Well, a day to celebrate the Earth? That sounds perfect really! I'm so thankful for the planet we live on, as it's a pretty unique world and we must look after it. Going on this, I had to think long and hard about what book I could look at. This was probably the hardest task I've had to date! I headed to my nearest Muggle library, went to the nature section and managed to find a book called How to Attract Birds to Your Garden by Stephen Moss and David Cottridge. Non-fiction books are not my favourite books to read and look at, but I can certainly give it a fair try.
I looked at the contents pages and could see that it was a very detailed book. Most of the second half of the book appears to be an encyclopedia of birds. I focused on the first handful of pages and they seemed rather boring. (As I said before - non-fiction books are not my forte.) I do love the way the book starts out right from the planning stage. I get the feeling that this book would be good for beginners, as it starts with talking about planning your garden to be bird friendly. I know if I were to start trying to make my garden bird friendly, I wouldn't know where to start. What I love is that it uses pictures to show the difference between a garden that isn't bird friendly to one that is. I found that useful because I could see the difference in everything they say.
Another thing I loved about the book was that it focused on everything in the gardens that a person would need to do to increase the chances of birds in their gardens. It explained step-by-step how to make a birdhouse and a bird table and gave helpful information like what materials would be needed. It also has the same for a pond in case you would like to add some water for the birds. This supports my thinking that it is an extremely detailed book for beginner twithers, or birdwatchers to give them their correct name. I would say that it would depend on how serious you want to take bird watching, though.
I found the page with diagrams on bird topography interesting as I had no idea that birds had so many different parts of a body! They are tiny birds in most cases, but just as complex as humans. It was certainly an eye opener for me. A bird appears to have at least 15 parts of its body and some I never even understood really. There were the obvious parts such as the tail, breast, and throat - but others such as primaries, mantle, and bill were new to me. I just couldn't believe how many parts of a bird there are.
As I moved through the book I began to see how everything made a difference with birds from visiting a garden. From what flowers work best to timing berry growing perfectly, it made me realize that every little thing in a garden can affect how attracted the birds are to it. There were even tips on where to position things such as nest boxes to make birds feel safe! The part on nesting I found useful as it explains the dos and don'ts with nest boxes and birds nesting in your garden. I really had no idea just how much went into gardens for birds at all! I know from Narcissa Malfoy that plants and flowers often make a garden amazing, but I never considered animals. Maybe I should look when I'm next at Malfoy Manor?
I noticed green boxes dotted throughout the book and it's worth taking a look at them because there are some useful things that can show what flowers and plants are needed to aid birds and even attract them. It also gave me a crash course into how many different bird species there are. I've only heard of a few, but this book has close to 100 pages on birds!
Do you even know what birds eat? I knew they eat seeds and berries but I didn't really know what particular seeds. There is even a chapter on what to feed the birds, and that interested me more than anything really. It's interesting to see how some birds prefer seeds and others prefer berries and other things. If I was to start a bird garden, it would certainly give me a headache trying to know which would attract more birds, but this book would really help!
The chapter on pests was interesting as well, and I thought that cats were the only pest and danger to birds! How wrong I was! Squirrels and even snails and slugs can be predators for birds. Larger birds can even pose a threat to smaller birds as their giant claws can scoop a bird at any given moment. Those poor little birds! If you have a water butt or barrel in your garden, either cover it up or make sure that there is a plank of wood for the birds to stand and drink from or else they could drown if they fall into the water.
The last 100ish pages of the book I found pretty boring as it was pretty much the same format: Common bird name, the Latin translation, length, how to identify it, the habitat, breeding, and feeding information with a couple of pictures. If I'm being honest, I found the first 73 pages more interesting than the directory. Now I'm not saying that the pictures of the birds aren't pretty, because they are, but I feel they could have either included something else about the birds or changed the look of the page as they all look much the same and I didn't enjoy the second half of the book as much as the first. However, if you're into your bird-watching or want to make your garden more welcoming to birds then this is the book for you!
Until next time!
Adele xx