Laura Erickson's For the Birds

Awarded the American Horticultural Society’s 2023 Book Award, this book covers 100 genera of plants that provide food, shelter, nest materials, or other critical things birds need, many feeding our favorite birds indirectly by supporting the insects the birds need. I emphasize the importance of locally native plants and (thanks to Ali Sheehey!) provide a list of native plant societies for each state and province.
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But as Jim “Bones” McCoy might say, “Dammit, Jim, I’m a birder, not a horticulturist!” so this book took well over a year to research and write. I did my level best to make it both as comprehensive as possible for a 256-page book covering the entire continental United States and Canada and as solid an introduction for both beginners in gardening or birding and more experienced gardeners and birders as I possibly could.
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Although I have spent the past 47 years focused monomaniacally on birds, I should mention that I did take college-level and graduate-level courses in botany, horticulture, entomology, aquatic entomology, and forest and wildlife management, so I was not quite as ignorant going into this project as I may sometimes lead people to believe. From the start, I’ve learned to associate birds with particular habitats, and my antennae have always been raised when I discover any special relationship between a bird and a plant. So this book reflects not just a year of focused research but a lifetime of paying attention to the plants birds need.