New Titles

1) Pieplow, Nathan. Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds of Western North America. 2019. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Vinylbound: 632 pages. Price: $28.00 U.S.
PUBLISHER'S SUMMARY: A comprehensive field guide that uses an innovative Sound Index to allow readers to quickly identify unfamiliar songs and calls of birds in western North America.

     Bird songs and calls are at least as important as visual field marks in identifying birds. Yet short of memorizing each bird’s repertoire, it’s difficult to sort through them all. Now, with the western edition of this groundbreaking book, it’s possible to visually distinguish bird sounds and identify birds using a field-guide format.
      At the core of this guide is the spectrogram, a visual graph of sound. With a brief introduction to five key aspects—speed, repetition, pauses, pitch pattern, and tone quality—readers can translate what they hear into visual recognition, without any musical training or auditory memorization.
      The Sound Index groups similar songs together, narrowing the identification choices quickly to a brief list of birds that are likely to be confused because of the similarity of their songs. Readers can then turn to the species account for more information and/or listen to the accompanying audio tracks available online.
      Identifying birds by sound is arguably the most challenging and important skill in birding. This book makes it vastly easier to master than ever before.
RECOMMENDATION: An interesting way to learn bird vocalizations.

2) Kaufman, Kenn. A Season on the Wind: Inside the World of Spring Migration. 2019. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Hardbound: 282 pages. Price: $26.00 U.S.
PUBLISHER'S SUMMARY: A close look at one season in one key site that reveals the amazing science and magic of spring bird migration, and the perils of human encroachment.
      Every spring, billions of birds sweep north, driven by ancient instincts to return to their breeding grounds. This vast parade often goes unnoticed, except in a few places where these small travelers concentrate in large numbers. One such place is along Lake Erie in northwestern Ohio. There, the peak of spring migration is so spectacular that it attracts bird watchers from around the globe, culminating in one of the world’s biggest birding festivals.
      Millions of winged migrants pass through the region, some traveling thousands of miles, performing epic feats of endurance and navigating with stunning accuracy. Now climate change threatens to disrupt patterns of migration and the delicate balance between birds, seasons, and habitats. But wind farms—popular as green energy sources—can be disastrous for birds if built in the wrong places. This is a fascinating and urgent study of the complex issues that affect bird migration.
RECOMMENDATION: If you like the author's other works, you should enjoy this one.

New Title

1) Floyd, Ted. How to Know the Birds: The Art and Adventure of Birding. 2019. National Geographic. Hardbound: 303 pages. Price: $28.00 U.S.
PUBLISHER'S SUMMARY: Become a better birder with brief portraits of 200 top North American birds. This friendly, relatable book is a celebration of the art, science, and delights of bird-watching.
     How to Know the Birds introduces a new, holistic approach to bird-watching, by noting how behaviors, settings, and seasonal cycles connect with shape, song, color, gender, age distinctions, and other features traditionally used to identify species. With short essays on 200 observable species, expert author Ted Floyd guides us through a year of becoming a better birder, each species representing another useful lesson: from explaining scientific nomenclature to noting how plumage changes with age, from chronicling migration patterns to noting hatchling habits. Dozens of endearing pencil sketches accompany Floyd's charming prose, making this book a unique blend of narrative and field guide. A pleasure for birders of all ages, this witty book promises solid lessons for the beginner and smiles of recognition for the seasoned nature lover.
RECOMMENDATION: For beginning to intermediate birders.

New Titles

1) Beehler, Bruce. Birds of Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia. 2019. Johns Hopkins University Press. Hardbound: 461 pages. Price: $49.95 U.S.
PUBLISHER'S SUMMARY: A Great Blue Heron wades in the shallows of the Potomac River, scanning for unsuspecting prey. Sunlight turns the water translucent as a small school of fish rises to the water's surface. The heron strikes and moments later is swallowing its quarry―predation in action! This handsome Great Blue Heron is but one of the more than 400 bird species found in Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. It shares the mid-Atlantic with kingfishers, eagles, mergansers, wood warblers, and many more.

