Winged Wonders, Fantastic Flocks and Outstanding Ornithology
by Malcolm Tait and Olive Taylor
Think Publishing, 2005
Comments: A few years ago I started birding more earnestly, so naturally I also began collecting books on the subject. The genre is dominated by identification guides of one sort or another, but occasionally something a little more unique emerges. This book fits that bill. It's a compendium of interesting facts, statistics, trivia, poems, quotes, and other bird-related minutiae, all presented in a concise, easily absorbed form. It can be read even briefly and still provide a complete vignette of some aspect of birds or birding. There are very few illustrations, and none that would be useful in the field, but that clearly isn't its intended purpose. It's more of a recreational reader, meant to be consumed in short bursts.
This is a wonderful little book for anyone with a birding bent. If you're curious about how many times the word 'crow' is used in the works of Shakespeare, or other similarly useful birding information, then this is a must have edition. (Answer: 34.)
Copy Notes: Hardback, first edition, block print illustrations, bound ribbon bookmark
