National Geographic Birding Basics
Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Great Bird-Watching
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Narrated by:
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Dan Bittner
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By:
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Noah Strycker
About this listen
Targeted to beginners and beyond, National Geographic's fun, inspiring guide to the art, craft, and science of bird-watching combines practical know-how and expert knowledge. Browsable and bursting with helpful illustrations and photographs, Birding Basics offers new ideas for when, where, and how to get to know the birds in your world. Not a field guide but a primer in best practices, authored by birding expert Noah Strycker, this breezy book features easy-to-follow advice on what to look and listen for, how to use field guides and birding apps, the best equipment to start with, and ways to engage with other birders around the world. Filled with fun facts and seasoned advice, this useful book will help you attract birds to your backyard, master bird identification, name a bird by its song, and witness the magic of migration. Sidebars feature fun facts, identification tips, and easy projects for exploring the world on the wing. For everyone who loves watching the birds, whether out the window or on the trail, this colorful, easy-to-use guide to better birding has everything you need.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2022 Noah Strycker (P)2022 National GeographicListeners also enjoyed...
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Stories about birds with something for everyone
- By D on 07-24-17
By: Jim Robbins
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Lost Among the Birds
- Accidentally Finding Myself in One Very Big Year
- By: Neil Hayward
- Narrated by: Sam Devereaux
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Early in 2013 Neil Hayward was at a crossroads. He didn't want to open a bakery or whatever else executives do when they quit a lucrative but unfulfilling job. He didn't want to think about his failed relationship with 'the one' or his potential for ruining a new relationship with 'the next one'. And he almost certainly didn't want to think about turning 40. And so instead he went birding. Birding was a lifelong passion. It was only among the birds that Neil found a calm that had eluded him in the confusing world of humans.
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Know a Birder? This will help you Understand.
- By Carole T. on 08-27-17
By: Neil Hayward
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A Naturalist at Large
- The Best Essays of Bernd Heinrich
- By: Bernd Heinrich
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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From one of the finest scientists and writers of our time comes an engaging record of a life spent in close observation of the natural world, one that has yielded marvelous, mind-altering insight and discoveries. In essays that span several decades, Bernd Heinrich finds himself at his beloved camp in Maine, plays host to annoying visitors from Europe (the cluster fly) and more helpful guests from Asia (ladybugs), and unravels the far-reaching ecological consequences of elephants in Botswana bruising mopane trees.
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Listen and See the World Anew!
- By Thoughtful Learner on 06-03-18
By: Bernd Heinrich
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One Wild Bird at a Time
- Portraits of Individual Lives
- By: Bernd Heinrich
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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In One Wild Bird at a Time, Heinrich returns to his great love: close, day-to-day observations of individual wild birds. Heinrich's observations lead to fascinating questions - and sometimes startling discoveries. A great crested flycatcher bringing food to the young acts surreptitiously and is attacked by the mate. Why? A pair of northern flickers hammering their nest-hole into the side of Heinrich's cabin delivers the opportunity to observe the feeding competition between siblings.
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An Adventure In Nature
- By Sara on 12-21-16
By: Bernd Heinrich
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A Most Remarkable Creature
- The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey
- By: Jonathan Meiburg
- Narrated by: Jonathan Meiburg
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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An enthralling account of a modern voyage of discovery as we meet the clever, social birds of prey called caracaras, which puzzled Darwin, fascinate modern-day falconers, and carry secrets of our planet's deep past in their family history.
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I don't leave reviews often, but . . .
- By Steven L Peck on 06-24-21
By: Jonathan Meiburg
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The Beak of the Finch
- A Story of Evolution in Our Time
- By: Jonathan Weiner
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Rosemary and Peter Grant and those assisting them have spend 20 years on Daphne Major, an island in the Galapagos, studying natural selection. They recognize each individual bird on the island, when there are 400 at the time of the author's visit or when there are over a thousand. They have observed about 20 generations of finches - continuously.Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself.
