Birds in the backyard is something that I seldom paid attention to, until my 4 year old daughter started observing them and asking me questions about. I had to get a book ! This book was my choice based on the reviews on Amazon. I have soon discovered that bird watching in your backyard is fun – not just for kids, but for adults too. There are at least 6 or 7 species of birds that frequent our backyard. Within a week, this book has helped us identify the American Robin, the mourning dove and the cardinals (male and female – which look different from each other). Once you get to know the type of bird, it is interesting how your whole perception about your backyard changes. It is no longer a dull backyard with all those noisy birds.

The birds in this book (one bird per spread with picture on the left and ample description on the right) are ordered by color. In some species, females look different from the males, so they are listed in different places, but have reference to each other. Also, for each bird, there is a list of other birds that they are comparable to. That really helps you in distinguishing birds that look similar.

The book itself is very compact and easy to read. I highly recommend this even to people who usually don’t care about birds. Just keep it in your family room and next time a bird comes pecking on your window, try to identify it. I promise, you will enjoy it.

I came across this little gem by accident, found it in the local Missouri section while walking down the wrong aisle at B&N, rather than in the animal section. I picked it up and gave it a glance and didn’t think twice about purchasing it or not.

It’s practically a dictionary of local birds, each entry has a beautiful picture of the bird, both female and male. Includes important information for identification, what area of the state they prefer, what their eggs and nests look like, and much more.

I really like the color tabs. See a brown bird? Turn to the brown section for quick look up. Living in Missouri, I only recently took up an interest in feeding birds in my back yard and have purchased several books on the subject. This one is the best by far! It’s easy to use, informative, and the pictures are of excellent quality!