Bird Songs – A Review

I’ve always loved watching birds. Once you know how to decipher their signs, they have a lot to tell you about what’s going on around you. For instance, if you’re sitting in the woods, and all of a sudden you see a flush of ground birds (robins, pheasant, turkey, etc.) fly up, you’ll know that a predator of some kind is in the vicinity. Or if the insect-eating birds (i.e. swallows) are flying lower to the ground, it’s because the insects are flying lower because of a low pressure moving in, and rain could be likely. And so on and so on.

But I’ve always found it hard to connect bird song with the bird. Oh, sure, we all know what crows sound like, and some of the other more common birds. But I wanted to know what a pileated woodpecker sounded like. And I wanted to know who the plaintive “fuuuu- foooo” whistle belonged to. (It’s the black-capped chickadee.)

So I tried a CD of bird songs. But the problem was I’d have to have a book with pictures of birds in hand to make the connection. Cumbersome, at best. Then I saw this book, Bird Songs, at a friend’s house and I knew I’d found what I was looking for. Each bird gets it’s own page with a beautiful color illustration and a brief description of region, habits, and bird calls. The corresponding number plays a recording of the bird song. I was hooked. I ran out and bought myself a copy.

With the holidays coming up I thought you’d appreciate knowing there’s a perfect gift out there for your nature lover. If you can’t find the book locally, just click on the book cover, and it’ll take you to Amazon.com.

Oh, and the Kingfishers on the cover? Yep, I can testify, the bird song in the book sounds just like them. I know, because I have a pair who call my pond home.