Celebrating Birds: An Interactive Field Guide Featuring Art from Wingspan – A Stunning Cornell Lab Resource on North American Ornithology and Ecology

by Natalia Rojas, Ana Maria Martinez

A gorgeously illustrated and interactive full-color guide to more than 181 birds of North America, based on the bestselling board game, Wingspan.

Praised for its gorgeous illustrations, accurate portrayal of bird habitats, and its gameplay, the bird-focused board game Wingspan has become an international sensation, available in a dozen languages and selling more than 200,000 copies its first year. Celebrating Birds is the ultimate companion to the game for fans, as well as a beautiful and in-depth field guide for avian and nature enthusiasts. In addition to large-size representations of each bird and the most up-to-date bird descriptions provided by Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Celebrating Birds includes a step-by-step guide that can be used to take the game into the real world. Players can collect points based on the birds, nests, and various habitat and feeding clues they find outside. Artists and best friends Natalia Rojas and Ana Maria Martinez collaborated to create the beautiful depictions featured in the original Wingspan board game. Celebrating Birds features larger illustrations of the 170 North American birds from the game, plus eleven exciting new birds. With Celebrating Birds, players and amateur naturalists can discover details about many of the birds currently at risk for extinction. As the number of birds in the United States and Canada has declined precipitously, Celebrating Birds is a fun way to raise awareness, educate, encourage activism, and provide resources on some of the most important ecological issues facing us today.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Birds, Science, Animals, Art, Ornithology

352 pages, Hardcover

Published April 6, 2021

Reviews

[Rae (Rachel) Lipkin-Bajor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must have for any novice or expert birdwatcher! So fun and the illustrations are gorgeous!

[Rebecca Thomason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book. This is a great guide for learning basic info about these birds in the Americas. I love the little touches of random facts. The fact that they created a little bird watching game akin to Wingspan the board game is very cute. What a fun idea. My only wish is that these brilliant artists spoil us with some pics of the females, too. I find they are more difficult to identify and I am more of a visual person than able to picture them from the descriptions.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy bird watching and learning about birds mostly in North America, I highly recommend checking out this book.

Full of beautiful illustrations, brief history about some of the birds and interesting facts, it was such a fun book to read and learn new things about some of the birds and learn about other birds I hadn't heard of before.

Looking forward to reading more books in the future that have a similar theme!

[Tenika Fontana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got this audiobook as an accompaniment to the board game, Wingspan. It's fantastic if you love birbs, lol. There is an introduction for the authors, but otherwise, it's ~2min segments of birdcalls, then the bird name, stats and information, including a "Cool fact!" at the end. Delightful. You can learn A LOT in a short time about all kinds of North American birbs. And you can tell the people really care about birb conservation.

[Natalie Prince · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and informative! I love the artwork so much, I borrowed this book from the library but I might need to get my own copy🤓💕 the only thing I didn’t like was that there were no maps for the birds ranges, I don’t know if it can be called a field guide without that. Regardless, I enjoyed it very much!

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an amazingly well illustrated bird book. With text from Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and interactive game include and the lovely illustrations by two female Colombian illustrators, this is a must for any birder’s library.
If there was some geographic information on each bird it would be 5 stars!

[H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether you like the art (of the board game Wingspan) or birds in general, read this book! The short descriptions of the birds are entertaining and informative; the art superb. Would def rec this!

[Candice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect for fans of Winspan (the game), new birders and kids. Each bird features art, a conversational description and fun facts.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book with full page gloss drawings in full color. What a great way to celebrate birds.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book perfect for novice and experienced birdwatchers. Each bird is uniquely described with a fun fact and beautiful illustration.

[Ross Mckinney · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fan of "Wingspan," this book is a nice adjunct, giving you key facts about most of birds in the game pack. I enjoyed it. Fun for birders. However, it's not exactly plot rich.

[Tom Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Wingspan the game. The art is gorgeous. It's nice seeing it here in a larger size.
The outdoor birding game leaves a little to be desired.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, interesting, and informative book. And fun fact— there is an audiobook, and it is AMAZING. Listening to the descriptions and calls has really helped me learn my birds.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the illustrations and quick facts about a variety of birds!

[cat]

Beautiful art from the board game Wingspan, but very short entries about each bird.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book about birds. Sadly, no help playing the game.

[Nancy Angiers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book, fantastic art, informative - board game art has come a long way!

[Cyndy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a variety of birds included. There are 181 birds included in the book along with information tied to the Wingspan game. Each bird section is fairly short, generally two paragraphs. There is some standard information, bird name, scientific name, order, family, hand drawn art, and a fun fact. Other information that is generally included is bird call, places they might be found (farms in summer), nesting materials and location, contact with others of their kind, and migration. There are a few links from one bird to other birds in the book, but I didn't notice any links back. This is probably a good first book for reading children of birders, but I'm not a parent, so I might not be the best judge of this.

[Nick Angiers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book based on a board game about birds. I never would have guessed that I needed this in my life. The book is gorgeous, and filled with really interesting facts about birds. I hope they make more of these for the expansions.

[Karlissa J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful and playful exploration of North America's birds!

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit odd as an audiobook, but I enjoyed hearing the bird calls interspersed with the bird descriptions.