My First Book Has Arrived

Share your favorite books and links here.
Post Reply
w.l.
Incubating
Incubating
Posts: 900
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2014 10:41 pm

Re: My First Book Has Arrived

Post by w.l. » Fri Apr 07, 2017 10:03 pm

lovezebs

Nuns/munias - God knows why the seller calls them mannikins, that name is usually used for African and New Guinean Lonchura species. Well, get them! I had already told you on the topic about nuns that this is the species you have best chance of finding in North America. And the prettiest, too.

User avatar
lovezebs
Mod Extraordinaire
Mod Extraordinaire
Posts: 18214
Joined: Sun Dec 15, 2013 11:51 am
Location: Calgary Alberta Canada

Re: My First Book Has Arrived

Post by lovezebs » Fri Apr 07, 2017 11:42 pm

w.l.

I would if I could, as I find them very pretty.

The problem is, that they are somewhere around 2343.5 km away from Calgary.
The person posting them , regretably lives in Wisconsin usa.

I just mentioned them, because if they were advertised in my area (instead of the Bronze Wings) I would have snapped them up in a heartbeat.

By the way, The Hamlyn Photographic Guide To Birds Of The World arrived. A nice big book, it has 1300 colour pictures of different species from around the world. The information about them is short and quite rudimentary, but there are birds here that I have never heard about, so it's a nice tome to sink into.
~Elana~

Linnies~ Canaries ~ Zebras ~ Societies ~ Gouldians ~ Orange Cheeks ~ Shaft Tails ~ Strawberries ~ Red Cheek Cordon Bleu ~ Goldbreasts ~ Red Brows ~ Owls ~ Budgies ~ Diamond Firetails ~ Javas ~ Forbes Parrot Finches ~

w.l.
Incubating
Incubating
Posts: 900
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2014 10:41 pm

Re: My First Book Has Arrived

Post by w.l. » Fri May 05, 2017 11:35 pm

w.l. wrote: I also bit the bullet and ordered many books yesterday.
I marked those I do expect to find much new info in with *

Those to come here:

*Sparrows and Buntings: A Guide to the Sparrows and Buntings of North America and the World
Clive Byers; Urban Olsson

Bird Keeper's Guide to Finches
Alderton, David

A Complete Guide to Finches
Nicolai, Jurgen

The Complete Book of Finches
Vriends, Matthew M.

*Mynahs: Everything About Purchase, Acclimation, Nutrition, and Diseases (Pet Care Series)
Von Frisch, Otto

*Building an Aviary
Naether, Carl, Vriends, Matthew M.

*All About Finches and Related Seed-Eating Birds
Ian Harman; Matthew Vriends
By now, all these have arrived.

I would recommend 2 of them for those into collecting good books on keeping finches.

One is, surprisingly, Alderton's Bird Keeper's Guide to Finches. Small and thin, but it packs in just the info one needs, including an excellent chapter on housing, a well-selected collection of 55 individual species including not only estrlidid finches but also true finches, weavers, whydahs and American seed-eaters.

The other is Vriends' The Complete Book of Finches.
This is in fact an earlier, very sparsely illustrated version of the expensive and lavishly illustrated Hancock House Encyclopedia of Estrildid Finches, and covers 88 estrlidid finches in separate headings, with many other related species referred to under these. Plus a good intro chapter, with a unique, detailed section on aviary plants.

User avatar
lovezebs
Mod Extraordinaire
Mod Extraordinaire
Posts: 18214
Joined: Sun Dec 15, 2013 11:51 am
Location: Calgary Alberta Canada

Re: My First Book Has Arrived

Post by lovezebs » Mon May 08, 2017 11:15 am

w.l.

Another book which I am enjoying, and can't recall if I mentioned, is the:

The Cage Bird Question And Answer Manual (Practical & Expert Advice on Caring for Cage Birds By David Alderton

It is a surprisingly informative book, with Chapters on Bird Care, Finches, Softbills, Parrots, and other groups.

Nicely illustrated, it comes with good descriptions about different species, and also a question and answer section about the species, written in a light, easy to read style, that even the person with the "budget and bidgets birds" should be able to read, lol.
~Elana~

Linnies~ Canaries ~ Zebras ~ Societies ~ Gouldians ~ Orange Cheeks ~ Shaft Tails ~ Strawberries ~ Red Cheek Cordon Bleu ~ Goldbreasts ~ Red Brows ~ Owls ~ Budgies ~ Diamond Firetails ~ Javas ~ Forbes Parrot Finches ~

w.l.
Incubating
Incubating
Posts: 900
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2014 10:41 pm

Re: My First Book Has Arrived

Post by w.l. » Mon May 08, 2017 12:10 pm

My first 3 books by this Alderton guy were awful, but the little finch book described below is surprisingly good.
Mind you, if you check his books, you will find he has authored countless, on everything from goldfish to dogs.
So he is definitely not a bird specialist, and in fact I wonder if he has any time to actually keep animals besides all that writing!

I noticed similar universal expertise shown by all the books of Verhoef as well. ;-)

Anyway, obviously even if some or much of their expertise is not from first hand experience, their books can still be good.
Verhoef's encyclopedia is probably favourite general avicultural book, of the ones written for the general public.

User avatar
lovezebs
Mod Extraordinaire
Mod Extraordinaire
Posts: 18214
Joined: Sun Dec 15, 2013 11:51 am
Location: Calgary Alberta Canada

Re: My First Book Has Arrived

Post by lovezebs » Mon May 08, 2017 1:24 pm

w.l.

Agree, but still interesting to gleen whatever little bits of info which he got from whomever.

I am thinking that Alderton might have people doing research for him, because I've noticed as well that he appears to have extremely diverse knowledge on numerous and multiple subjects such as pets, horses, wild animals, gardening, and god knows what else.

Here's a short bio of the man:
https://www.amazon.com/David-Alderton/e/B000APH40Y

Whatever he is, he is a very busy individual, and a rather rich one too by the sounds of it :lol: .
~Elana~

Linnies~ Canaries ~ Zebras ~ Societies ~ Gouldians ~ Orange Cheeks ~ Shaft Tails ~ Strawberries ~ Red Cheek Cordon Bleu ~ Goldbreasts ~ Red Brows ~ Owls ~ Budgies ~ Diamond Firetails ~ Javas ~ Forbes Parrot Finches ~

Post Reply