Donald E. Kroodsma

I found this book enjoyable and useful, and there's also the decadent fact that it's a BOOK that makes BIRD noises. (As opposed to a bird that makes book noises: not decadent). So this rating might seem a bit churlish, but Kroodsma, your book is just too high-level. Going for all of Western North America (perhaps those were the sound files you had available at the time?) means that you get all the common obvses, which is fine for someone who wants to know what a robin sounds like but not for show more someone who wants to find out what that weird bird on the porch is. Also scrolling is hard, and the bird drawings kind of look like sexy 3-D computer animations (only birds). Still, it taught me a lot of shit about a killdeer. show less

great book for bird lovers but i could not read it through. it's more of a reference book about recording bird song and making sonograms of them. the author writes well with an entertaining style but he goes into technical scholarly details on every bird species he's ever encountered (hyperbole much?).

i had this on loan through interlibrary loan and i sent it back unfinished. in fact, i did not get very far in but i would like to own it, i think.

Extraordinary little book that offers clear and joyful Bird Songs!

It also includes one page of habitat, description, and fun features for each bird included.

The book runs on batteries.

It would be welcome to color code those birds which stay around in winter or to make a book
which includes just those winter birds across the U.S.

The Singing Life of Birds is a summary of thirty years worth of study on bird singing. Glancing ahead at the book, I thought it looked way more detailed than I would care about and I would just skim it. I, however, found it very readable and so interesting that I did no skimming at all. Besides giving an overview of the immense diversity of birdsong, it's study has revealed much about bird behavior. The author's enthusiasm is contagious. It also comes with a CD so you can hear what you're show more reading about. An excellent book show less