Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song
by Les Beletsky
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Book Summary Information
Author: Les BeletskyForeword: Jon L. Dunn
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2006-09-21
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Book Reviews of Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song
Book Review: Wilson's Snipe and Other Surprises
Summary: 5 Stars
Wilson's snipe is a small unassuming brown bird. It looks a bit like a puffball with long legs and an imposing beak. I know this from the excellent illustration in Bird Songs. Reading the text I learn that it is elusive, and breeds in swamps, bogs, and marshy wetlands.
So far so good. A pleasant and mildly interesting bird book, with nice pictures, organized into sections on seabirds, forest birds, woodland birds, and open country birds.
What's the difference between a forest and a woodland?
Beats me.
But it doesn't really matter, because Bird Songs isn't about facts, taxonomy, or information, (though all are touched upon) but rather about sounds - the amazing myriad of remarkable avian vocalizations and other audible communications.
And so we learn the following about the aforementioned snipe: "A rasping scaipe, uttered when snipe are flushed, is the only vocalization given outside the breeding season. During breeding, several calls sounding like jick, chipper, and geck GEAH, are uttered in various situations including male female interactions. Winnowing, a hu-hu-hu sound serves as this species' territorial advertisement `song'".
This is interesting but a bit dry.
It gets better.
We learn more about winnowing, which is described as a "haunting tremulous sound" and in particular that it is produced by air flowing over the snipe's outstretched tail feathers during spectacular flight displays.
Wow! This little brown dumpling of a bird is totally over the top!
And then the capper; you can listen to the actual sound. Bird Songs has a digital audio player grafted onto the side of it containing a sound bite from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology of each and every featured fowl.
And so we find that the winnowing sound produced by the tail feathers of Wilson's snipe is way more that just a hu-hu-hu or even a "haunting tremulous sound" - it's absolutely blood curdling, and could be used in the sound track for a pretty scary monster movie. Nothing in the detailed description prepares you for actually hearing it.
That's the genius of this exceptional book. You can spend hours with it, and then go back and do it again.
Anyway, I gotta run. I'm checking out the prothonotary warbler...
Summary of Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song
Drawing from the collection of the world-renowned Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Bird Songs presents the most notable North American birds?including the rediscovered Ivory-billed Woodpecker?in a stunning new format. Renowned bird biologist Les Beletsky provides a succinct description of each of the 250 birds profiled, with an emphasis on their distinctive songs. Lavish full-color illustrations accompany each account, while a sleek, built-in digital audio player holds 250 corresponding songs and calls. In his foreword, North American bird expert and distinguished natural historian Jon L. Dunn shares insights gained from a lifetime of passionate study. Complete with the most up-to-date and scientifically accurate information, Bird Songs is the first book to capture the enchantment of these beautiful birds in words, pictures, and song. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, located in Ithaca, New York, is a nonprofit institution focused on birds and whose mission is to interpret and conserve the earth's biological diversity through research. The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab is the major source of sound recordings of birds for research, education, conservation, the media, and commercial products.Birdwatching Books
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