Love Birdology? Readers share 100 books like Birdology...

By Sy Montgomery ,

Here are 100 books that Birdology fans have personally recommended if you like Birdology. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Human Nature of Birds: A Scientific Discovery with Startling Implications

Jonathan Balcombe Author Of Super Fly: The Unexpected Lives of the World's Most Successful Insects

From my list on understanding birds.

Why am I passionate about this?

I started watching animals as soon as I could walk. That eventually led to a PhD in animal behavior and a career in animal protection. I now focus my energies on writing books that seek to improve our understanding of, and most importantly our relations with, other animals. I've written four previous books: Pleasurable Kingdom, Second Nature, The Exultant Ark, and What a Fish Knows (a New York Times best-seller now available in fifteen languages). I live in Belleville, Ontario where I enjoy biking, baking, birding, Bach, and trying to understand the neighborhood squirrels.

Jonathan's book list on understanding birds

Jonathan Balcombe Why Jonathan loves this book

Yes, it’s a bit dated, but it was a bold, pioneering book for its day. Barber doesn’t shrink from describing birds as they are: intelligent, flexible, emotional animals with lives and personalities.

By Theodore Xenophon Barber ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Human Nature of Birds as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Argues that birds make and use their own tools, recognize abstract concepts, create complex musical compositions, and more


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Book cover of What Walks This Way: Discovering the Wildlife Around Us Through Their Tracks and Signs

What Walks This Way by Sharman Apt Russell,

Nature writer Sharman Apt Russell tells stories of her experiences tracking wildlife—mostly mammals, from mountain lions to pocket mice—near her home in New Mexico, with lessons that hold true across North America. She guides readers through the basics of identifying tracks and signs, revealing a landscape filled with the marks…

Book cover of The Sibley Guide to Birds

Jonathan Balcombe Author Of Super Fly: The Unexpected Lives of the World's Most Successful Insects

From my list on understanding birds.

Why am I passionate about this?

I started watching animals as soon as I could walk. That eventually led to a PhD in animal behavior and a career in animal protection. I now focus my energies on writing books that seek to improve our understanding of, and most importantly our relations with, other animals. I've written four previous books: Pleasurable Kingdom, Second Nature, The Exultant Ark, and What a Fish Knows (a New York Times best-seller now available in fifteen languages). I live in Belleville, Ontario where I enjoy biking, baking, birding, Bach, and trying to understand the neighborhood squirrels.

Jonathan's book list on understanding birds

Jonathan Balcombe Why Jonathan loves this book

This beautifully illustrated, comprehensive book is a must-have for bird enthusiasts. It is not only a useful guide to identifying birds, but also an illuminating source on little-known aspects of bird behavior.

By David Allen Sibley ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Sibley Guide to Birds as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“Undoubtedly the finest guide to North American birds.”—Guy McCaskie, Birding


The publication of The Sibley Guide to Birds, First Edition quickly established David Allen Sibley as the author and illustrator of the nation’s supreme and most comprehensive guide to birds. Used by millions of birders from novices to the most expert, The Sibley Guide became the standard by which natural history guides are measured. The highly anticipated second edition builds on this foundation of excellence, offering massively expanded and updated information, new paintings, new and rare species, and a new, elegant design.


The second edition of this handsome, flexibound volume…


Book cover of Birds as Individuals

Jonathan Balcombe Author Of Super Fly: The Unexpected Lives of the World's Most Successful Insects

From my list on understanding birds.

Why am I passionate about this?

I started watching animals as soon as I could walk. That eventually led to a PhD in animal behavior and a career in animal protection. I now focus my energies on writing books that seek to improve our understanding of, and most importantly our relations with, other animals. I've written four previous books: Pleasurable Kingdom, Second Nature, The Exultant Ark, and What a Fish Knows (a New York Times best-seller now available in fifteen languages). I live in Belleville, Ontario where I enjoy biking, baking, birding, Bach, and trying to understand the neighborhood squirrels.

Jonathan's book list on understanding birds

Jonathan Balcombe Why Jonathan loves this book

A British musicologist opens the windows to her country home and lets wild birds come in and nest there. This unique study allows her (and us) to observe these feathered sprites up close and personal. Many befriend their human hostess, with remarkable revelations.

By Len Howard ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Birds as Individuals as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


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Book cover of The City Sings Green & Other Poems About Welcoming Wildlife

The City Sings Green & Other Poems About Welcoming Wildlife by Erica Silverman,

A unique and artful blend of poetry, science, and activism, this picture book shows how city dwellers can intervene so that nature can work her magic.

