Owls of North America by Frances Backhouse, is a stunning, photo-loaded book featuring the mysterious and fantastic family of birds known as owls. While this oversized volume of glossy pages might be mistaken for a “coffee table book”, it is undoubtedly much more than that.
Seven informative chapters cover topics such as feeding habits, communication, mating, and the entire life cycle of owls. These chapters lead up to a final chapter that covers all the owls of North America in great detail. These accounts cover:
- Background Info
- Colorful Range Map
- Appearance
- Voice
- Roosting Sites
- Distribution
- Habitat
- Feeding
- Breeding
- Migration/Movements
- Conservation
This volume won’t substitute for a field guide and may very well end up on a coffee table. But it is nonetheless appealing for anyone that loves owls. The text, while not simple, is definitely readable for younger audiences (pre-teen and up). It was hard to keep our 10-year old niece (Sammie) from running off with the book.
Rating: 9 of 10 feathers
Owls of North America
ISBN: 1554073421
Pages: 216
Price: $34.95
Published: Sept 2008 by Firefly Books
Wish I hand’t seen this! I can’t resist raptor and owl books, the more photos and info the better. Thanks for your review.
I’ll second Vickie’s comment. I LOVE owls. I have observed Great Horned Owls and Western Screech Owls on our property as well as Burrowing Owls(several years ago). I would really like to get a pair of breeding Burrowing Owls to return to my property. To this end I have built a Burrowing Owl nest in the hope of attracting a pair.
I suppose I will have to go out and buy yet another book to add to my library simply because I can’t resist beautiful owl photographs or owl stories. Thanks Birdfreak for bringing us another great review.