Since there are plenty of lengthy, detailed reviews already, I will keep this brief!
I've been birding for a while now, I have read many birding books, and I think this one hits most, if not all, of the bases; birds in your backyard, landscaping for feeding, bird nests and eggs, habitat, making your own feeders, as well as DIY seed mixes, suet cakes and doughs, peanut butter pinecones, etc. Best idea I found was the flowerpot seed bell, which can be costly at stores, especially around the holidays. You would not believe how easy and inexpensive they are to make, and I intend to make several as economical gifts for Christmas.
And since I know everyone is wondering - yes, there are effective tips for keeping out squirrels!!
Overall, a very creative offering, packed with original ideas for the DIY backyard birder.
projects for the birders garden
great informative addition to the gardeners collection. everyone should have a ccopy of this book
Wonderful book!
Our family is new to birding and this book was loaded with informative and great tips. Highly recommend this book and I'm about to purchase it for my father.
Birds AND I enjoyed this one!
Some great ideas...quite practical uses for otherwise discarded items and the birds really do respond! Highly recommend for group scouting project ideas because they generally don't require specialized tools or unusual materials. I recycled several items that were otherwised destined to be thrown away. Thanks! Enjoy!
Fantastic Resource for the Bird Lovers
I own a good dozen or more books on how to attract birds to my garden. This book is definitely one of my favorites.
It contains a variety of very easy projects on best ways of providing seeds, making your own bird treats (like those expensive seed bells they sell in stores), creating feeding stations, planting habitats, setting up water stations, birdhouses and more. There is also a section devoted to hummingbirds and butterflies.
I really like that it isn't a bird or plant identification book. One of my pet peeves with many of my other "project" books is that they dilute their content by including bird identification charts for instance - often up to 1/3 of the book with another third devoted to pictures and descriptions of the plants. I'd rather leave that to a specialized book and let my project books be filled with (imagine this) projects! There is a small amount of this type of information in this book, but it's generally to the point and captured in simple and easy to read charts. I would suggest anyone looking for that type of material should buy appropriate field guides.
I love that the projects are pretty much entirely able to be made from recycled materials (like using the plastic tubes that tennis balls come in or metal coffee cans or plastic plant saucers for instance) and scrap wood. They are very easy and could be wonderful projects for engaging your kids with nature and getting fast results. Tips are also included for maintenance too (such as keeping feeding stations looking their best).
I also love the garden ideas - simple plans for small patches of specialized garden areas - there's one for a self-renewing bird attracting garden with a ton of seed-producing annual flowering plants for instance; a garden for producing nesting materials, another for attracting butterflies by providing food for their caterpillars, one for hummingbirds and a number of others.
Overall, if you are trying to attract birds to your yard and especially if you are looking for ideas for projects you can do with your kids to give them an appreciation for nature, I think you can't go wrong with this book.
