Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion: A Comprehensive Resource for Identifying North American BirdsFrom the award-winning birder and author of Birds of Prey, an authoritative, information-packed guide to distinguishing North American birds. In this book, bursting with more information than any field guide could hold, the well-known author and birder Pete Dunne introduces readers to the “Cape May School of Birding.” It's an approach to identification that gives equal or more weight to a bird's structure and shape and the observer's overall impression (often called GISS, for General Impression of Size and Shape) than to specific field marks. After determining the most likely possibilities by considering such factors as habitat and season, the birder uses characteristics such as size, shape, color, behavior, flight pattern, and vocalizations to identify a bird. The book provides an arsenal of additional hints and helpful clues to guide a birder when, even after a review of a field guide, the identification still hangs in the balance. This supplement to field guides shares the knowledge and skills that expert birders bring to identification challenges. Birding should be an enjoyable pursuit for beginners and experts alike, and Pete Dunne combines a unique playfulness with the work of identification. Readers will delight in his nicknames for birds, from the Grinning Loon and Clearly the Bathtub Duck to Bronx Petrel and Chicken Garnished with a Slice of Mango and a Dollop of Raspberry Sherbet. |
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Accounted among the most dedicated and accomplished conservationists of the twentieth century, he published Audubon Land Bird Guide and Audubon Water Bird Guide in 1946 and 1951, respectively (and a western version in 1957).
Western birds are dark-breasted (like subspecies Dusky Canada Goose) and often show a white neck ring (which Dusky Canada lacks). Eastern birds are palebreasted (like Canada Goose). Looks cute—a Canada Goose miniature.
COHABITANTS: American Kestrel, Ring-necked Pheasant, Western (and Eastern) Meadowlark. MOVEMENT/MIGRATION: Permanent resident. VI: 0. DESCRIPTION: Plump-bodied, grayish brown, quaillike bird with an orange face.
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - Sandydog1 - LibraryThingThere is no longer any need to assemble a birding library. Buy a Sibley Guide, add this wonderful door-stop, and you are all set. There's not a single illustration here. It is just full of Dunne-isms, observations and winsome, quaint nicknames of all of North America's birds. Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - birdsetcetera - LibraryThingDunne's book provides all the exhausting detail that the other field guides don't have room to include, without one glaring detail (photographs or paintings of the birds themselves), hence the ... Read full review
Contents
LOONS | |
ALBATROSSES | |
STORMPETRELS | |
SULIDS BOOBIES | |
HERONS EGRETS AND IBIS | |
STORKS VULTURES AND FLAMINGOS | |
SHOREBIRDSPLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS | |
SKUAS AND JAEGERS | |
TERNS AND SKIMMER | |
ALCIDSAUKS MURRES AND PUFFINS | |
PIGEONS AND DOVES | |
PARROTS AND PARAKEETS | |
OWLS | |
RAILS COOTS LIMPKIN AND CRANES | |
Other editions - View all
Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion: A Comprehensive Resource for ... Pete Dunne No preview available - 2013 |