Hummingbirds of North America: Attracting, Feeding, and Photographing

We really enjoy watching humming birds and have several books about them. This book, however, stands out as the best we've found to date! It is filled with lots of well organized information and pictures. We are pleased to have it in our library.

My granchildren and I love to sit on the porch and watch the dozen or so faithful hummingbirds that visit our two feeders. We use binoculars sometimes, but mostly just sit back and enjoy their beauty and the antics. We decided that we needed some more info on the hummers so we'd know what type they were and some of their history. This book is just filled with very interesting info on all the American hummingbird types, as well as wonderful pictures that help to identify and diferentiate between the females and males. We have also picked up lots of wonderful trivia about the birds. Yes, we sit on the porch and sometimes get "hummmmed" very up close and personal, but now we do it with knowledge!

...announced by that high-pitched hum that is the onomatopoeia origins for the bird's name. Dan True explains in his introduction that when he lived in the Palo Duro canyon, near Amarillo, he was actually trying to photograph the bird at the opposite end of the size spectrum - the bald eagle - when his obsession with the hummingbird began. This book is a distillation of his experiences with these magnificent creatures, valuable for the specialist, as well as those who simply hang a feeder in their backyard. In this book he covers their migration, one of whose principal routes, no doubt due to the uplift provided, is along the Continental Divide. He raises reasonable speculation that the tiny Rufous might actually fly further than the known distance record set by the Arctic tern, which is 11,000 plus miles as it makes its way from the Arctic to the Antarctic. He also covers their colors, mating habits, nesting, and predators. He provides practical advice on feeders, the timing for placing them outside, and the recommended percentage of sugar, which my wife faithfully follows, with excellent results. He also identifies the flowers most likely to attract them. The section on feeding is a good fourth of the book. Almost half the book is a specific guide to the 16 breeding species in North America. The guide includes their geographic distribution, with maps, excellent photographs of each, their winter locations and size specifications. Of the species, the Rufous is the most aggressive. He also includes a detailed chapter on how to photograph the birds, and appendixes on hummer "trivia" and geographical distribution by state. This is an essential book for anyone wanting to expand one's knowledge about this most unique bird category.