Many species of wild birds can become your friends and feed from your hand. In this engaging book. Al Martin explains the techniques he developed over more than fifty years to gain the trust of wild birds. Many of Al's visitors, young and old alike, experienced the thrill of birds landing on them to receive the food they had been trained to expect! And readers of this book may look forward to similar experiences.

Today, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, more than fifty million Americans feed birds around their homes, and over the last sixty years, billions of pounds of birdseed have filled millions of feeders in backyards everywhere. Feeding Wild Birds in America tells why and how a modest act of provision has become such a pervasive, popular, and often passionate aspect of people’s lives. Each chapter provides details on one or more bird-feeding development or trend including the “discovery” of seeds, the invention of different kinds of feeders, and the creation of new companies. Also woven into the book are the worlds of education, publishing, commerce, professional ornithology, and citizen science, all of which have embraced bird feeding at different times and from different perspectives. The authors take a decade-by-decade approach starting in the late nineteenth century, providing a historical overview in each chapter before covering topical developments (such as hummingbird feeding and birdbaths). On the one hand, they show that the story of bird feeding is one of entrepreneurial invention; on the other hand, they reveal how Americans, through a seemingly simple practice, have come to value the natural world.

Darryl Jones is fascinated by bird feeders. Not the containers supplying food to our winged friends, but the people who fill the containers. Why do people do this? Jones asks in The Birds at My Table. Does the food even benefit the birds? What are the unintended consequences of providing additional food to our winged friends? Jones takes us on a wild flight through the history of bird feeding. He pinpoints the highs and lows of the practice. And he ponders this odd but seriously popular form of interaction between humans and wild animals. Most important, he points out that we know very little about the impact of feeding birds despite millions of people doing it every day. Unerringly, Jones digs at the deeper issues and questions, and he raises our awareness of the things we don’t yet know and why we really should. Using the latest scientific findings, The Birds at My Table takes a global swoop from 30,000 feet down to the backyard bird feeder and pushes our understanding of the many aspects of bird feeding back up to new heights.

Lists the birds most likely to hand-feed, their favorite foods, and the best times, places, and weather conditions for hand-feeding.

A budgie, as the common parakeet is typically called, is the subject of this Complete Care Made Easy pet guide that presents new and experienced bird keepers with insight into every aspect of selecting, caring for, and maintaining well-behaved happy pet birds. Angela Davids has written an ideal introductory pet guide, with chapters on the characteristics of the irresistible budgie, the history of budgies in the wild, selection of a healthy, typical pet bird, housing and care, feeding, training, and health care. The selection chapter offers potential owners excellent advice about selection of the color and sex, suitability of the delicate budgie with families, children, and other pets. In the chapter on housing and care, the author discusses selection of the right cage, placement of the cage, and the purchase of toys, cups, perches, and more. A bird’s diet is critical to its ongoing health, and the chapter devoted to feeding the budgie gives the reader all the info he or she needs about choosing the best diet, different types of seeds, greens, fruits, veggies, grit, as well as human foods to avoid. The chapter “Training Time” addresses finger training, towel training, perch training, and offers an easy-to-follow primer on teaching a budgie to talk. The final two chapters of the book will be useful for bird fanciers interested in learning more about the breeding and the basic color variations and genetics of this perfect beginner’s bird. The book concludes with an appendix of bird societies, a glossary of terms, and a complete index.

Boston Globe nature columnist discusses the lovelorn messages sent by singing insects on autumn evenings, the messages contained in spiderwebs, the effects of winter snow on the way sound travels, the way all life depends on the unusual structure of water, and much more. Most fun is the author's description of ways to interact with other creatures (e.g., teaching wild birds to eat out of your hand).

Every aspect of a species' life in the wild -- courtship, nesting, brooding, communication, foraging, flying, fighting -- is covered in text by a leading ornithologist, and photographs by top nature photographers.