Birds & Birding

I’ve never met a field guide that I didn’t like.

I have three separate volumes on shorebird identification, even though my short attention span and lack of a spotting scope renders the whole lot of them exceptionally irritating. I have guides to the birds of Southern Africa, India, and Brazil … three lovely places that I’ve never been. Guides on rare birds and warblers, on bird behavior and hawks in flight … the list goes on.

But as a lifelong bibliophile and voracious reader, I know that there should be more to a birding library than field guides. Like any long-lived and healthy subculture, birding has its own rich literary canon to explore.

So read on for our literary list of essential reading for the bird-brained bibliophile, and leave your own suggestions in the comments.