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Fascinating in-depth look at evolution in action
- By Philip on 05-15-11
By: Jonathan Weiner
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The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating
- By: Elisabeth Tova Bailey
- Narrated by: Renee Raudman
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Elisabeth Tova Bailey tells the intimate and inspiring story of her year-long encounter with a snail. While an illness keeps her bedridden, she becomes an astute and amused observer of the snail's surprising nocturnal adventures as it lives in a flowerpot on her nightstand. Intrigued by the snail’s clear decision making abilities, hydraulic locomotion, mysterious courtship, and molluscan anatomy, Bailey takes the listener deep into the life of this tiny amazing animal. With wit and grace, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating recounts a remarkable journey of human and gastropod survival and resilience, and shows how the natural world illuminates our own human existence. Winner of the William Saroyan International Prize for Nonfiction, the John Burrough Medal Award for Natural History, and a National Outdoor Book Award. If you enjoyed Wesley the Owl, The Guest Cat, and Marley & Me, you'll enjoy this unique interspecies audiobook listen.
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This is an unexpected wonder. The quiet virtues of the snail reflect the quiet voyage of the author.
- By Frances on 08-03-15
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The Great Animal Orchestra
- Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places
- By: Bernie Krause
- Narrated by: Bernie Krause
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Musician and naturalist Bernie Krause is one of the world's leading experts in natural sound, and he's spent his life discovering and recording nature's rich chorus. Searching far beyond our modern world's honking horns and buzzing machinery, he has sought out the truly wild places that remain, where natural soundscapes exist virtually unchanged from when the earliest humans first inhabited the earth.
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Too frustrating to put up with
- By Steve Gross on 07-17-12
By: Bernie Krause
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Wild Ones
- A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America
- By: Jon Mooallem
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Half of all species could disappear by the end of the century, and scientists now concede that most of America’s endangered animals will survive only if conservationists keep rigging the world around them in their favor. So Jon Mooallem ventures into the field, often taking his daughter with him, to move beyond childlike fascination and make those creatures feel more real. Wild Ones is a tour through our environmental moment and the eccentric cultural history of people and wild animals in America that inflects it.
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The line between conservation and domestication...
- By Bonny on 04-02-14
By: Jon Mooallem
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The Galápagos
- A Natural History
- By: Henry Nicholls
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The Galapagos were once known to the sailors and pirates who encountered them as Las Encantadas: the enchanted islands, home to exotic creatures and dramatic volcanic scenery. In The Galapagos, science writer Henry Nicholls offers a lively natural and human history of the archipelago, charting its evolution from deserted wilderness to scientific resource (made famous by Charles Darwin) and global ecotourism hot spot.
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Thought-Provoking
- By Jean on 10-23-18
By: Henry Nicholls
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The Bald Eagle
- The Improbable Journey of America's Bird
- By: Jack E. Davis
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The bald eagle is regal but fearless, a bird you’re not inclined to argue with. For centuries, Americans have celebrated it as “majestic” and “noble,” yet savaged the living bird behind their national symbol as a malicious predator of livestock and, falsely, a snatcher of babies.
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I thought the book would be about the bald eagle
- By An Amazon Buyer on 10-25-22
By: Jack E. Davis
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The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
- A New History of a Lost World
- By: Steve Brusatte
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In this stunning narrative spanning more than 200 million years, Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the field - discovering 10 new species and leading groundbreaking scientific studies and fieldwork - masterfully tells the complete, surprising, and new history of the dinosaurs, drawing on cutting-edge science to dramatically bring to life their lost world and illuminate their enigmatic origins, spectacular flourishing, astonishing diversity, cataclysmic extinction, and startling living legacy.
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"The Rise of the Scientists Who Study Dinosaurs"
- By Daniel Powell on 09-16-18
By: Steve Brusatte
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To See Every Bird on Earth
- A Father, A Son, and a Lifelong Obsession
- By: Dan Koeppel
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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From well-known nature and adventure writer Dan Koeppel, whose work has appeared in Audubon and National Geographic Adventure, comes this true story of one bird watcher's incredible achievements.
