The Bird Garden

Library Journal

Landscaping to attract wildlife has become a popular gardening activity, not only in rural settings but also in suburbia and even in cities. Here are three titles showing the way, each with a different focus and varying success rate. All are profusely illustrated with excellent color photographs. Kress, a highly accomplished naturalist and the author of two top-quality Audubon Society guides on birding and attracting birds, presents informative chapters on landscaping, plantings, nesting structures, feeding, use of water, and a regional reference to plants and birds. This is an excellent guide to attracting birds but suffers slightly from a plethora of sidebars and columns on individual birds and plants, although there is no discussion of hummingbird feeding. One wishes for more of Kress's fine, overarching, generalized text. Nevertheless, The Bird Garden can be highly recommended for all gardening collections. Tufts, the chief naturalist and manager of the National Wildlife Federation's (NWF) Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program, and noted garden writer Loewer, offer a guide that is less compartmentalized with a more cohesive, expository text. The emphasis is more on the use of vegetation, natural shelter, and water to attract a broad spectrum of animals, not just birds. Although the approach is less cookbook and more conceptual, the book still has many practical qualities, but specifics on feeders and nesting boxes are not included. Chapters discuss creating a habitat; getting the garden ready; creating woodland gardens; meadow and prairie gardens; water gardens; gardening for birds, butterflies, and nightlife; and profiles of 15 NWF backyard habitats. This is an excellent overview of of how to garden for wildlife. Needham's Beastly Abodes tries a more direct, nuts-and-bolts approach with 74 sections written by 17 authors on how to build boxes, feeders, rafts, etc., for a variety of wildlife such as bats, butterflies, birds, as well as such as toads, mice, squirrels, turtles, bees, et al. There is much useful information but also an unfortunate emphasis on artistic, even garish, houses. A birdhouse that looks as if it were painted by Piet Mondrian, one that resembles a chrome diner, or a squirrel house with an elaborate acorn design may appeal to many people but the creatures for which they were intended are better served by abodes that are natural and unembellished. Because of such fanciful airs and in the face of an abundance of well-crafted current books on attracting wildlife, Beastly Abodes is not recommended. These new books add considerably to our knowledge of attracting wildlife but the bedrockestablished by earlier titles by Kress, such John V. Dennis works as The Complete Guide to Bird Feeding (Knopf, 1994), and the excellent Ortho Books seriesstill remains vital.Henry T. Armistead, Free Lib. of Philadelphia

George Cohen

Roger Tory Peterson points out in the foreword to this engaging and practical book that the art of attracting birds to your backyard has gone beyond the window feeder and birdbath. Here are ideas for creating a habitat that meets all of the needs of birds--food, water, cover, and nesting sites. Kress, an ornithologist and author of two other books on birding, gives advice on selecting and planting the best vegetation to attract birds, building nesting structures and feeders, and ways to provide water throughout the year. Kress offers a guide to common birds and recommended plants. The guide is divided into five geographic regions: northeast, southeast, prairies and plains, mountains and deserts, and the Pacific Coast. For each region, there is a landscape design for the ideal bird garden. More than 300 trees, shrubs, and other plants are described, giving their growth habits, cultural preferences, hardiness, and the birds that rely on them for food or cover. A comprehensive, first-rate guide.