In Oslo, Norway: citizens create a honeybee highway that stretches from one side of the city to the other, offering flowerpots, resting spots, bee…

Book cover of Providence of a Sparrow: Lessons from a Life Gone to the Birds

Jonathan Balcombe Author Of Super Fly: The Unexpected Lives of the World's Most Successful Insects

From my list on understanding birds.

Why am I passionate about this?

I started watching animals as soon as I could walk. That eventually led to a PhD in animal behavior and a career in animal protection. I now focus my energies on writing books that seek to improve our understanding of, and most importantly our relations with, other animals. I've written four previous books: Pleasurable Kingdom, Second Nature, The Exultant Ark, and What a Fish Knows (a New York Times best-seller now available in fifteen languages). I live in Belleville, Ontario where I enjoy biking, baking, birding, Bach, and trying to understand the neighborhood squirrels.

Jonathan's book list on understanding birds

Jonathan Balcombe Why Jonathan loves this book

An electrician and his wife rescue an orphaned baby house sparrow and raise him into adulthood and beyond. This beautifully and at times hilariously told story is full of precious revelations about the rich personality of a bird routinely overlooked by us.

By Chris Chester ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Providence of a Sparrow as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.” --William Shakespeare, Hamlet

B fell twenty-five feet from his nest into the life of Chris Chester. The encounter was providential for both of them.
B and Chester spent hours together playing games like bottle-cap fetch or hide-and-seek. They learned “words” in each other’s vocabularies. B developed a fetish for nostrils and a dislike of the color yellow. He grew anxious if Chester came home late from work. At bedtime he would rub his sleepy eyes on Chester’s thumb and settle to sleep in his palm. Chester ended up turning part…


Book cover of Hummingbird

Susan Ewing Author Of Alaska Is for the Birds! Fourteen Favorite Feathered Friends

From my list on fun facts about birds and animals.

Why am I passionate about this?

Nature has been my grounding force from the time I could climb the elm tree in my Kentucky backyard. Snuggling down in the branches, listening to the leaves and birds was my happy place. Eventually, nature became a defining element in my work. It started with an Information & Education job at the Washington State Wildlife department and expanded from there to influence my career as a writer. I take great joy in writing about the natural world, my most patient teacher and oldest friend.

Susan's book list on fun facts about birds and animals

Susan Ewing Why Susan loves this book

Sometimes stories from the imagination are the best way to convey concepts in all their layered complexity. Concepts like migration. The beautifully illustrated Hummingbird tells the story of a little girl who moves from her grandmother’s village in Central America to New York City, paralleling a ruby-throated hummingbird’s migratory journey. Information about the hummingbird and its migration are woven seamlessly into the book, shining through the lovely story. 

By Nicola Davies , Jane Ray (illustrator) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Hummingbird as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"One of the prettiest works of non-fiction you are likely to see... It is ravishing." The Sunday Times

From Nicola Davies, one of the UK's finest non-fiction writers, and from Jane Ray, one of the UK's finest illustrators, comes and exquisite Nature Storybook about ... hummingbirds! A hummingbird is smaller than your thumb and weighs less than a 20 pence piece - however you measure it, it's tiny. But every spring, hummingbirds that have spent the winter in Mexico fly north to make the most of the warmer weather. They nest as far north as Canada and Alaska; a 2,000…


Book cover of The Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal about Being Human

Elizabeth Gehrman Author Of Rare Birds: The Extraordinary Tale of the Bermuda Petrel and the Man Who Brought It Back from Extinction

From my list on birds and life.

Why am I passionate about this?

I never had a particular interest in birds until I heard about David Wingate and the cahow; I’m just a reporter who was smitten by a compelling story. I often write about science and the environment, as well as travel and other topics, for publications including the Boston Globe, Archaeology, and Harvard Medicine, and while working on Rare Birds I got hooked on these extraordinary creatures and the iconoclastic obsessives who have become their stewards in the Anthropocene era. You don’t have to care about birds to love their stories — but in the end, you will.

Elizabeth's book list on birds and life

Elizabeth Gehrman Why Elizabeth loves this book

Packing a huge amount of research onto every page, Strycker, who in his 2015 big year logged a record-setting 6,042 bird species, engagingly analyzes the biology and behavior of penguins, magpies, hummingbirds, albatrosses, and more to explore how the lives of birds are simultaneously incredibly alien to and indelibly intertwined with those of humans in activities and emotions as diverse as altruism, dancing, seduction, and fear. His insights, delivered with a light touch, may well change the worldview of those who think that humans are somehow more worthy than any other animal on the planet.

By Noah Strycker ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Thing with Feathers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"[Strycker] thinks like a biologist but writes like a poet." -- Wall Street Journal

An entertaining and profound look at the lives of birds, illuminating their surprising world—and deep connection with humanity.
 
