Laura Erickson's For the Birds

Christmas gift ideas

Every year I try to come up with a list of great gift ideas for the bird lover on your shopping list. When I started doing For the Birds in 1986, there weren’t all that many bird books to choose from, but now there are shelves and shelves of them. But oddly, I noticed that the local Barnes and Noble no longer has a section specifically marked “Birds.” Now their bird books are mingled in with their general nature books, and last time I was there, the shelf space had shrunk. I’m not sure if that’s a trend, or if books about reality TV programs and the bazillion new political books are just crowding everything else out.

But Barnes and Noble did have two copies of the Cornell Laboratory Handbook of Bird Biology—a HUGE new book that is really simply a bound edition of their home course in bird biology. This is a splendid book for anyone with a serious interest in learning about how bird bodies work, flight, nesting, behavior, and evolution. It also includes a wonderful CD which supports the chapter on avian communication. Of course, it’s simply not the right book for people whose interest in birds is limited to how and where to find them, or people not interested in probing the subject of ornithology deeply. But for those of us who are, this handbook is unsurpassed. I’ve taken Cornell’s home study course, which costs $270 for Lab members and $299.50 for non-members, and figured the materials I received alone were well worth the price—this is superior to the best college textbook for comprehensiveness, and is written by some of the leading authorities in the field. If you take the actual course, Cornell staff answers questions and grades your work. The book alone costs $99.50, darned pricey but still adding up to less per pound than most political books, for a lot more meat. The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology’s Handbook of Bird Biology is available in bookstores everywhere.

For those who want to learn bird songs, I strongly recommend Lang Elliott’s Know Your Bird Sounds, Volumes I and II. These CDs each cover only 35 common species, but include all the vocalizations of each, with brief explanations of the context in which each vocalization is given. These were originally sold in CD boxes by Northword Press, but now Stackpole Books distributes them inside a small book. Know Your Bird Sounds is available in bird and book stores everywhere.

For a more comprehensive set of CDs with virtually all the species of birds of eastern North America, get the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs. This compilation, also produced by Lang Elliott, includes 3 CDs and covers 372 species, usually including several examples of the song and usually some of the call notes. The little booklet included explains the context for some of the vocalizations, too.

There is now a Birds of Minnesota set that includes Stan Tekiela’s little field guide and a companion CD. I do not recommend buying this—the field guide is far from comprehensive, leaving out a great many species that appear in backyards in the northland, including Bohemian Waxwing, Hoary Redpoll, most of the warblers, and some of the owls. Some people like it because it limits the choices, making birds easier to pin down, but what’s the point of easily pinning down a species to the wrong choice?

Anyway, the new full set, with a nice leather cover and a CD, is larger than a real, comprehensive field guide. The CD may be good, but I don’t have enough money to find out.

Of course, people who love birds, including serious birders, often have feeding stations, and feeders wear out, so there are plenty of other good bird gift items to please even the finickiest birder. Tomorrow I’ll have a few more gift ideas, and will include a recommended shopping list on my webpage.