Bird Book Club
Our book club is an opportunity to read books, meet the authors, and join others in fun discussions. We meet once each month on a Thursday for about one hour beginning at 8 p.m. EST. To join, you must register for each session. Links are provided with upcoming books below. Visit our SHOP to purchase current and past books.
What people say about Bird Book Club:
“Very informative presentation” “The book club meeting was great” “Thank you for this wonderful book club.” “I love this book club.” “Thank you so much!! The book is fascinating and awesome!” “Thank you for this excellent talk tonight.”
Flight Paths: How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird Migration By Rebecca Heisman
Thursday, March 30, 2023 5pm PT, 6pm MT, 7pm CT, 8pm ET
Register HERE
Flight Paths is the never-before-told story of how a group of migration-obsessed scientists in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries engaged nearly every branch of science to understand bird migration—from where and when they take off to their flight paths and behaviors, their destinations and the challenges they encounter getting there. Uniting curious minds from across generations, continents, and disciplines, bird enthusiast and science writer Rebecca Heisman traces the development of each technique used for tracking migratory birds, from the first attempts to mark individual birds to the cutting-edge technology that lets ornithologists trace where a bird has been, based on unique DNA markers. Along the way, she touches on the biggest technological breakthroughs of modern science and reveals the almost-forgotten stories of the scientists who harnessed these inventions in service of furthering our understanding of nature (and their personal obsession with birds).
Conversations with Birds Hardcover by Priyanka Kumar
Thursday, April 27th, 2023 5pm PT, 6pm MT, 7pm CT, 8pm ET
Register HERE
“Birds are my almanac. They tune me into the seasons, and into myself.”
So begins this lively collection of essays by acclaimed filmmaker and novelist Priyanka Kumar. Growing up at the feet of the Himalayas in northern India, Kumar took for granted her immersion in a lush natural world. After moving to North America as a teenager, she found herself increasingly distanced from more than human life, and discouraged by the civilization she saw contributing to its destruction. It was only in her twenties, living in Los Angeles and working on films, that she began to rediscover her place in the landscape — and in the cosmos — by way of watching birds.
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Thursday, May 18th, 2023 5pm PT 6pm MT, 7pm CT, 8pm ET
Register Here
Franny Stone has always been the kind of woman who is able to love but unable to stay. Leaving behind everything but her research gear, she arrives in Greenland with a singular purpose: to follow the last Arctic terns in the world on what might be their final migration to Antarctica. Franny talks her way onto a fishing boat, and she and the crew set sail, traveling ever further from shore and safety. But as Franny’s history begins to unspool―a passionate love affair, an absent family, a devastating crime―it becomes clear that she is chasing more than just the birds. When Franny’s dark secrets catch up with her, how much is she willing to risk for one more chance at redemption?
Epic and intimate, heartbreaking and galvanizing, Charlotte McConaghy’s Migrations is an ode to a disappearing world and a breathtaking page-turner about the possibility of hope against all odds.
Baby Bird Identification: A North American Guide by Linda Tuttle-Adams
Thursday, June 29th, 2023 5pm PT, 6pm MT, 7pm CT, 8pm ET
Register HERE
Baby Bird Identification is a comprehensive illustrated guide for distinguishing hundreds of North American bird species in their early stages of life. From the just hatched to the fledgling, Linda Tuttle-Adams walks readers through the process of identifying baby birds that they may encounter in the wild―a first step to ensuring proper care and rehabilitation.
Successful rehabilitation of birds found in the wild requires species-specific attention. But the identification of a baby bird, whether altricial or precocial, may seem overwhelming at first, even to a trained ornithologist. Tuttle-Adams lays out an approachable and systematic method for discerning a baby bird’s identity, offering descriptions of telling anatomical and environmental features as well as details of a bird’s day-to-day growth.
With over four hundred original watercolor paintings and an illustrated glossary, Baby Bird Identification is an invaluable resource for wildlife rehabilitators, those who find baby birds in their yards or recreational places, and anyone who enjoys watching or studying birds in the wild.
The wise hours by Miriam Darlington
Thursday July 27th 10 am PT, 11am MT, 12pm CT, 1pm ET
Register Here
Owls have existed for over sixty million years, and in the relatively short time we have shared the planet with these majestic birds they have ignited the human imagination. But even as owls continue to captivate our collective consciousness, celebrated British nature writer Miriam Darlington finds herself struck by all she doesn’t know about the true nature of these enigmatic creatures.
Darlington begins her fieldwork in the British Isles with her teenage son, Benji. As her avian fascination grows, she travels to France, Serbia, Spain, Finland, and the frosted Lapland borders of the Arctic for rare encounters with the Barn Owl, Tawny Owl, Long-eared Owl, Pygmy Owl, Snowy Owl, and more. But when her son develops a mysterious illness, her quest to understand the elusive nature of owls becomes entangled with her search for finding a cure.
In The Wise Hours, Darlington watches and listens to the natural world and to the rhythms of her home and family, inviting readers to discover the wonders of owls alongside her while rewilding our imagination with the mystery, fragility, and magnificence of all creatures.
Keep looking up by Tammah Watts
Thursday, August 31st, 2023 5pm PT, 6pm MT, 7pm CT, 8pm ET
Register HERE
It began with a flutter of yellow feathers flitting through the trees, casting beams of sunshine and promise that burst through her kitchen window. This was her sign to look up.
As a licensed therapist, Tammah Watts knew that she needed to seek and accept hope, love, and support to overcome her chronic pain and cultivate resilience. But she could not predict that the little yellow bird would put her on the path to healing by fostering a powerful connection with birds and the experience of birding.
Tammah shares her emotional journey of finding comfort and inspiration from her feathered friends, while providing practical tips and tools to help you:
Explore the practice of birdwatching from the comfort of your own home and community
Increase your self-awareness, mindfulness, and concentration
Find acceptance and alignment with the spirit and beauty of birds
Right outside your door flies just what you’ve been looking for to help ease symptoms of stress, pain, depression, and anxiety. All you have to do is look up, take notice, and open your heart and mind.
No matter where you are, what you look like, or what you’re going through, you can create sacred space and connection with birds and begin to heal.
Return of the Condor: The Race to Save Our Largest Bird from Extinction by John Moir
Thursday, Nov 16th, 2023, 5pm PT, 6pm MT, 7pm CT, 8pm ET
Register Here
Return of the Condor is far and away the best book on the subject. John Moir covered the condor recovery effort for magazines and newspapers for years and his extensive and award-winning journalism, including an investigative piece for Birding magazine, became this fine book. Moir presents a unique insider’s view of the remarkable tale of saving a species from the brink of extinction.
Down to a population of only twenty-two in the 1980s, the condor owes its survival and recovery to a team of scientists who flouted conventional wisdom and pursued the most controversial means to save it. John Moir’s account shows the depth of their passion and courage and details the bitter controversy that led to a national debate over how to save America’s largest bird.
This new paperback edition includes an Afterword bringing the reader up to date on all that has happened in the efforts to save this magnificent bird in recent years since original publication of the book.
