Book Reviews are one of the important elements of the Journal of Field Ornithology (JFO). The editorial team strives to provide expert and unbiased reviews of books that are of a more scientific nature for researchers and other professional practitioners within the field of Ornithology. JFO also supplies reviews of books for backyard bird watchers and even children’s bird books in the hopes of providing something of value to all AFO members and everyone in the larger birding community.
If you are interested in contributing a book review, or if there is a book you would like to see reviewed on our site, you can contact our Book Review Editor, Evan Jackson at evan.jackson@maine.edu
Recent Reviews
February 10, 2025A field guide for birds is an essential tool for ornithologists and birdwatchers worldwide. Over the last 30 years, advancements in digital cameras and accessible photo editing software have revolutionized the editorial process, shifting many bird field guides from illustrations to photographs of bird species from around the globe. Today, we can quickly find a wide variety of photographic guides available for purchase, representing bird species at national, regional, or local scales, including cities, specific ecosystems, and...
October 4, 2024As someone who works in the realm of Bald Eagle conservation, I found Jack Davis's book, "The Bald Eagle," to be an inspiring reminder of the tremendous efforts made to save this iconic symbol of America from the brink of extinction. The author engages readers with a wealth of information on the Bald Eagle's biology, behavior, and ecology. From their nesting habits to their hunting prowess, Davis paints a vivid picture of these incredible birds, fostering a deep appreciation for their place in the natural world.
September 9, 2024At 19 x 24 cm (7.5 x 9.5 inches), 202 pages, and covering just 19 species, Terns of North America: A Photographic Guide, by Cameron Cox, is not a field guide. Neither is it a handbook, as it generally lacks detailed quantitative data and literature citations within the text (but see below). In some ways, it resembles a coffee table book, and its abundant and uniformly superb photos reward even casual browsing. But it is much more than that. Closer examination of this attractive volume reveals that...
August 29, 2024"This is the most challenging book I've ever tried to write," Kenn Kaufman candidly admits in The Birds That Audubon Missed (371). As a reviewer, I empathize; it's also challenging to review. Wide-ranging in scope, it defies easy categorization, existing as history, biography, natural history, literary criticism, memoir, meditation, and travelogue, with frequent discourses on topics such as systematics and taxonomy,...
June 19, 2024This book examines avian architecture and specifically, seeks to explore how birds design and build. Whilst such architecture primarily takes the form of nests constructed to house their offspring, it also includes the bowers constructed by bowerbirds as part of their courtship displays, and the structures in which some species store food. I am sure that most people reading this review will be familiar with bird’s nests, ...
April 24, 2024I would like to commend Liu Yang and Chen Shuihua for their monumental work in cataloguing nearly 1,500 species in their Birds of China. It is inspiring to see an avifauna of any country described and illustrated by nationals of that country. Together, scholars Liu and Chen have created a valuable reference work to an enormous country with a fabulous avifauna. In just 670 pages they have included 14 pages of introductory materials, 24 of references and index, and the majority consisting of species accounts [...]
March 26, 2024In this readable study, Gísli Pálsson recounts how, in the spring of 1858, two Victorian ornithologists—John Wolley and Alfred Newton—engaged in a frustrating and fruitless effort to find living great auks in Iceland. Before returning to England, the pair “became anthropologists” (91) and spent several weeks interviewing people familiar with the birds, especially fishermen who, in 1844, captured and killed two auks...
October 14, 2023Elusive Birds of the Tropical Forest Understory (Comstock Publishing Associates) makes a fine effort to introduce us to an underappreciated and relatively little-known cohort of birds. Its attractive coffee table book format houses a compendium of portraiture sets for 41 bird species that reside in the lower to mid- strata of New World tropical forests. Accompanying each of these sets is an accessibly-written essay by one of several contemporary, expert tropical avian ecologists.
September 12, 2023This is a very welcome publication. Anthropologist Philip Clarke has produced a wide-ranging survey of the historical and cultural relationships between Australia’s aboriginal peoples and its distinctive avifauna. These relationships are both deep and complex. When the first European settlers encountered this vast continent they were entering a world whose indigenous inhabitants had over thousands of years evolved a most detailed and intimate knowledge of their natural surroundings and its wildlife.
August 25, 2023I received the book from the publisher thanks to a request from AFO, who kindly asked me if I would be interested in reviewing this new book. The first pleasant surprise was the size of the book, which was very practical. The idea of having the groups of species presented on the folded front inside cover to get a quick idea of what we’re looking at seems to be very useful and well thought out. Although it may seem that there are few species in Belize, with this double-page spread of quick groups presentation...