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 Readers are Saying
"Don Kroodsma has the soul of a poet and the mind of a scientist, and he understands birdsong better than the birds do themselves. In this book he gives us a fascinating inside look at some of nature's most beautiful mysteries."
"Donald Kroodsma may be the world's best listener. He is also intensely inquisitive (and a darn fine writer). He yearns to know not just what bird species he hears singing, but what individual bird it is and why it is singing what it is singing. This engaging and amazing sense-filled journey takes you inside the minds of both the author and his beloved songsters. The Singing Life of Birds may very well do for our understanding of bird song what Roger Tory Peterson's first field guide did for bird identification: he simplified it, and offered a system for understanding and appreciating it. This book is on that same path. Don Kroodsma is both scientist and storyteller as he recounts a life spent listening to birds as individuals. After reading The Singing Life of Birds, you'll listen to birds with new ears."
"Don Kroodsma has done what few scientists are able to do, and that is condense his life's work into a true work of art . . . I greatly applaud his effort and believe it stands out among all such efforts as being the best introduction to the study of bird song ever produced."
"Kroodsma's clear prose, his apparent joy in his work, and the sweep across countries and continents will make bird song lovers out of even the most tin-eared. Our entire family are converts."
"With all due respect to rainbows and sunsets, birdsong is the most endearing, the most bewitching, aspect of Nature.. . . In this engaging volume, Donald Kroodsma peels away the mystery of birdsong without casting off its mystique."
"The combination of science and wonder, all from the mind of a master ornithologist, reminds me of Aldo Leopold, Peter Matthiessen, and Steven Jay Gould."
"A tour de force. The Singing Life of Birds' is an encyclopedic chronicle of a lifetime of adventure in the musical realms of the greatest vocalists on planet Earth: our songbirds. Dr. Kroodsma's lyrical writing resounds with the inspiration of the beauty, the magic and the mystery of these birdsongs which have become part of his soul. . . . a wonderful gift to the world."
"Kroodsma is a warm, encouraging guide to the world of birdsong, and his enthusiasm is contagious."
" . . . engaging . . . authoritative . . . entertaining . . . Highly recommended."
". . . an excellent introduction to the functional and aesthetic aspects of bird song . . . I highly recommend this book for all college and university libraries as well as the general reader."
"I just wanted to tell you that my 9 yr old daughter, my 7 yr old son, and I all listened to the CD and read through some of the book today. I was thrilled with their excitement when they recognized bird calls that we had identified last year in our back yard. . . . what a treasure this book has already become in our family. We look forward to spring bringing home songs of nature that now we can really understand and identify thanks to this book!"
"My short list of thrilling, melodic, world-class composition has lengthened. The bird composers join Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart and Schubert. Like the finest of strict, yet personable, maestros Don Kroodsma teaches us avian Earth symphonics. I do not tire of the aural sensations, the tunes, rhythms, preludes and flourishes, the twittering surprises. This musical delight on CD, never passe, along with his charming verbal description brings us ever closer to understanding how and why both Nature and her music remain so important to our lives."
"It has been said that bird song is the poetry of earth, a sentiment I have always shared. No other animals have such complex and beautiful songs as birds do. For this reason they have been celebrated for hundreds of years. Don Kroodsma's book, THE SINGING LIFE OF BIRDS, takes us deeper into this marvelous phenomenon and addresses such questions as why birds sing, how an individual bird acquires its songs and why some birds develop such complex and beautiful songs. Besides the knowledge this book will yield to the reader I especially recommend it in the expectation that persons who read it will listen longer to the songs of individual birds, both to understand them and to appreciate them. Such activity will enrich the life of anyone who does so."
"The Singing Life of Birds will change forever the way each of us listens to bird song. Not only will we have better techniques for listening (Who knew we could listen with both our ears and our eyes?), but we will know how to listen for the interaction between the singers, how to listen to the community of birds. What a gift to birders, naturalists, and anyone who enjoys the outdoors."
"This book will have a special place on my shelf. For Donald Kroodsma the study of birdsong is not merely a vocation but a passion; and his passion is communicated to the reader on every page through colourful field notes and ingenious listening experiments.
