NCW Libraries

The New York Times–bestselling author of H is for Hawk explores the human relationship to the natural world in this "dazzling" essay collection (Wall Street Journal).
In Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while...

Birders know you need the right house to attract the right bird. An entrance hole that's 1/8 inch too big or too small spell trouble, as does a roof that leaks or a floor that doesn't drain. Learn to build safe, species-appropriate houses for your favorite birds.

Provides both visual and audio identification of the 100 most popular North American songbirds.

In 2015, ornithologist Bruce M. Beehler set off on a solo backroads journey to trace the spring migration of songbirds from the southern border of the United States through the U.S. heartland and north into Canada. Traveling via car, canoe, bike, and on foot, Beehler followed migrant wood warblers and other songbirds from the Texas coast, up the Mississippi drainage to its headwaters in Minnesota and onward to the birds' nesting grounds in the north...

"Three years ago, headlines delivered shocking news: nearly three billion birds in North America have vanished over the past fifty years. No species has been spared, from the most delicate jeweled hummingbirds to scrappy black crows, from a rainbow of warblers to common birds such as owls and sparrows. For the past year, veteran journalists Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal traveled more than 25,000 miles across the Americas, chronicling costly experiments,...

"From morning to night and from the Antarctic to the equator, birds have busy days. In this short book, ornithologist Mark E. Hauber shows readers exactly how birds spend their time. Each of the book's twenty-four brief chapters covers a single bird and a single hour. At 1:00 in the night, we meet a nearly-blind kiwi, hunting with smell for earthworm prey. Later that morning, at 11:00, we float alongside a common pochard, a duck that can sleep with...

"A writer's search for inspiration, beauty, and solace leads her to birds in this intimate and exuberant meditation on creativity and life--a field guide to things small and significant. When it comes to birds, Kyo Maclear isn't seeking the exotic. Rather she discovers joy in the seasonal birds that find their way into view in city parks and harbors, along eaves and on wires. In a world that values big and fast, Maclear looks to the small, the steady,...

In this collection it is the watchers, not the birds, who are on display--ornithologists and bird lovers of every description, revealed in sketches and anecdotes that are quirky, intriguing, and always affectionate.

"The birds, mammals, reptiles, and insects that inhabit our yards and gardens are overwhelmingly on our side--they are not our enemies, but instead our allies. They pollinate our flowers and vegetable crops, and they keep pests in check. In Garden Allies, Frederique Lavoipierre shares fascinating portraits of these creatures, describing their life cycles and showing how they keep the garden's ecology in balance. Also included is helpful information...