Birds are highly intelligent animals, yet their intelligence is dramatically different from our own and has been little understood. As we learn more about the secrets of bird life, we are unlocking fascinating insights into memory, relationships, game theory, and the nature of intelligence itself.

The Thing with Feathers explores the astonishing homing abilities of pigeons, the good deeds of fairy-wrens, the influential flocking abilities of starlings, the…


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Book cover of What's Gotten Into You: The Story of Your Body's Atoms, from the Big Bang Through Last Night's Dinner

What's Gotten Into You by Dan Levitt,

What's Gotten Into You is a wondrous, wildly ambitious, and vastly entertaining work of popular science that tells the awe-inspiring story of the elements that make up the human body, and how these building blocks of life travelled billions of miles and across billions of years to make us who…

Book cover of You Nest Here with Me

Maria Gianferrari Author Of Whoo-Ku Haiku: A Great Horned Owl Story

From my list on read aloud bird books for kids.

Why am I passionate about this?

I may not be an expert ornithologist, but I am an avid “birdologist” to borrow a term from Sy Montgomery—one who is awed and fascinated by all things bird. Bird-watching is meditative—it helps me to be present and to feel joyful. I love reading, learning, and writing about birds too! I am the author of these bird books: Hawk Rising, illustrated by Brian Floca, Whoo-Ku Haiku, illustrated by Jonathan Voss, and the forthcoming You and the Bowerbird, illustrated by Maris Wicks. I love writing about the natural world and its inhabitants as well as dogs—another love of mine!

Maria's book list on read aloud bird books for kids

Maria Gianferrari Why Maria loves this book

Yolen and Stemple are a mother-daughter dream team duo and creators of many bird books including Yolen’s classic, Owl Moon. This birdy-lullaby has a soothing read-aloud rhythm as a mother tucks her tired nestling-child in bed. She recounts the places where various birds nest, from pigeons on ledges and catbirds in hedges, to owls in oak tree boles and hawks on telephone poles bound by the reassuring refrain, "You nest here with me.” Sweet’s blue-green color palette offers a calming and soporific counterpart and a nod to night-time. Learn more about the featured birds, their diet and nesting habits, and this birding family in the book’s back pages.

By Jane Yolen , Heidi E. Y. Stemple , Melissa Sweet (illustrator)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked You Nest Here with Me as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

Now available in a board book edition, this lyrical bedtime book is an ode to baby birds everywhere and to sleepy children, safe in their beds. As a mother describes how different species of birds nest, secure and cozy with their mama birds, she tucks her own child into bed with the soothing refrain -- "you nest here with me" -- easing her little one and readers alike to slumber. Accompanied by beautiful artwork by award-winning illustrator Melissa Sweet, mother and daughter Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple have combined their poetry writing and love of birding in this board book…


Book cover of Kill Three Birds

Lynn Emery Author Of Spirited Sisters: Two Joliet Sisters Psychic Detectives Mysteries

From my list on psychic sleuths supernatural and fantasy creatures.

Why am I passionate about this?

Mixing the magical with everyday life is part of my Louisiana culture. Our history is a rich gumbo of legends from Indigenous peoples, Africa, the Caribbean, Spain, and France. So, as a child, hearing stories of the supernatural didn’t seem abnormal at all. I was ten years old when I became hooked on supernatural suspense. I voraciously read Agatha Christie's mysteries and spooky comic books. The comic book sleuths were sometimes as scary as the villains they chased. And I loved every page. What fun I had during summer school breaks! If you’re like me and love mysteries with paranormal twists, dive in. You won’t be disappointed in this list.

Lynn's book list on psychic sleuths supernatural and fantasy creatures

Lynn Emery Why Lynn loves this book

I loved the imaginative world-building, but even more, the fantastic sleuth is like no other I’ve encountered. The setting is a world where birds (avians) are the dominant evolved species instead of simians. Investigator Prentice Tasifa is a hawk who can “see the unseen” with her extraordinary sense of sight.

That’s why, in this world, hawks are police detectives. Tasifa travels far and wide throughout the Kingdom of Aves to solve serious crimes, including murder. Even more fascinating is how other birds (vultures, chickens, doves) have developed roles that align with their characteristics. I enjoyed the mystery plot twists.

By Nicole Givens Kurtz ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Kill Three Birds as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Sent to investigate a strange murder in a quiet remote egg, can Hawk Tasifa find the killer before she becomes the next target?

Prentice Tasifa is an investigative hawk whose been deployed from The Order to the small egg of Gould, a mountain village. A missing girl had been found dead. Hawks investigate strange and difficult situations throughout the kingdom of Aves. They can “see the unseen,” by accessing a unique ability to activate hawk-like vision, a trait they carry through their bloodlines.


