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.