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523 books
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105 voters
Ornithology Books
Showing 1-50 of 1,653
The Genius of Birds (Hardcover)
by (shelved 48 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.04 — 13,947 ratings — published 2016
The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think (Hardcover)
by (shelved 23 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.23 — 4,318 ratings — published 2020
The Sibley Guide to Birds (Hardcover)
by (shelved 21 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.70 — 2,601 ratings — published 2000
The Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human (Hardcover)
by (shelved 20 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.13 — 3,818 ratings — published 2014
Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird (Hardcover)
by (shelved 18 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.07 — 1,662 ratings — published 2012
What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds (Hardcover)
by (shelved 17 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.14 — 7,396 ratings — published 2023
What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World (Hardcover)
by (shelved 16 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.11 — 1,693 ratings — published 2012
Handbook of Bird Biology (Hardcover)
by (shelved 15 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.65 — 193 ratings — published 2004
Mind of the Raven (Paperback)
by (shelved 15 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.00 — 4,305 ratings — published 1994
H is for Hawk (Hardcover)
by (shelved 14 times as ornithology)
avg rating 3.74 — 83,283 ratings — published 2014
The Bird: A Natural History of Who Birds Are, Where They Came From & How They Live (Hardcover)
by (shelved 14 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.07 — 420 ratings — published 2008
Manual of Ornithology: Avian Structure and Function (Paperback)
by (shelved 14 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.54 — 119 ratings — published 1993
What It's Like to Be a Bird: From Flying to Nesting, Eating to Singing—What Birds Are Doing, and Why (Hardcover)
by (shelved 13 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.42 — 2,549 ratings — published 2020
Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding: Understanding What You See and Hear (Hardcover)
by (shelved 13 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.48 — 298 ratings — published 1990
Ornithology (Hardcover)
by (shelved 13 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.34 — 244 ratings — published 1989
The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior (Hardcover)
by (shelved 13 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.47 — 1,158 ratings — published 2001
The Life of Birds (Hardcover)
by (shelved 12 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.42 — 2,060 ratings — published 1998
The Bedside Book of Birds: An Avian Miscellany (Hardcover)
by (shelved 12 times as ornithology)
avg rating 3.75 — 812 ratings — published 2005
The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America (Paperback)
by (shelved 12 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.67 — 1,597 ratings — published 2003
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America (Paperback)
by (shelved 11 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.43 — 2,562 ratings — published 1983
Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle (Hardcover)
by (shelved 11 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.13 — 1,838 ratings — published 2001
The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time (Paperback)
by (shelved 11 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.17 — 10,047 ratings — published 1994
Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and Jays (Paperback)
by (shelved 11 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.12 — 973 ratings — published 1995
The Backyard Bird Chronicles (Flexibound)
by (shelved 10 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.02 — 16,882 ratings — published 2024
A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds (Hardcover)
by (shelved 10 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.19 — 2,211 ratings — published 2021
Ten Thousand Birds: Ornithology since Darwin (Hardcover)
by (shelved 10 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.33 — 61 ratings — published 2014
Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans (Hardcover)
by (shelved 10 times as ornithology)
avg rating 3.94 — 2,200 ratings — published 2012
A Field Guide to Western Birds: A Completely New Guide to Field Marks of All Species Found in North America West of the 100th Meridian and North of Mexico (Hardcover)
by (shelved 10 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.42 — 550 ratings — published 1941
Sibley's Birding Basics (Sibley Guides)
by (shelved 10 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.26 — 1,030 ratings — published 2002
The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America (Paperback)
by (shelved 10 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.72 — 1,071 ratings — published 2003
Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History, from Cave Art to Conservation (Hardcover)
by (shelved 9 times as ornithology)
avg rating 3.82 — 668 ratings — published 2022
The Peregrine (Paperback)