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Reader is Ancient
- By Caroline on 06-18-05
By: Dan Koeppel
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Nature's Best Hope
- A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard
- By: Douglas W. Tallamy
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Douglas W. Tallamy's first book, Bringing Nature Home, awakened thousands of individuals to an urgent situation: wildlife populations are in decline because the native plants they depend on are fast disappearing. His solution? Plant more natives. In this new book, Tallamy takes the next step and outlines his vision for a grassroots approach to conservation.
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A must read for everybody! Not just nature lovers.
- By Steve Ebert on 06-11-20
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The Life of Birds (Updated Edition)
- By: David Attenborough
- Narrated by: David Attenborough
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Birds. Over 9,000 species, the most widespread of all animals: on icebergs, in the Sahara or under the sea, at home in our gardens or flying for over a year at a time. Earthbound, we can only look and listen, enjoying their lightness, freedom and richness of plumage and song. David Attenborough has been watching and learning all his life. His classic book, now fully updated with the latest discoveries in ornithology, is a brilliant introduction to bird behaviours around the world: what they do and why they do it.
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Delightful and comprehensive, presented with masterful narration by David Attenborough.
- By Steve A on 06-27-24
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The Backyard Bird Chronicles
- By: Amy Tan, David Allen Sibley - foreword
- Narrated by: Amy Tan, Evan Sibley
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
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In 2016, Amy Tan grew overwhelmed by the state of the world: Hatred and misinformation became a daily presence on social media, and the country felt more divisive than ever. In search of peace, Tan turned toward the natural world just beyond her window and, specifically, the birds visiting her yard. But what began as an attempt to find solace turned into something far greater—an opportunity to savor quiet moments during a volatile time, connect to nature in a meaningful way, and imagine the intricate lives of the birds she admired.
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Don’t Recommend As An Audiobook
- By AnnSG on 06-02-24
By: Amy Tan, and others
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Better Living Through Birding
- Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World
- By: Christian Cooper
- Narrated by: Christian Cooper
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Christian Cooper is a self-described “Blerd” (Black nerd), an avid comics fan and expert birder who devotes every spring to gazing upon the migratory birds that stop to rest in Central Park, just a subway ride away from where he lives in New York City. While in the park one morning in May 2020, Cooper was engaged in the birdwatching ritual that had been a part of his life since he was ten years old when what might have been a routine encounter with a dog walker exploded age-oldracial tensions. Cooper’s viral video of the incident would send shock waves through the nation.
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If you’re not a birder yet, you soon will be.
- By Anonymous on 06-19-23
By: Christian Cooper
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The Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs
- By: Donald Stokes, Lillian Q. Stokes, Lang Elliot, and others
- Narrated by: Donald Stokes, Lillian Q. Stokes, Lang Elliot, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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An incredible 923 species from all of North America are included in this marvelous audio companion to the best-selling Stokes Field Guides.
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Useless
- By Cole Peake on 07-15-14
By: Donald Stokes, and others
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A Most Remarkable Creature
- The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey
- By: Jonathan Meiburg
- Narrated by: Jonathan Meiburg
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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An enthralling account of a modern voyage of discovery as we meet the clever, social birds of prey called caracaras, which puzzled Darwin, fascinate modern-day falconers, and carry secrets of our planet's deep past in their family history.
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I don't leave reviews often, but . . .
- By Steven L Peck on 06-24-21
By: Jonathan Meiburg
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Birding to Change the World
- A Memoir
- By: Trish O'Kane
- Narrated by: Cheryl Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Trish O’Kane is an accidental ornithologist. In her nearly two decades writing about justice as an investigative journalist, she'd never paid attention to nature. But then Hurricane Katrina destroyed her New Orleans home, sending her into an emotional tailspin. Enter a scrappy cast of feathered characters—first a cardinal, urban parrots, and sparrows, then a catbird, owls, a bittern, and a woodcock—that cheered her up and showed her a new path. Inspired, O'Kane moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to pursue an environmental studies PhD.
