(Part 2) Best ornithology books according to redditors

I live in the state of Oaxaca and this book has been doing the trick for me: https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Mexico-Northern-Central-America/dp/0198540124

I think that this workbook is very good: Finding Your Wings. It helps beginning birders recognize bird taxonomy as the basis of more specific bird identification.

What you're looking for is "reversed sexual dichromatism", aka females more colorful/brighter than males. It's a subcategory of reversed sexual dimorphism. It occurs in phalaropes, some other sandpipers (Eurasian dotterel and some plovers), button quail, Eclectus parrot, belted kingfisher and fairy wren (though the fairy wrens have an odd situation in which there are 2 forms of males: some extremely plain and dull, and some very brightly colored, and females in between). All of which have been studied fairly intensively because it's so unusual. Most of these species also have "sex-role reversal", e.g. female is more aggressive, female has multiple mates, male does all the parental care. But the eclectus parrot has does not have sex role reversal, which won it its very own Science article. It appears the eclectus females have violent battles over nest-holes and will even kill each other over nest-site access, which seems to have exerted pressure for dramatic coloration for intra-sexual aggression; and because females can retreat to nest-holes in case of predators while males cannot, the males seem to have been under selection for more muted coloration as an anti-predator defense, while females have not.

Anyway, in some cases the female's brighter coloration is quite subtle (like the dotterel, here) but when you're close up to those birds it's actually pretty noticeable. The pharalopes and belted kingfisher are more obvious (scroll down in that link to see the female vs male red phalarope - the female is entirely red, male is kind of scruffy looking, pretty dramatic. The female's actually brighter red than it looks in that pic - it's shadowed in the pic - but I could not find another site that had side-by-side female and male pics). In a few cases it is pretty dramatic - the eclectus parrot is probably the most extreme case and was thought originally to be 2 different species because the sexes look so different.

For most North American redditors, kingfishers are the most common case you'll see. There's only 1 kind of kingfisher in most of North America, the belted, they're in a lot of highly urban ponds/lakes, they sit right up where you can see them, and only the female has the red bellyband. So next time you hear that rattling call when you are walking around a pond, look and see if it's got the red bellyband (= female) or not (= male). They're fun birds to watch anyway. (non-NA'ers, sorry, go find a dotterel I guess, and you lucky Australians can go feast your eyes on the eclectus!)

Ref, also see the chapter on females in "Bird coloration" though unfortunately you can't get that chapter online.

"Gulls of Europe, Asia and North America" Written by Klaus Malling Olsen and Hans Larsson. It is THE best identification guide for gulls, it has won some rewards. I use it myself.


http://www.amazon.com/Gulls-Europe-America-Identification-Guides/dp/0713670878

Get yourself a field guide and browse it every time you're bored or taking a shit. My favorite is Stokes for a decent sized (portable) book, or Crossley if you don't mind lugging around a big one. These have pictures as opposed to paintings, which I think is way better. These are both assuming you're in the US. Pay attention to the ranges so you can focus on the birds that are in your area. As cool as a Vermillion Flycatcher is, you're never going to see it if you don't live near in or near Mexico or South America. Just browse through and find the cool ones, the interesting ones, etc. It'll help a ton if you've already seen the birds and their names before you run into them in the wild.

When you're in the field, either bring your book, or get the Merlin app. It's pretty great for new birders.

As far as calls go, that's not as easy. Some are, but depending on where you are, they can get difficult. The worst part is that you can't look up how a bird sounds in a book, so once you hear it, you have to try to remember it and just browse through bird calls online or in an app until you think you find it. I think it'd help to find mnemonics to remember the calls. That helped me early on. If you just hear a Black-capped Chickadee recording, it'll help, but if you also remember the call as "Cheese-bur-ger" or "Chicka-dee-dee-dee", it's gonna be a lot easier.

There are apps to practice learning calls, but I think it's better to actually hear them. And definitely don't go out thinking you're gonna be able to ID everything. It can be infuriating when you hear something that sounds familiar but you just can't put your finger on it and you can't find the call anywhere. A lot of birds make many different sounds. If you hear a short, sharp, high pitched squeak, it could be a million different things. It might not even be a bird. Sometimes you just gotta let it go.

Not falco, but these are my faves:

http://www.amazon.com/Field-Warblers-America-Peterson-Guides/dp/0395783216/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1410889739&sr=8-2&keywords=warbler+guide

http://www.amazon.com/The-Warbler-Guide-Tom-Stephenson/dp/0691154821/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410889730&sr=8-1&keywords=warbler+guide

Also, hello from another Northern Ohio birder!

Still available, on CD: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0618225943

And the other side of North America: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0395975190

iOS app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/peterson-backyard-birds-field/id431948401?mt=8

https://www.amazon.com/Nests-Nestlings-North-American-Birds/dp/0691122954/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0691122954&pd_rd_r=1BRNVTKG3GQWQ8VPNSXS&pd_rd_w=Ep8GE&pd_rd_wg=EH2sp&psc=1&refRID=1BRNVTKG3GQWQ8VPNSXS

All About Birds!.

P.S. please get help for your pot problem... I heard you almost overdosed.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology put together a review in 2013 of their recommended binoculars for a few different price ranges. Audubon has their own reviews, too.

If by "northwest", you mean "North America, west of the Rockies" then Sibleys West is a fine bird guide. But some prefer the National Geographic guide, Peterson's, or others.

Can't help you with logbooks, I'm afraid. I just write lists of birds sighted in a regular notebook. You can also log them online, where other people can see them and the data are available to scientists to study.

I worked as a research tech on a bird project in Puerto Rico and our supervisor recommended Birds of the West Indies. The illustrations are very similar to a Peterson's guide (that's up to you to decide if that's a good or bad thing) and it has range maps with every entry many entries which is nice. Overall, it served me well.

Enjoy your trip! It sounds like a great time.

Edit: The range maps aren't as extensive as I thought. About half to three-quarters have associated maps.

http://www.amazon.com/Birds-Peru-Princeton-Field-Guides/dp/069113023X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422107016&sr=8-1&keywords=Birds+of+Peru+%28Princeton+Field+Guides%29

http://www.amazon.com/Birds-Ecuador-Field-Guide/dp/0801487218/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422107072&sr=8-1&keywords=birds+of+ecuador

http://www.amazon.com/Travellers-Wildlife-Ecuador-Galapagos-Islands/dp/1566565308/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1422107072&sr=8-6&keywords=birds+of+ecuador

http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Gal%C3%A1pagos-Islands-Isabel-Castro/dp/0713639164/ref=sr_1_34?ie=UTF8&qid=1422107144&sr=8-34&keywords=birds+of+ecuador

http://www.betterworldbooks.com/Guide-to-the-Birds-of-the-Galapagos-Islands-id-9780691012254.aspx

http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Birds-Peru/dp/0934797188/ref=sr_1_35?ie=UTF8&qid=1422107144&sr=8-35&keywords=birds+of+ecuador