1) Scott, S. David and Casey McFarland. Bird Feathers: A Guide to North American Species. 2010. Stackpole Books. Paperback: 358 pages. Price: $34.95 U.S.
SUMMARY: This guide teaches birders to use the characteristics of wing types and feather morphology to identify feathers--not only by species but also by their place on the bird’s body.
The introductory chapters give a detailed overview of the feather--how feathers developed, the parts of a single feather, and the variety of types of feathers on a bird. In the feather identification section, more than 400 color photographs show feather samples from 379 bird species from all over North America. Along with the wing type of the species and a map showing its range, several types of feathers are included for each bird; each feather is labeled with its type and its size.
RECOMMENDATION: North American birders will want to have this book! Other naturalists with a general interest in birds will find it useful.
If you are going to buy this book, it would be very nice to purchase it from the Wilderness Awareness School on-line store (www.wildernessawareness.org)rather than Amazon. A portion of the sale goes to support their programs, and the two authors have both been students and instructors at the school. You can pre-order through WAS at a $5 discount right now and get a copy signed by David Scott.
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