Bird Watching Books, CDs, Courses & Cool Products

Where on the internet in canada can you buy wild bird supplies?

nono0606 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:22:48 GMT

Im looking for a good web sites to buy WILD bird supplies such as seed, nesting material, books, and nest boxes ect. The site must be in canada as I do not want to spend 30$ on shipping.
Thanks

Best Teaching Guide for a New Birder

Dragonflyspit — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:07:07 GMT

I need suggestions for a really good teaching field guide for a brand new birder who learns slowly.

She needs a better understanding of the basic concepts of shape, behavior, habitat, range, etc. She currently has an Audubon's, which hurts more than helps her because if the color matches, she thinks she's found her bird, even if it's an arctic species and she's in the desert of Boise, ID.

Which Bird Songs CD is best?

Jello5700 — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 18:42:45 GMT

Birding by Ear: Eastern and Central North America or Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs: Eastern Region?

Next week im taking a family vacation to Myrtle Beach, SC from Indianapolis so I'll have 12+ hours in the car. So I thought it would be fun to learn to ID birds by there calls. Does anyone have experience with these CD's and which one do you recommend?

Join the Ebird Site to use to record observations and more

Jim Penny — Sat, 30 May 2009 21:01:46 GMT

Some of you newer folks may not be aware of a Site which can help you manage your observations. The Site is known as Ebird and is located at : http://ebird.org/content/ebird/.

The Site is Membership is free and is administrated by Cornell Lab of Ornithology. There are a number of selectable "buttons" which explain the Site better than I can.

It is valuable for entering your observations and then being able to display the info in several different ways. You can build long-term histories for the birds that you see at each of your birding sites. You can also see the observations which others have done for a selectable area.

It is worth checking out.

PDA Pocket PC birding software

greenwyvern — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:39:35 GMT

I have found several (more than I expected to find) birding programs for the PDA. From Handango's Encyclopedia of North American birds to bird listing programs and bird song programs. Has anyone tried any of these? Comments?

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

GenBlase — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:15:16 GMT

I have discovered a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in the neighbor's tree.

I have done some research on the bird and found that it is endangered in New Jersey, but the problem is the Heron is in Stratford, Connecticut.

Should I inform someone of this interesting discovery?

I also found that the bird is in Least Concerned status.

Leucistic Common Grackle

GrayPoll — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:00:32 GMT

Bird call

greenwyvern — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 01:31:08 GMT

Anyone ever tried on of those brass and wood bird calls?

New 2009 Petersons guide & podcasts.

greenwyvern — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:56:24 GMT

I lucked out today and found a new first ed. 2009 Peterson guide on the bargain table for $8. The Peterson web site has some nice podcasts if you are a beginner like me. The address is:

www.petersonfieldguides.com

You can download the podcasts or just watch them online.

Birdwatching spots along the Highway 101 Corridor in California

Accidental birdwatcher — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:35:31 GMT

I apologize for posting here, but there doesn't seem to be any place to discuss good birdwatching PLACES, which seems hard to believe. If I've missed it, I apologize. Maybe someone can point me in that direction and I'll repost.

Anyway, I'm planning a trip from San Francisco to the Los Angeles area. I'm assuming that someone has put together a list of good birding sites along this route. Anyone? Any suggestions?

Thanks

Cute Bird-Themed Greeting Cards

SiuG — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:45:27 GMT

I found these really neat cards, postcards and stickers, etc online...perfect for Easter:

Easter Cards

Spring Cards

Post Editing HINT if you post edit read this.

thekiwi — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:42:45 GMT

As you will be aware post editing software will allow you look at your image at various sizes 100%,66.67%,50% etc etc you get the picture here you can make the image bigger or smaller on screen.

These sizes here are very bad to use as the editor works in such away that it will makeup and take away pixels in order to resize DO NOT USE THEM FORGET THEY EVEN EXIST !!!!!!!
They are as follows\

66.67%

33.33%

and 16.67%..

Repeat do not use those sreen image sizes when editing in your editor or the result you may get will not be what you want.

Regards Peter

Bird List program revisited.

greenwyvern — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:57:10 GMT

A few posts back Kiwi mentioned a bird list program called Bird Watcher Pro. I replied to his post but for some reason the reply does not show. Just wanted to say that program is now FREE. The author released it as freeware recently. It is a nice simple easy to use program allowing two photos to be included. It lacks some advanced features like a better search function (or maybe I'm just not using it right) but it works great and lets you add the details of the event and notes. Keep in mind it is simple so if you are looking for a program that lets you add pie charts and such this is not it, but you can add all the basic data such as date, time, location, environment, gender, notes, photos, etc. For the price of FREE it very useful in this beginners opinion. Just Google for it.

Suggestions on new bird guide?

jleits12 — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:11:04 GMT

I am looking at buying a new bird guide, and I've narrowed it down to Sibley's, National Geographic, and Kaufman's. I live in Maine, so I would need an eastern guide, and maybe even a North American guide. If you have any other suggestions other than the ones I have, please share them. Thanks!

