56 BirdWatching • September/October 2019
Peterson Reference Guide to Sparrows of North
America, by Rick Wright, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,
hardcover, 2019, 448 pages, $35.This book, from tour
leader, author, and scholar
Rick Wright, is a thor-
ough resource for the
identification of 76 kinds
of sparrows, juncos,
towhees, and brush
finches that breed in
“zoogeographic North
America, or the Nearctic
region” — Canada and
the United States south
into Mexico where a
volcanic belt crosses from
Jalisco to Veracruz. Wright covers not only field-ID
tips for each bird, but he also summarizes how ranges
have expanded or contracted over time. And he goes
further, telling the fascinating history of human
interactions with sparrows. We learn, for example,
about Audubon’s incorrect assumptions about the
Rufous-crowned Sparrow, a bird of Latin America.bookbookshelfshelf BY MATT MENDENHALL
Truth and clarity
Bird Therapy, by Joe Harkness, Unbound, hardcover,
2019, 304 pages, $18.60.Few birders’ stories are as profound and moving as
that of Joe Harkness. In 2013, he attempted to take
his own life. His healing process involved counsel-
ling and mindfulness — and
along the way he discovered
birds. They improved his
mental health to the point
where he started a blog and
later wrote this book, in hopes
of helping others address their
own stresses. Harkness is
British, so the book focuses on
birds and locations in the
U.K., but the message is
universal: Birds can provide
therapy for anyone who takes
time to notice them.Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds of Western
North America, by Nathan Pieplow, Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt, vinyl bound, 2019, 648 pages, $28.Birding without
knowing what birds
sound like is like trying
to walk when your leg
is in a cast. You can get
places, but you’re likely
to stumble more often
than not. This book,
which complements
the author’s guide to
eastern bird sounds, is
a new tool for learning
songs, calls, drum-
ming, wing f laps,
wails, hoots, and other
sounds. It presents spectrograms for the various
sounds made by 537 western species, allowing
readers to translate what they hear into visual
recognition, without musical training or auditory
memorization. An affiliated website, petersonbird
sounds.com, features more than 7,500 bird sounds.Birds by the Shore: Observing the Natural Life of
the Atlantic Coast, by Jennifer Ackerman, Penguin
Random House, 2019, paperback, 224 pages, $16.Three years ago, we recom-
mended Jennifer Ackerman’s
The Genius of Birds, which
explains the subject of bird
intelligence to lay readers.
Now we’re happy to suggest
Birds by the Shore, an
account of a few years of
Ackerman’s life along the
shores of Delaware. Here she
ref lects on encounters with
shorebirds, ghost and
horseshoe crabs, sea worms,
snakes, and whales while considering her own
story — her mother’s death, her parents’ separa-
tion, and her hopes for the future.8 new books about birds, life, and our planet