Ted Floyd - How to Know the Birds: The Art & Adventure of Birding

What a delightful study of birds and birdingsmart, witty, engaging, and beautifully observed.

JENNIFER ACKERMAN , author of The Genius of Birds

Birdsclearly the heroes in this engaging volumehave so much to teach us about ourselves and our world.

DAVID YARNOLD , President and CEO of the National Audubon Society

You cant find a better guide to birds and birding than Ted Floyd.

This snappy book will make you a much better, wiser birder.

SCOTT WEIDENSAUL , author of Living on the Wind

An ingenious and original book. In short, easy steps and lively essays, expert Ted Floyd opens the door to the amazing adventure of birding.

KENN KAUFMAN , editor of the Kaufman Field Guide series and author of Kingbird Highway

Birding is our most democratic way to connect to nature, because birds are everywherefrom inner cities to the deepest wilderness.

Heres a new take that is certain to inspire.

RICHARD LOUV , author of Last Child in the Woods

An introduction to 21st-century birding, where digital tools, global data sharing, and a rapidly changing Earth combine with good old-fashioned love of the birds. Buy it for anyone you want to fall in love with birds, or for yourself, so as to fall in love a bit more.

EMMA MARRIS , author of Rambunctious Garden

Also by this author

Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America

American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of Colorado

Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Nevada

Lets Go Birding!

Published by National Geographic Partners, LLC

1145 17th Street NW Washington, DC 20036

Text Copyright 2019 Ted Floyd. Compilation Copyright 2019 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission from the publisher is prohibited.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC and Yellow Border Design are trademarks of the National Geographic Society, used under license.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Floyd, Ted, 1968- author. | Schmitt, N. John, illustrator. | National Geographic (Firm), publisher. | National Geographic Society (U.S.)

Title: How to know the birds : the art & adventure of birding / Ted Floyd; illustrated by N. John Schmitt.

Description: Washington, D.C. : National Geographic, [2019].

Identifiers: LCCN 2018037630 (print) | LCCN 2018038686 (ebook) | ISBN 9781426220043 (ebook) | ISBN 9781426220036

Subjects: LCSH: Bird watchingUnited StatesJuvenile literature. | BirdsUnited StatesNomenclatureJuvenile literature.

Classification: LCC QL682 (ebook) | LCC QL682 .F56 2019 (print) | DDC 598.072/34dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov_2018037630

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Illustrations: N. John Schmitt

Design: Sanaa Akkach and Nicole Miller

18/QCF-PCML/1

Ebook ISBN9781426220043

v5.4

a

for Jack Solomon and Paul Hess

It is nature sympathy, the growth of the heart,

not nature study, the training of the brain,

that does most for us.

Neltje Blanchan

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

The Experience of Birding

I T HAD BEEN a long day, and I needed to get out of the house. I needed to go birding. So I grabbed some gear and was on my way. I wore binoculars, of course, and a hat. I brought a small digital camera, too, and my phone.

My birding companion that summer evening was my preteen son, and our destination was a small city park within easy walking distance of our home in the Denver metro area. A weak cold front had passed through earlier in the day, bringing with it a bit of rain. But the unsettled weather was clearing out now. A rainbow, not much of one, rose up from the rooftops beyond the park.

We got to our favorite spot in the park, an unkempt tangle of Russian olives by the edge of an old fishing pond. Right away, we found what we were looking for. Bushtits! We love Bushtits. They arrived in our neighborhood about a decade ago. The species is expanding northward, likely driven by habitat change and the general warming and drying of the climate. Thats worrisome, but we are also cheered by the adaptability and resourcefulness of these oddly named birds.

We heard them before we saw them. Thats how it is with Bushtits, tiny creatures that chirp and twitter constantly as they forage in dense vegetation at or slightly above eye level. The adult Bushtit looks like a dirty cotton ball with a toothpick for a tail. The eyes of the adult male are dark and gentle, the eyes of the adult female yellow and fierce and staring. But these werent adults, at least not most of them. These were recently fledged young, by and large, distinguished by their loosely textured feathers, relatively short tails, and swollen yellow gapes. If mom looks fierce and dad looks gentle, then junior is frankly sorry-looking. Baby birds, especially baby songbirds like Bushtits, appear dopey and dejected.

My son leapt into action. Actually, his movements were rather more stealthy. Pointing a smartphone directly ahead, he walked slowly and steadily toward the roiling mass of Bushtits. The birds were indifferent to his presence, allowing him to approach close enough to obtain smartphone photos, video, and audio. Let that sink in for just a moment. He did those things