Finding Your Wings, Peterson Field Guides

A Workbook for Beginning Bird Watchers

Burton Guttman

I learned to bird watch under pressure, the pressure to get straight A’s in graduate school. I had an ornithology text book, the field guide the professor assigned (Golden Guide to Birds, still a favorite!), and a stack of index cards for our in-the-field quizzes. The pressure to make the grade focuses you, but didn’t take away the fun. With this book, you can focus your bird watching skills, and have more fun in the field, and reduce the risk of being overwhelmed on your first few forays on birding adventures. This workbook provides Peterson Field Guide (East/Central or West) based exercises, field exercises, quizzes (answers supplied!) and games to play on your own or with family and friends. What gives it authenticity to me is that the author also recommends readers to go out birding on their own, what a concept! Easy concept, but how many of us do things by ourselves anymore? Guttman’s goal is to prepare the reader for “ how to see and what to look for.” He did it well.

From the publisher: “A step-by-step workbook that guides readers through the challenges of enjoying bird watching

Burton Guttman firmly believes that people learn best by doing. No other book for beginning bird watchers involves the reader so actively in the exciting first steps of learning to watch birds. This workbook is filled with quizzes and exercises that prepare the reader for going birding and help beginners develop a sense of accomplishment and progress. With each chapter covering a different aspect of bird watching, the author guides readers along a threefold path: learning how to really see birds, how to sort birds by category, and how to learn the easiest birds first. Exercises include analyzing what types of food birds’ bills are adapted for and sketching the shapes of birds in different categories. Quiz questions ask readers to identify what type of duck feeds by tipping its rear end up in the air and extending its neck downward, or to identify a small brownish bird clinging to a weed stalk and picking out seeds. Plenty of room is provided for writing and sketching, and answers are supplied in the back of the book.

About the author:

Burton Guttman is a professor of biology who has been teaching birding workshops and courses for many years. His concern about society’s increasing alienation from the natural world—at a time when the earth needs our protection more than ever—motivated him to write a book that helps people get to know and love nature, so they will want to protect it.

Spiralbound, 206 pages, 7 1/4 x 10, full-color photographs, full-color illustrations, b&w illustrations, March 2008