 700 square foot retail shop on the north side of Indianapolis and named it Wild Birds Unlimited. This unique shop, one of the few open in North America at the time, specialized in all of the supplies that help people attract and enjoy birds in their backyard. Today, there are 300 Wild Birds Unlimited stores in the United States and Canada offering high quality products and customer service to people who love to feed the birds.

Reviews

[Sheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best and most comprehensive book on bird feeding that I've ever read. Authored by the founder of Wild Birds Unlimited.

The contents cover how to choose the right foods, what type of feeders to use and where to locate them, and how to deter unwanted animals at the feeders. Includes a guide to feeder birds (about 180 common, uncommon, or regionally restricted birds) with pictures, range maps, and details about what they eat and how they behave at feeders. At the back of the book there is also a listing of the top 25 birds most frequently seen at feeders in each state and Canadian province.

Highly recommended for those looking to attract more birds to their yard or solve common bird feeding issues.

[Nostalgia Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent and comprehensive guide for anyone who loves bird feeding or is wanting to get into the hobby. Even if you've been feeding for years, there's still plenty of useful tidbits to gain from this.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giving this a 4 for the wealth of information it contains. I've never seen a bird book that covers as much practical information as this one does. Nice folksy way of writing also. I'm not giving a 5 because a lot of the info was repeated at times; also, although the author does include other companies' products from time to time, he used the book as an extensive platform to advertise his own products. His prerogative, of course, but a little off-putting to this reader. Nevertheless, a good read to end the year.

[Jrobert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful comprehensive book on the feeding of birds in your backyard. I wanted to learn how to become “seasonally savvy” so to attract those birds migrating as well as those whom I have year round. It’s fun to watch the birds come and go with the seasons. This book also has pictures of the birds, maps of their migration patterns as well as what to feed to attract these beautiful creatures using various types of feeders.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This very beautiful, descriptive, well photographed book captured my attention for several hours. The author happens to be the owner of "Wild Birds Unlimited" bird stores around the country and you could see that he was very obviously advertising his wares in this book, which I was perfectly okay with. The information about having a "thoughtful birding station" was so true, as I have had personal experience with this myself. If you do not put a lot of thought into where and with what you will be feeding your birds with, there can be disastrous consequences (birds killed by predators, disease, chemicals, etc.). So much valuable information in this beautiful book. The pictures of 180 feeder birds were so beautiful and were not just drawings, which I have found to be the case in other books I have read. I gained a lot of knowledge and practical advice from this book and now I can't wait for Spring to arrive so that I can make changes in my yard.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing book, very complete, great details on birds and their feeding. love the detaiked photos.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so much more useful than I expected for an impulse purchase. I was in my local WBU store, and wanted something that would be an all encompassing guide as I got started on bird feeding. This really blew me away, and even though it’s written by the founder of WBU, I felt he encouraged birdwatchers to make their own decisions and explained how to analyze the content of different bird feeds and feeder types based on the important elements rather than brand name. It’s a great coffee table book and I find myself grabbing it and using the bird photo guide section frequently to confirm the ID of birds in my yard. This was a really fun read; very entertaining, and I would highly recommend this book!

[Stanley Dunagin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I have ever read on the subject. A highly recommended read before seriously getting into the hobby. It will save you a lot of time and money. It starts with the basics; which feeders to purchase, setting up feeding stations, and which types of bird foods to purchase and which ones to avoid. There is a very nice bird identification section, of the top birds that come to bird feeders. The book ends with activities for the advanced hobbyist and citizen scientist programs that they can participate in.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. Lots of good tips and tricks about the various ways to place bird feeders in your yard, the type of bird feeders to use in different situations, and even the various types of seeds and leftovers that can be fed to the birds. Really enjoyed it and learned a ton of new information.

[Birdie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by the founder of Wild Birds Unlimited, this book will give you all the guidance you need to draw birds in close for observation and enjoyment. Jim Carpenter explains types of food to start with, feeders, environment, how to deal with critters, wind, and more. Excellent.

[Chris Sweigard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tremendous resource for the hobby of backyard burdfeeding. It is virtually flawlessly edited as well.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great resource for all your questions about bird feeding! 😊

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well designed to cover all the basics, from food to feeders to bird ID. Some good DIY recipes for different foods as well.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly informative and easy to read for those of us just getting started.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book on birds and bird feeding!! Love, love Wild Birds Unlimited.