The most recommended birdwatching books

Who picked these books? Meet our 33 experts.

33 authors created a book list connected to birdwatching, and here are their favorite birdwatching books.
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What type of birdwatching book?

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Book cover of Border Songs

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up on a family farm surrounded by larger vegetable and dairy operations that used migrant labor. From an early age, my siblings and I were acquainted with the children of these workers, children whom we shared a school desk with one day and were gone the next. On summer vacations, our parents hauled us around in a station wagon with a popup camper, which they parked in out-of-the-way hayfields and on mountainous plateaus, shunning, much to our chagrin, normal campgrounds, and swimming pools. Thus, I grew up exposed to different cultures and environments. My writing reflects my parents’ curiosity, love of books and travel, and devotion to the natural world. 

Yvonne's book list on immersive coming-of-age fiction with characters struggling to find themselves amidst the isolation and bigotry in Indigenous, rural, and minority communities

Yvonne Osborne Why did Yvonne love this book?

A mystical love story that crosses borders, I found this a delightful read. The story takes place along a stretch of border between Canada and Northwest Washington State that’s nothing more than a long grassy ditch separating once congenial communities. 

Brandon Vanderkool, a dyslexic, bird-watching artist, brings an unusual perspective to his employment with the Border Patrol. Though surprisingly adept at his job (smugglers and illegals walk right into his arms while he’s owl-watching), it’s his talent for painting and obsession with birds that endeared him to me.

When he crosses paths with his childhood friend, Canadian Madeline Rousseau, and her basement full of flowering cannabis, I impatiently root for them to act on their mutual attraction and recognize how ill-suited they are to their occupations. The ending is spot-on and mystically electrifying!

By Jim Lynch,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Set in the previously sleepy hinterlands straddling Washington state and British Columbia, Border Songs is the story of Brandon Vanderkool, six foot eight, frequently tongue-tied, severely dyslexic, and romantically inept. Passionate about bird-watching, Brandon has a hard time mustering enthusiasm for his new job as a Border Patrol agent guarding thirty miles of largely invisible boundary. But to everyone’s surprise, he excels at catching illegal immigrants, and as drug runners, politicians, surveillance cameras, and a potential sweetheart flock to this scrap of land, Brandon is suddenly at the center of something much bigger than himself.
 
A magnificent novel of birding,…


Book cover of Border Songs

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