     Exploring backyard birds, birds of prey, and birds of the open ocean, Smithsonian ornithologist Bruce Beehler and premier nature photographer Middleton Evans have crafted a comprehensive volume unparalleled in its beauty and captivating storytelling. Birds of Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia invites readers to experience the birds' lives as they live them: where they nest, how they forage, their various behaviors, and the natural environments they need to survive.
     Beehler offers practical advice on bird-watching, including how to find, attract, and even garden for birds, as well as the best places to see them in season. He also discusses the best birding apps, websites, and gear; provides advice on planning a birding field trip; and recommends ornithological institutions that will help you cultivate a lifelong birding hobby. Finally, Beehler challenges the reader to think about conservation efforts to preserve local bird populations.
     With striking color photographs of more than 400 species, this book is a bonanza for nature lovers. A wealth of images immerse the reader in the world of these wonderful creatures. Marvel at the majesty of Ospreys, navigate the ocean with storm-petrels, and nest with Mourning Doves, all while learning about the richness of the birds' lives, the complexities of their habits, and how we can help keep their populations vibrant and aloft for generations to come.
RECOMMENDATION: A must have for those birding the region.

2) Grimmett, Richard et al.. Birds of Bhutan and the Eastern Himalayas. 2019. Helm. Paperback: 416 pages. Price: $40.00 U.S.
PUBLISHER'S SUMMARY: The first birding guide to the beautiful, endemic-packed Himalayan nation of Bhutan was published in 1999. This is a new and completely revised edition of that book, featuring concise text and detailed maps opposite superb plates, covering every species that regularly occurs in Bhutan plus most vagrants.

     For this edition coverage is expanded to include two Indian states that together with Bhutan make up the eastern arm of the Himalayas--Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, making this the one guide you'll need on a visit to this incredible corner of Asia.
RECOMMENDATION: A must have for those birding the area.

3) Paulson, Dennis. Dragonflies and Damselflies: A Natural History. 2019. Princeton University Press. Hardbound: 224 pages. Price: $29.95 U.S.
PUBLISHER'S SUMMARY: Dragonflies and damselflies are often called birdwatchers's insects. Large, brightly colored, active in the daytime, and displaying complex and interesting behaviors, they have existed since the days of the dinosaurs, and they continue to flourish. Their ancestors were the biggest insects ever, and they still impress us with their size, the largest bigger than a small hummingbird. There are more than 6,000 odonate species known at present, and you need only visit any wetland on a warm summer day to be enthralled by their stunning colors and fascinating behavior. In this lavishly illustrated natural history, leading dragonfly expert Dennis Paulson offers a comprehensive, accessible, and appealing introduction to the world's dragonflies and damselflies.
     The book highlights the impressive skills and abilities of dragonflies and damselflies's superb fliers that can glide, hover, cruise, and capture prey on the wing. It also describes their arsenal of tactics to avoid predators, and their amazing sex life, including dazzling courtship displays, aerial mating, sperm displacement, mate guarding, and male mimicry.
     Dragonflies and Damselflies includes profiles of more than fifty of the most interesting and beautiful species from around the world. Learn about the Great Cascade Damsel, which breeds only at waterfalls, the mesmerizing flight of Blue-winged Helicopters, and how the larva of the Common Sanddragon can burrow into sand as efficiently as a mole.
Combining expert text and excellent color photographs, this is a must-have guide to these remarkable insects.

• A lavishly illustrated, comprehensive, and accessible natural history that reveals the beauty and diversity of one of the world's oldest and most popular insect groups
• Offers a complete guide to the evolution, life cycles, biology, anatomy, behavior, and habitats of dragonflies and damselflies
• Introduces the 39 families of dragonflies and damselflies through exemplary species accounts
• Features tips on field observation and lab research, and information on threats and conservation

 RECOMMENDATION: A well illustrated introduction to these insects.