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22 reviews for:
How to Look at a Bird: Open Your Eyes to the Joy of Watching and Knowing Birds
Clare Walker Leslie
4.29 AVERAGE
22 reviews for:
How to Look at a Bird: Open Your Eyes to the Joy of Watching and Knowing Birds
Clare Walker Leslie
4.29 AVERAGE
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
informative
inspiring
relaxing
I'm not a new birder, but I found this guide for new birders underwhelming. The organization is so haphazard it's hard for me to see how it would be useful for anyone. There are a lot of random and sometimes incomplete basic facts about birds, then deep dives into more advanced things like the parts of a bird. The cover artwork is what made me pick this book up, but inside I found the art overwhelming at times, especially since so much of it is sketchy and unfinished.
Your experience my differ, but I won't be adding this to my birding bookshelf.
Your experience my differ, but I won't be adding this to my birding bookshelf.
This is a delightful little book about birds, birding, and drawing birds. The information is concise but thorough and the drawings are really lovely. The author lives in the eastern US, so the birds described focus on that area, but the tips for identification are useful to anyone who loves watching and listening to birds by their backyard feeder or in the wild. I especially liked the pages that described how to draw birds. I recommend this to anyone who loves birds!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
What a precious little book! Really wanting to dive into birdwatching and this book was a great beginner guide for someone just starting out. It felt really low pressure and easy to read, and the drawings made it even better. Happy I stumbled across it on a Kobo sale!
I love Birds, and I have been reading about, and watching shows about them for about six months. I own a couple of birder indexes/guides, but they always seemed more intimidating than helpful, with very little advice for actually going out into the field and, well, looking at the birds.
So when I saw this book on Net Galley (where I obtained it, for free and read it to review it), I snapped it up.
It was easy to read, the pictures were perfect, and approachable, and what’s more it gave me the confidence that I could be a birder. By starting in my own yard. I devoured this title in a single night, Laying in bed, reading about the different birds in our shared ecological region (North East) and marveling at the more distant lands the author went to and birded.
I am going on vacation camping in two days, and believe me, I will take all the knowledge I gleaned from this title and apply it to my trip.
I highly recommend this work for anyone who is new to birdwatching/listening or who wants to see how to keep a bird journal in an easy to digest and practical manner.
So when I saw this book on Net Galley (where I obtained it, for free and read it to review it), I snapped it up.
It was easy to read, the pictures were perfect, and approachable, and what’s more it gave me the confidence that I could be a birder. By starting in my own yard. I devoured this title in a single night, Laying in bed, reading about the different birds in our shared ecological region (North East) and marveling at the more distant lands the author went to and birded.
I am going on vacation camping in two days, and believe me, I will take all the knowledge I gleaned from this title and apply it to my trip.
I highly recommend this work for anyone who is new to birdwatching/listening or who wants to see how to keep a bird journal in an easy to digest and practical manner.
This is a perfect little book. I just happened to see it on display at the library and am so glad I picked it up. First of all, the layout is so nice. It’s clear, precise and delivers the information smoothly. The illustrations are captivating and gestural. I’m always so inspired by sketchbook drawings. Beyond the visual elements of this book, I highly enjoyed how the information was organized. I loved the breakdown of identifying a bird. It seems so obvious but I never had the context to see specific features like that. The book ends with a section on some drawing tips, most of which im familiar with, but it’s good to have a reminder like that! Can’t wait to take my sketchbook out for a spin to draw some birds! It really is a lovely book.
What a delight reading this book was! It was a true feast for the eyes with utterly gorgeous illustrations that balanced rustic yet beautifully executed and really made reading it effortless. They’re the sort of drawings I’d love to have framed and put up on my wall! Every single one of them would have been worthy of your wall space and accompanied with short and succinct little pointers about all aspects of birding.
I’m fairly early on in my bird watching hobby and have loved gathering as much information as I can to arm me for future bird watching sessions, so books like these are invaluable. And it helped that this one was so effortless and fun fo read.
It covers a lot, from bird shapes, sounds, behaviour, nests and how to feed them in your garden. I’m from the U.K. and as this book mentioned American birds, the IDing of these species wouldn’t always be applicable to me but it didn’t take any enjoyment out of reading this book. I enjoyed learning about the beautiful range of birds found in America and I could still take away a lot of the information in regards to how to streamline your bird spotting!
It’s a perfect book to have as companion on your shelf, especially if you’re new to starting out. Although I’d argue any well seasoned birder would also get as much enjoyment out of this as anyone else for its straight to the point info and really lovely sketches.
I also loved that near the end of the book it contained pointers about how to do your own bird drawings as well as a handy little space to record your own bird spots. A great well rounded little book!
Thank you to the author and publisher for this book on NetGalley in return for my honest thoughts and review.
I’m fairly early on in my bird watching hobby and have loved gathering as much information as I can to arm me for future bird watching sessions, so books like these are invaluable. And it helped that this one was so effortless and fun fo read.
It covers a lot, from bird shapes, sounds, behaviour, nests and how to feed them in your garden. I’m from the U.K. and as this book mentioned American birds, the IDing of these species wouldn’t always be applicable to me but it didn’t take any enjoyment out of reading this book. I enjoyed learning about the beautiful range of birds found in America and I could still take away a lot of the information in regards to how to streamline your bird spotting!
It’s a perfect book to have as companion on your shelf, especially if you’re new to starting out. Although I’d argue any well seasoned birder would also get as much enjoyment out of this as anyone else for its straight to the point info and really lovely sketches.
I also loved that near the end of the book it contained pointers about how to do your own bird drawings as well as a handy little space to record your own bird spots. A great well rounded little book!
Thank you to the author and publisher for this book on NetGalley in return for my honest thoughts and review.
Super cute and approachable book that is great for beginning birders! Lovely illustrations, great tips and suggestions!