A multitude of graphic images of song variants accompany the text and, thanks to the author's concern for his readers, they are explained so clearly that we can almost sing them off the page. An accompanying CD displays the magnificent complexity of birdsong.
The book is an ear cleaning exercise. If everyone could learn to listen as carefully as Dr. Kroodsma and his colleagues, the soundscape of the world would be a lot more beautiful and less noise-riddled than it is today."
"You warned me in your book it could happen, and yesterday morning I caught myself counting the number of songs of a Wood Thrush that was singing at the edge of the woods near our yard. I've also been getting the urge to go to Radio Shack and look at microphones :) . . . several other friends are [also] enjoying your book immensely . . ."
"I just wanted you to know how much I enjoy your book!!!! I never thought I would get interested in Bluejays! The book is so good in large part due to your personal and very readable style. The story of the song sparrow and the slingshot is just one example of a touchingly written personal account. Your enthusiasm for birdsong is contagious. I also want to mention that I understand the scientific mind so much better now... A way of looking at everything, really. . . . "It could be... or it could be that...or.." Conclusions come only after proof. Thanks, Don."
From the Iowa Ornithologists' Union listserv: "Say, there's a new book that every serious birder will enjoy. It's The Singing Life of Birds, by Donald Kroodsma. The sonagrams (created with the Cornell Lab's Raven software) are so beautiful that they could be calligraphy. I mean, it's framable art. Kroodsma says he listens with his eyes. Now that I've read part of the book and have listened to the included CD while following along on the sonagrams, I have to say this book is a eye-opener, an ear-opener, and a mind-blower. I heard a whole new robin before dawn this morning, and I'll never hear them the same old way again. It's a thrilling book."
"Thank you . . . for publishing something so original, fresh, and lively. Please do it again. I'm all ears.
"Thank you for writing that wonderful book The Singing Life of Birds. May I suggest that you . . . sell figure 15 as a Print--would be spectacular."
Excerpts from a personal message to the author: Dear Dr. Kroodsma, It's taken me a couple months, but I've finally finished my first reading of your birdsong book. I say "first" because I can already tell I'll be going over it different ways many times. My next assignment for myself is to index the CD on my Powerbook so I can have the book and songs close enough together to let me focus on the key features you point out so clearly in the text. I am greatly impressed by not only the scholarship and hard work that went into the background for the book, but by your approach. It would have been understandable if you had written in a more formal, scholarly style. The book would still have been unique and useful if you had stuck to just the technical material at hand and used all "third person." But your story-based wrapper around the technical bits raise the bar as to what I will expect from such guides in the future. You carried me along with each turn of the pedals on your bike. You engaged me with the inside peaks at the hours of watching and listening. You did NOT look for any sympathy for the endless waiting, swatting at bugs. Instead you brought me along to learn how full those hours were, with barely enough time for all you hoped to accomplish. It was, to put it briefly, a darned good story. It was also much more than a good story. Because the book was so engaging, I have little trouble remembering roughly where a specific topic came up. My memory is anything but eidetic, so this means you put up about as many "memory hooks" as my mind can use. Ready access to specific topics makes this book something I've wished for for quite some time: a field guide to bird song. . . . I have several birdsong CDs, and know about the Cornell and other sites. Your book, however, will now be my main reference, allowing me to get the most out of all those other wonderful resources. Thank you for taking the time and making the huge effort to create this great book. I am confident that, in very little time, folks will realize that you have done for the auditory side of birding what Peterson did for the visual side. I realize you did not invent sonograms, or the little human phrases to describe the songs. What you HAVE done is take all the clues the advanced birders have used for years and gathered them in one easily accessible, engaging book that instructs us on workable methods, points out advanced resources, and provides references for major families and groupings. What a great book! Thank you, Dave Adams PS: I was up visiting family in Gardner last week. Each day I was up fairly early, getting in a "fitness ride." Biking up route 62 from near Barre Falls was a lot more fun when I focused on what I was hearing instead of the elevation gain. Thanks again! |
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