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Not just for bird lovers but for everyone
- By Cathy on 05-28-24
By: Trish O'Kane
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The Life of Birds (Updated Edition)
- By: David Attenborough
- Narrated by: David Attenborough
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Birds. Over 9,000 species, the most widespread of all animals: on icebergs, in the Sahara or under the sea, at home in our gardens or flying for over a year at a time. Earthbound, we can only look and listen, enjoying their lightness, freedom and richness of plumage and song. David Attenborough has been watching and learning all his life. His classic book, now fully updated with the latest discoveries in ornithology, is a brilliant introduction to bird behaviours around the world: what they do and why they do it.
-
-
Delightful and comprehensive, presented with masterful narration by David Attenborough.
- By Steve A on 06-27-24
-
The Backyard Bird Chronicles
- By: Amy Tan, David Allen Sibley - foreword
- Narrated by: Amy Tan, Evan Sibley
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2016, Amy Tan grew overwhelmed by the state of the world: Hatred and misinformation became a daily presence on social media, and the country felt more divisive than ever. In search of peace, Tan turned toward the natural world just beyond her window and, specifically, the birds visiting her yard. But what began as an attempt to find solace turned into something far greater—an opportunity to savor quiet moments during a volatile time, connect to nature in a meaningful way, and imagine the intricate lives of the birds she admired.
-
-
Don’t Recommend As An Audiobook
- By AnnSG on 06-02-24
By: Amy Tan, and others
-
Better Living Through Birding
- Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World
- By: Christian Cooper
- Narrated by: Christian Cooper
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Christian Cooper is a self-described “Blerd” (Black nerd), an avid comics fan and expert birder who devotes every spring to gazing upon the migratory birds that stop to rest in Central Park, just a subway ride away from where he lives in New York City. While in the park one morning in May 2020, Cooper was engaged in the birdwatching ritual that had been a part of his life since he was ten years old when what might have been a routine encounter with a dog walker exploded age-oldracial tensions. Cooper’s viral video of the incident would send shock waves through the nation.
-
-
If you’re not a birder yet, you soon will be.
- By Anonymous on 06-19-23
By: Christian Cooper
-
The Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs
- By: Donald Stokes, Lillian Q. Stokes, Lang Elliot, and others
- Narrated by: Donald Stokes, Lillian Q. Stokes, Lang Elliot, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An incredible 923 species from all of North America are included in this marvelous audio companion to the best-selling Stokes Field Guides.
-
-
Useless
- By Cole Peake on 07-15-14
By: Donald Stokes, and others
-
A Most Remarkable Creature
- The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey
- By: Jonathan Meiburg
- Narrated by: Jonathan Meiburg
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An enthralling account of a modern voyage of discovery as we meet the clever, social birds of prey called caracaras, which puzzled Darwin, fascinate modern-day falconers, and carry secrets of our planet's deep past in their family history.
-
-
I don't leave reviews often, but . . .
- By Steven L Peck on 06-24-21
By: Jonathan Meiburg
-
Birding to Change the World
- A Memoir
- By: Trish O'Kane
- Narrated by: Cheryl Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trish O’Kane is an accidental ornithologist. In her nearly two decades writing about justice as an investigative journalist, she'd never paid attention to nature. But then Hurricane Katrina destroyed her New Orleans home, sending her into an emotional tailspin. Enter a scrappy cast of feathered characters—first a cardinal, urban parrots, and sparrows, then a catbird, owls, a bittern, and a woodcock—that cheered her up and showed her a new path. Inspired, O'Kane moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to pursue an environmental studies PhD.
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Not just for bird lovers but for everyone
- By Cathy on 05-28-24
By: Trish O'Kane
What listeners say about National Geographic Birding Basics
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Bergman
- 07-31-24
Good advice for new birders
The book does a good job of giving practical tips for a beginner birder, like me. I finished the book with many ideas for pursuing my birding hobby. Also, the narrator was great.
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- MPIndy
- 06-18-24
Concise Beginning Birding the Experienced Can Enjoy!
I loved the brevity and broad coverage of topics. Recommended for beginners and longtime birders.
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- Anonymous User
- 10-31-24
Narration is very inviting
Excellent information and delivery, enjoyed all the details, fun facts and try this! The author is very knowledgeable and draws the listener in.
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