The Backyard Bird-Lover's Guide: Attracting, Nesting, Feeding

The Backyard Bird-Lover's Guide: Attracting, Nesting, Feeding

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An information-packed reference to attracting, feeding, and appreciating a wide variety of birds in your yard.

Whether you want to attract hummingbirds to your garden or bluebirds to your nesting box, this colorful guide is brimming with information on attracting and understanding backyard birds. You'll learn how to feed them, house them, provide nesting materials, and keep them coming back year after year.

Along with beautiful, detailed paintings by Jeffrey C. Domm and a foreword by Ren, Laubach of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, The Backyard Bird-Lover's Guide features a reference section with closeups of more than 135 species and their feeding and nesting habits. And there's much more:

-- A guide to feeders and food, and who eats what

-- A chapter on providing nestboxes for bluebirds, martins, owls, woodpeckers, wrens, wood ducks, and more

-- How to create gardens that attract birds

-- Tips on deterring cats, squirrels, and undesirable birds

-- How to identify nests and eggs - and what to do with a fallen nestling

-- Details of the family life of birds

"At a time when 'backyard' bird books are tripping off the presses at a dizzying rate, it is a pleasure to find one so clearly superior." -- Bird Watcher's Digest

 

"[t]he most valuable part of the book may be its appendix, which lists common types of bird feed ... and what birds they attract." -- Sunset

 

"Keep this volume handy, as you'll use it again and again." -- Country Living

 

"[C]ontains valuable information on food and nesting habits, as well as great ideas for bird baths." -- Denver Post

 

"... great for new bird spotters." -- Booklist

 

"No coffee-table book, this. You'll keep it on the breakfast table, or wherever you watch your feeder from." -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch

 

"The text is easy reading and will tempt the beginning bird watcher to do more and learn more. This is a very good buy for the price." -- Richmond Times-Dispatch

 

"a plethora of interesting facts on the habits and habitats of more than 135 birds." -- Houston Chronicle



Table of Contents:
Foreword

I FEEDING AND HOUSING THE BIRDS

1 Why Feed the Birds?

2 The Initial Plunge

3 Bird Feeders and Food

4 The Water Situation

5 Providing Nesting Boxes

6 Gardening's for the Birds

II THE NESTING CYCLE

7 Sharing the Earth

8 Territory

9 Courtship

10 Bird Song

11 Nesting

12 The Egg

13 Nestlings and Fledglings

14 Preparing for Winter

III INDIVIDUAL BIRDS

15 Getting to Know the Birds

APPENDIX

Who Eats What

Habitat Requirements

All About Eggs

Who Incubates the Eggs

For Further Reading

Index

Jan Mahnken, author of The Backyard Bird-Lover's Guide, has written for Country Journal, Farmstead, Countryside, and New England Farm Journal. She lives in western Massachusetts and has loved birds since the age of thirteen.

Storey Publishing

Pub Date: January 08, 1996

0.65" H x 9.96" L x 6.96" W 

320 pages

paperback