by (shelved 9 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.15 — 6,138 ratings — published 1967
A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey (Hardcover)
by (shelved 8 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.17 — 3,041 ratings — published 2021
Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl (Hardcover)
by (shelved 8 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.19 — 6,496 ratings — published 2020
The Most Perfect Thing: Inside and Outside a Bird's Egg (Hardcover)
by (shelved 8 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.00 — 538 ratings — published 2016
A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America (Paperback)
by (shelved 8 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.44 — 1,904 ratings — published 1980
Kingbird Highway: The Biggest Year in the Life of an Extreme Birder (Paperback)
by (shelved 8 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.30 — 2,799 ratings — published 1997
Collins Bird Guide: The Most Complete Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe (Paperback)
by (shelved 8 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.71 — 928 ratings — published 1999
The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century (Paperback)
by (shelved 7 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.01 — 36,564 ratings — published 2018
The Warbler Guide (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 7 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.71 — 302 ratings — published 2013
The Unfeathered Bird (Hardcover)
by (shelved 7 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.62 — 111 ratings — published 2012
The Singing Life of Birds: The Art and Science of Listening to Birdsong (with CD)
by (shelved 7 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.27 — 272 ratings — published 2005
Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere With Migratory Birds (Paperback)
by (shelved 7 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.41 — 582 ratings — published 1999
Ravens in Winter (Paperback)
by (shelved 7 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.16 — 1,099 ratings — published 1989
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Region (Paperback)
by (shelved 7 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.30 — 1,104 ratings — published 1977
The Shorebird Guide (Paperback)
by (shelved 6 times as ornithology)
avg rating 4.66 — 172 ratings — published 2006
Mrs. Moreau's Warbler: How Birds Got Their Names (Hardcover)
by (shelved 6 times as ornithology)
avg rating 3.89 — 332 ratings — published 2018
One Wild Bird At A Time: Portraits of Individual Lives (Hardcover)
by (shelved 6 times as ornithology)
avg rating 3.88 — 1,168 ratings — published 2016
Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness (Hardcover)
by (shelved 6 times as ornithology)
avg rating 3.75 — 2,851 ratings — published 2009
Why Birds Sing: A Journey Into the Mystery of Bird Song (Paperback)
by (shelved 6 times as ornithology)
avg rating 3.51 — 208 ratings — published 2005
“The public space of the museum is not my favorite, loud and full of tourists and school groups and hungry hordes. Their curiosity is endearing---they're acolytes for the natural world. And the marble gleams with architectural detail and precious objects all around. But on these, my gray days, entering the building carries the weight of death: all the specimens, thousands of carcasses of every species, stuffed or otherwise retrieved from oblivion so we can know them, yet all dead. The birds I draw and paint, all dead. On these days, my only defense is to imagine every pinned butterfly taking wing, every stuffed marsupial waking up, every preserved plant specimen blooming and carpeting the marble floor like a time-lapse forest, and every bird coming to life, flying up to the dome and away. On the days when the fog comes and hooks into my gut like a sharp-toothed parasite, these visions can save me.
The steadier, more consistent salvation, of course, is the work. I can lose myself for hours drawing, for instance, the common loon, with its inky head, white banding at the neck, and an intricacy of pin dots and fractured rectangles cascading across the wings. With the right precision, I can bring the deadness of a bird skin to a striking facsimile of life.”
― The Marsh Queen
The steadier, more consistent salvation, of course, is the work. I can lose myself for hours drawing, for instance, the common loon, with its inky head, white banding at the neck, and an intricacy of pin dots and fractured rectangles cascading across the wings. With the right precision, I can bring the deadness of a bird skin to a striking facsimile of life.”
― The Marsh Queen
“To regain my equilibrium, I head for the corridor of bird skins. These are not taxidermied birds, not cute in any way. Still, it comforts me to open the wide, flat drawers and see them there, even if they are tied at the feet and devoid of the life conveyed in the average field guide. Ornithologists, it turns out, are both preservationists and murderers, learning how to scoop out a bird's innards and keep the feathers on. But as a bird skin, if properly prepared, can serve as a reference into the next century and beyond. Like this drawer full of cardinals: juveniles, males, females, specimens with winter plumage, summer plumage, and every variety within the varieties.”
― The Marsh Queen
― The Marsh Queen