Question for this Summer ??

billkaye — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:12:15 GMT

I was wondering if anyone has had any luck attracting Scarlet Tanagers? Is there anything specific that I could try? Thanks in advance.... Bill

Techno-geek becomes birder

frankwim — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 15:39:58 GMT

I just stumbled onto this site and immediately registered. It's way cool and a great resource. Now, I'm hoping someone can direct me to what I would call the ultimate technology for us birders. My Blackberry is like another appendage and I probably would not do well without it. Maybe I need BB anonymous but that's beside the point. I use a program on my BB called Trimble Outdoors for logging my bird finds then I upload this info to a web program that I can edit and share with others. See http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip.aspx?tripId=335662 for a recent hike I published. But I need a program to help I.D. birds and bird calls. The ultimate would be this I.D. program that works with my BB GPS to capture location, and everything about the experience (Photos, videos, blog, sounds, etc). Then I would upload this to a public site for everyone to compare with thier experience. Does this exist for the Blackberry? If not, consider this a call to the techno-geek birders to git r done.

Any guides with maps that show birds full range ?

stitch58 — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 04:25:19 GMT

Does anyone know of any books on North American birds that have range maps that show the full range of the birds? The maps in the guides I have show where the birds occur strictly in North America. I'd like to find a book that shows where our migrating feathered friends spend their winter & that shows the full range of pelagic birds that occur here. I don't know if such a book exist but if anyone knows of one please let me know.

Thanks - Greg

Bird Lists

thekiwi — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:01:04 GMT

Most here keep a list of the birds they see guess there must be many ways folks do this Hand written Note book Journal a spread sheet data base etc. A few years ago I found a very small stand alone data base called Bird Watcher Professional designed by Robert.W.Benjamin Here is a screen shot of the program as you get it It and as I have modified it as my database It costs some where around $15

Raptor guidebook

ellie87 — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:45:06 GMT

I've been birding for about a year now, and absolutely love it. I feel like the one area I'm still pretty rusty in, however, is identifying the buteos. I'm wondering if anyone knows of a good field guide for identifying raptors, that has all their different morphs, etc. I have the book "Hawks from Every Angle", but that only gives the views in flight. Most of the time I see a hawk it is perched. Anyway, just wondering if anyone has any suggestions. Thanks.

Bird Guides & Books

Rose — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:39:03 GMT

I recently purchased "National Audubon Society The Sibley Guide To Birds." Its' list price is $35, but using google checkout, I paid a total of $11.35, including it being shipped. I think it's a fantastic guide; I am very happy with the purchase. The illustrations include male, female, juvenile, breeding plumage, in flight with wings up & down, etc. I also have a "Birds of Kentucky Field Guide" by Stan Tekiela. It has 112 of the most common birds, has excellent photographs, & has an interesting section called "Stans notes."

I'm wondering what guides everyone else uses, & what they like best about them. I'm also curious if anyone has the Eastern/Western editions of Sibley's Guides, & what they like about them.

Book -- A Supremely Bad Idea

Marmy — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:37:22 GMT

May I recommend to you a new book called A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See It All, by Luke Dempsey?

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_1_11?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=a+supremely+bad+idea+three+mad+birders+and+their+quest+to+see+it+all&sprefix=A+Supremely

From the jacket:

One man's account of an epic journey around America, in search of the rarest and most beautiful birds the country has to offer. But the birds are only a part of it. There are also his crazy companions....

*******************************

Very funny, sweet, interesting book. A few pretty photos, too! I checked it out from the library.

Marms

Houston--Tomball area Course on Birding

Jim Penny — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:57:24 GMT

For those Members near Houston who might have an interest in learning more about birds.

I recently read where the Director of Kleb Woods Nature Center, Fred Collins is teaching a free Course titled Basic Ornithology, Bird Families of Texas on the 2nd Friday of each month from 9:00-11:00 Am.

The first Class begin Novemver 14th. Classes will be held at the Kleb Woods Nature Preserved of Mueschke Rd. near FM 2920 about 7 miles West of Tomball. Class is free with no textbook so bring notebook and field guide.

New Forums

goofy166 — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 04:34:00 GMT

Thanks to the input from several members, particularly Tim Bryant, we have set up 2 new forum sections, one devoted to Bird Photography (photo discussion, cameras, digital processing, digital storage, etc) and another devoted to Birding Optics (cameras, spotting scopes, etc). Here are how they are organized. These are an expansion and hopefully an improvement on the previous forum called Bird Watchers Equipment, Cameras and Products. That single forum was collecting a wide variety of topics and we hope this new organization will allow you to better direct your comments, ideas, questions and opinions. One we hope will prove popular is Photo sharing and discussion which is where you can upload your photos, tell the stories behind them, get comments and discussion from others. If you have any comments or suggestions about these new sections and forums let us know.

wetland birds or shore birds?

sunnisan — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 09:16:32 GMT

i live on whidbey island in washington state, usa. each of these birds were photographed in areas close to a freshwater lake and each lake was about 150 yards from the ocean. both birds are about the size of a dove give or take an ounce or two. anybody care to forward a name or family for either bird?

Bird call CD's

mint5jf — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:09:13 GMT

I have a bird call CD and it worked great for the first time used. We placed an outdoor speaker outside our kitchen window and played the CD. It plays various birds in my area and sounds so real. After a few minutes we had three or four different birds coming and chatting away with the calls. Has anyone else ever tried this?