If you’re looking for an encyclopedic how-to book on birding, this is not it. Rather, these essays by some of the top names in the business are reflections on birdwatching experiences with some lessons derived from those often hilarious experiences thrown in. There are some useful tips to be gleaned along the way, no doubt, but what you will really enjoy is discovering the sense of common experience with the writers even if you haven’t been to these locales. I found myself chuckling throughout and thinking, “Oh, boy. Yep, that’s happened to me.” Or, “I’ve seen that too many times. When will people learn?” It’s a good refresher on the do’s and don’t’s, and a refreshing read on a wonderful avocation.

I can’t say enough about the illustrations–delightful, amusing, creative, and funny, for starters. They are an excellent addition to the essays. I hope we see more of Mr. Braunfield’s work in other books soon. I’m giving the book 5 stars just for the illustrations alone.

Lastly, this would make a great gift for the avid or amateur birder or birdwatcher in your life. You know the ones…they can be found with binoculars at the ready, decked out in white…or not, sometimes on private lands, sometimes on national forests and grasslands. What are those? Read The Forest Service and the Greatest Good: A Centennial History and see.

I’m not a “real” birder. Real birders are fanatics, some to the point of being downright nuts. “The Big Year” movie could easily have been a documentary (I highly recommend it and the book, btw.)

Good Birders Don’t Wear White isn’t 50 tips, it’s 50 previously published articles from well-known birders – professionals who make their livings writing about birds and make their money endorsing binocs and bird tours – and the first problem is that if you subscribe to any of the remaining bird magazines, you may already know this stuff from having read these authors.

I am NOT saying that this wasn’t an enjoyable read, but that’s because I’m serious about photographing birds for enjoyment and competition, and I know just enough to warrant more education. And there is humor in some of the articles: it’s not as intense as some articles about “the rules of birding” or the fights between birders and photographers who always get in each others’ ways because of different focal lengths.

However, as I read the articles – sometimes for a second time – I kept thinking that if you try to make birding a profession, you might well scare away a hobbyist who would really enjoy birding. It is after all the second most popular activity in North America. (Walking is #1, but that’s not fair since you have to walk to bird…) Yes, there are some conventions in birding, and there were some articles which gave good advice to novice birders, but even the title admits to being somewhat contradictory. There are times when you can indeed wear white like when you want to infiltrate a herd of snowy egrets. Just kidding.

Yes I recommend the book, but I wouldn’t make it the first. I think this should come after you’re sure you like to go looking for birds, and just before your first group outing with a group of birding nuts. You can be squashed like a bug (verbally if not literally – but you will find out what a withering look is) if you jump up and down in your big yellow and blue outfit, and yell while running ahead of everyone else, “Lookit THAT bird! What is it????”