One Wild Bird at a Time

Portraits of Individual Lives

De: Bernd Heinrich

Narrado por: Rick Adamson

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 and to make a related discovery about nest cleaning. One of a clutch of redstart warbler babies fledges out of the nest from 20 feet above the ground and lands on the grass below. It can't fly. What will happen next?

©2016 Bernd Heinrich (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Great introduction

Wondrous birds and wondrous tidbits and a wonderful narrator.
It all makes for a mini vacation you can pick up anytime.

worth it for the bird calls

This book is entirely charming, the audio version is especially good because the reader makes the extra effort to try to imitate the bird calls. As an occasional birder this is great as Peterson'$ guides have the calls written out it's nice to have a aural hint too. An original naturalist narrative.

For Nature Lovers

This is about a 3.5 - 3.75 star rating. The book was well researched, informative and I enjoyed some of the tidbits I learned about bird behavior. The author must have a ton of patience, as the book has very minute details (i.e., how many times per day a bird fed its young, cleaned up its poop, etc). However, there were some parts where my attention wandered. I also wasn't comfortable with him touching the young birds in a nest in order to get the parents agitated so he can study their communication. I listened to this on audio, which I am glad I did; I am not sure I would have stayed with it in the printed format. Part of the problem also may be that I am not the type of person to sit in the woods for hours on end and observe the surroundings; perhaps more of a "nature" person would appreciate this more.

Bird love

Bernd Heinrich is deeply attentive and curious. In this book he records some of his close observations of individual birds near his home in Maine, and in so doing invites the reader to be more attentive and curious about birds and other animals that we might observe close to home over long periods. Great book for birders and others who want to be attentive to the world around them. Narration is well suited to the text.

Looking at Birds differently

This book really opened my eyes to slow down and look at the behavior of birds and their songs and behaviors. From the Owls to the Woodpecker and Flicker to the very interesting Woodcock.
The guy actually takes a chainsaw to his inside wall to help some birds nest in his house!!

Surprised me how much I enjoyed

Would you consider the audio edition of One Wild Bird at a Time to be better than the print version?

Yes, I thought Mr. Adamson did well to give the topic more life than I would have expected. There were parts where the author tended to get bogged down, and he seemed to keep it moving.

What was one of the most memorable moments of One Wild Bird at a Time?

The patience Bernd Heinrich has. He would pose a problem, a possible answer, and then spend so much time and effort. Nevertheless, it held my interest and hated to see it end

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, each chapter stands on its own. Thus it is not a book that needs to be read at one time to be enjoyed

Delightful

I learned so much about some common birds of the northeast where I live. This is exactly the kind of book that is helpful to anyone who is interested in learning about the more intimate aspects of birds. The author describes his daily observations of chickadees, blue jays, red
polls, grosbeaks and others. I am so pleased with and appreciative of this book.

I Love this So Much

I bought this randomly as the daily deal a few months back and I've listened to it twice since. I really enjoy Bernd Heinrich's work as it makes biology highly palatable, without over stepping to anthropomorphize things too heavily. The narrator does an excellent job, unfortunately I tried to listen to Mind of the Raven since I find them to be super interesting, especially in regards to their interactions with wolves, but narration can be really important when delivering content like this. Rick Adamson does such a good job on this one!

Over all a very interesting observational study on some birds. Something very pleasant to fall asleep to. It definitely makes me want to visit the east coast.

Not Entertaining or Educational Enough

I've encountered many of the birds in this book at my house in northeastern North America's woods, like the author. Unlike him, I'm no scientist, just a civilian with a bird feeder and a few identification books. As in the first chapter on flickers, I've had robins nest over my front door the past three years. Aside from the inevitable mess, that gave me the kind of firsthand view of the process from build to hatch to fledge that Heinrich promises to deliver in this book.

Disappointingly, I didn't learn anything. At least not what I hoped to learn. I did not want to know about ants in a feed ball, autopsies of murdered crows, the contents of a chickadee's belly, mole skulls are in owl scat, or abandoned nests infested with maggots. This short book is long on gratuitous details, yet we rarely get the background about how birds developed into our interesting and surprisingly intelligent feathered friends.

I would've loved to learn about the hummingbirds I sometimes see. Instead the author waxes rhapsodic about smart and friendly crows, oblivious to the common experience of crows as nasty, noisy, belligerent birds who leave an awful mess. He wastes a chapter trying to figure out why Blue Jays squawk, when the obvious answer is to drive us nuts. And I don't need a scientist to tell me that when one chickadee acts like he found food, others will soon follow.

In addition to the hummingbird, I wanted to know how wild turkeys got to be so common after coming so close to extinction, why Carl the Cardinal thinks my neighbor's home is really his, what would bring a great blue heron so far out of its range to the shores of a cold northern lake, and why ducks make such pleasant neighbors while geese are such a nuisance. This is what I've observed, but these birds don't make the cut. No robins, so ubiquitous in my neck of the woods that they nest over my door.

I'm not a science guy, but most of the science books I've listened to have been fascinating, illuminating, even entertaining. This one was dull and repetitive, out of touch with what interests non-scientists (hint: it's not scat, feed balls, skinned birds, or maggot-ridden nests), and not even comprehensive enough to cover some of the bird types we see most often, or some of the elusive species that capture our imagination.

a fascinating book

This was a topic outside my main areas of interest (though I have always been interested in birds) but I found this book fascinating. the author obviously loves this topic and he let's you into his world. well worth the listen.