Here’s a welcome idea to supplement the ever-increasing number of titles in the Peterson Field Guide series. Finding Your Wings: A Workbook for Beginning Bird Watchers is partly an instructional manual for novice birders and partly a set of handouts and exercises to be used in a course for beginning birders. The idea is great and the execution is good. It might have been much better had the author shown more creativity in the development of the activities, but given the void – nothing like this book exists, to my knowledge – and the great value of practical exercises, you’ve got a worthwhile volume.
The book is actually a mix of instructional lectures and activities. The lectures are a bit tedious, as author Guttman often seems to be talking down to the reader. He also has a tendency to repeat himself, surely with the intent of emphasizing important points. While this is a very effective technique in verbal lectures, in the context of this book I find the repetitions to be annoying. At least I learned to watch for them and was quickly able to skim past many such passages. Admittedly it’s been a long, long time since I was a beginning birder, so perhaps I’m judging this book too harshly.
The activities are not especially creative or inspired. Yes, it is instructive to match up bird photos with families, to describe differences between birds, and to answer targeted questions. There is nothing in the activities, however, that would inspire a casual reader to become enthused about birds. These are activities for the self-motivated learner, someone who already has decided to learn about birds. Activities do exist that are more creative and fun, and playful exercises can be very effective when teaching those who need to be convinced that learning about birds is interesting and worthwhile. Teachers in school settings often use these sorts of activities very effectively. Finding Your Wings will be of no help to teachers of children. Chapter 17 is labeled “Fun and Games,” yet this chapter is nothing more than a few more exercises like those peppered throughout the book. They don’t seem especially fun to me.
I wonder how many people will really use this book as the author intends. Most self-motivated adults are able to learn about birds without a step-by-step methodology. For those who prefer detailed instruction and guided “homework” activities, however Finding Your Wings will be a valuable book. I just don’t think there are a lot of people who fall into this category. For most beginners, I’d recommend a mix of Pete Dunne on Bird Watching and Sibley’s Birding Basics. Still, Houghton Mifflin, publisher of the Peterson Field Guides, is to be commended for making this attempt. With a creativity infusion the second edition of Finding Your Wings could easily be a valuable addition to the basic birding library.
Guttman, Burton. Finding Your Wings: A Workbook for Beginning Bird Watchers. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008. 224 pages, $14.95 paper. ISBN-13: 978-0-618-78216-1; ISBN-10: 0-618-78216-8.