Of a Feather A Brief History of American Birding

By: Scott Weidensaul(Author)

358 pages, b/w photos, b/w illustrations

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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ISBN: 9780156033558 Paperback Sep 2008 Not in stock: Usually dispatched within 2-4 weeks
£21.99
#195377

Price: £21.99

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About this book

Arriving in the New World, Europeans were awestruck by a continent awash with birds. Today tens of millions of Americans birders have made a once eccentric hobby into something so mainstream it's (almost) cool.

Scott Weidensaul traces the colorful evolution of American birding: from the frontier ornithologists who collected eggs between border skirmishes to the society matrons who organized the first effective conservation movement; from the luminaries with checkered pasts, such as convicted blackmailer Alexander Wilson and the endlessly self-mythologizing John James Audubon, to the awkward schoolteacher Roger Tory Peterson, whose A Field Guide to the Birds prompted the explosive growth of modern birding. Spirited and compulsively readable, Of a Feather celebrates the passions and achievements of birders throughout Americcan history.

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By: Scott Weidensaul(Author)

358 pages, b/w photos, b/w illustrations

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Media reviews

"At once gossipy and scholarly, Of a Feather recounts rivalries, controversies, bad behavior and other key episodes in the making of modern birding. Lively and illuminating, it has surprises, too."
– The Washington Post Book World

"Weidensaul is a charming guide [...] You don't have to be a birder to enjoy this look at one of today's fastest-growing (and increasingly competitive) hobbies."
– The Arizona Republic

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