One Wild Bird at a Time

Portraits of Individual Lives

By: Bernd Heinrich

Narrated by: 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!!