When Prentice arrives in Gould, she soon discovers that there isn’t just one bird dead, but three.…


Book cover of Why Birds Matter: Avian Ecological Function and Ecosystem Services

Anders Gyllenhaal Author Of A Wing and a Prayer: The Race to Save Our Vanishing Birds

From my list on what’s happening to our birds.

Why am I passionate about this?

A decade ago, we were living in Washington, D.C., wrapped up as journalists in the daily news cycle. We began camping to get out of the city and quickly became fascinated with birds. We’ve been writing about birds ever since, on our website, FlyingLessons.US: What we’re learning from the birds,” and now with a book about the extraordinary work across the hemisphere to save birds. There’s a storehouse of books, articles and guides on birdwatching, but very little on what’s happening to bird populations overall. We believe the story of birds is one of the best ways to open a window on the environmental issues that are among the pivotal topics of our time.

Anders' book list on what’s happening to our birds

Anders Gyllenhaal Why Anders loves this book

This is not an easy read, built on a deep academic tour of the evidence of how birds contribute to this world. But it makes up for the tough sledding by providing huge doses of detail that make the case for why we cannot let birds continue to wither away.

Birds consume, for instance, 400 to 500 tons of insects each year across the earth. They contribute to billions of dollars in value when you add up all the ways we rely on their pollinating, seed dispersal, garbage collection – not to mention the outdoor activities they provide people.

When bird species are pulled out of the equation, as vultures were in India for a time, the results can be catastrophic – leading to disease, death, and enormous health costs. By the time you finish this book, you’ll be ready to do whatever it takes to help stop the steady…

By Cagan H. Sekercioglu (editor) , Daniel G. Wenny (editor) , Christopher J. Whelan (editor)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Why Birds Matter as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For over one hundred years, ornithologists and amateur birders have jointly campaigned for the conservation of bird species, documenting not only birds' beauty and extraordinary diversity, but also their importance to ecosystems worldwide. But while these avian enthusiasts have noted that birds eat fruit, carrion, and pests; spread seed and fertilizer; and pollinate plants, among other services, they have rarely asked what birds are worth in economic terms. In Why Birds Matter, an international collection of ornithologists, botanists, ecologists, conservation biologists, and environmental economists seeks to quantify avian ecosystem services the myriad benefits that birds provide to humans. The first…


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Book cover of Totally Turtles!

Totally Turtles! by Ginjer L. Clarke,

Did you know that leatherback turtles can weigh up to 2,000 pounds? Or that the Florida softshell turtle can breathe through its snout and its skin? Turtles have been around for millions of years, and we’re still learning more about them!

With simple language and vivid photographs, Totally Turtles! is…

Book cover of The Nesting Season: Cuckoos, Cuckolds, and the Invention of Monogamy

Jack Gedney Author Of The Private Lives of Public Birds: Learning to Listen to the Birds Where We Live

From my list on watching birds with pleasure and understanding.

Why am I passionate about this?

I teach people how to enjoy birds. I’ve led bird walks, taught seminars, co-owned a wild bird feeding shop, and written two books and well over a hundred newspaper columns on birds. Over the years, I’ve conveyed a fair heap of information about birds because accurate knowledge and biological understanding are valuable tools for fostering appreciation. But I consider making birds relevant and vivid in our everyday lives to be far more important than simply accumulating facts. These are a few books that get to the heart of what I am most excited about: changing how we see and hear birds and thereby enriching our experience of every single day.

Jack's book list on watching birds with pleasure and understanding

Jack Gedney Why Jack loves this book

The thing I love about the subject of this book is that it is visible all around me. The great yearly drama of the nesting season is the most exciting part of watching birds. This is where the good stuff happens: song and courtship, battles over territory, the miracle of nest construction, the cuteness of babies, and the development of monogamy. 

Heinrich’s book opened my eyes to this story. He merges his deep scientific knowledge with personal observation, making that broader understanding applicable to what I can observe myself. He explores the different ways birds have of living their lives, constantly asking how we can explain those patterns not as random assemblages of behaviors but as comprehensible evolutionary strategies. He makes birds make sense.

By Bernd Heinrich ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Nesting Season as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Why are the eggs of the marsh wren deep brown, the winter wren's nearly white, and the gray catbird's a brilliant blue? And what in the DNA of a penduline tit makes the male weave a domed nest of fibers and the female line it with feathers, while the bird-of-paradise male builds no nest at all, and his bower-bird counterpart constructs an elaborate dwelling? These are typical questions that Bernd Heinrich pursues in the engaging style we've come to expect from him - supplemented here with his own stunning photographs and original watercolors. One of the world's great naturalists and…


Book cover of The Human Nature of Birds: A Scientific Discovery with Startling Implications
Book cover of The Sibley Guide to Birds
Book cover of Birds as Individuals

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