Bird Nerd Book Club

Throughout a lifetime of biological and seabird research, Michael Brooke has been blessed with the opportunity to visit a huge array of islands dotted across all the oceans of the world. His is an is…

Spanning much of the western part of South America, the Andes are home to some of the world’s most magnificent birds, from exquisite hummingbirds to fabulous flamingos. This beautifully illustrated l…

In The Feather Detective, award-winning journalist Chris Sweeney charts the astonishing life and work of this overlooked pioneer. Once divorced, once widowed, and sometimes surly, Roxie shattered ste…

Have you ever gone for a walk in the woods and wondered what bird was making a sound like a siren going off, or somebody revving a chainsaw engine—or sneezing? Do you hear birds every day, in the par…

Bird flight is a mesmerizing spectacle, yet its intricacies remain largely shrouded in mystery for most. Even after over a century of study, certain aspects of bird flight continue to baffle the publ…

Danielle Whittaker's The Secret Perfume of Birds is the untold story of a stunning discovery: not only can birds smell, but their scents may be the secret to understanding their world.

The puzzling la…

Mike Stark’s Starlings: The Curious Odyssey of a Most Hated Bird is a first-of-its-kind history of starlings in America, an oddball, love-hate story at the intersection of human folly, ornithology, a…

Professional birding amateur and national bestselling author Matt Kracht has had it with these goddamn birds.  His new book, A Dumb Birds Field Guide to the Worst Birds Ever, is a warning, a field gu…

Roger Pasquier's Birds at Rest is the first book to give a full picture of how birds rest, roost, and sleep, a vital part of their lives. It features new science that can measure what is happening in…

Ian Parsons', Of the Trees and the Birds, tells the story of how trees and birds go together, as they have done for millions of years, evolving long before we did. Over their long and shared history,…

It is the end of 2024 - so time for a bit of a wrap-up!  Lyzy Lusterman, owner of Buteo Books, joined me to talk about some favorites, some trends, and books to look forward to in 2025. 

Buteo Books …

Tessa Boase's Etta Lemon is a gripping narrative exploring two formidable heroines and their rival, overlapping campaigns. Moving from the feather workers’ slums to high society, from the first femal…

Most birders keep lists of the species birds they have seen, but do any keep a list of pub birds, that is birds on pub signs and in pub names? John Lawton's Inn Search of Birds is about these pub bir…

Lillian Stokes and Matt Young's The Stokes Guide to Finches of the United States and Canada has everything you could possibly want to know about the finches of North America (including Hawaii!) and C…

Randi Minetor's The Complete Language of Birds dives into an unusual dimension of historical and arcane knowledge with the study of birds. A collection of fun and interesting facts about birds gather…

Sophie Osborn's Feather Trails: A Journey of Discovery Among Endangered Birds is the story of one woman’s remarkable work with a trio of charismatic, endangered bird species—and her discoveries about…

Geoff Wisner's A Year of Birds is a work of art as well as a work of literature. With 150 watercolors and field sketches by renowned bird artist Barry Van Dusen and a foreword by celebrated naturalis…

Sarah T. Dubb's, Birding with Benefits, published by Gallery Books is a romance novel about a divorcée who embarks on her “year of yes” and crosses paths with a shy and sensitive birdwatcher who chan…

Jeff Ollerton's Birds and Flowers explores the relationships between plants and birds which first emerged at least 50 million years ago and over time have influenced the evolution of both groups.

This…

Gretchen Newberry's The Nighthawk Evening focuses on the bird itself—its complex conservation status and cultural significance—and the larger, often hidden world of nocturnal animals. Along the way, …