bird book suggestion

[jiggin pig]

I am looking at getting my wife a book of Minnesota birds. She recently has gotten into the whole bird feeder and suet thing. The only problem she has no clue what birds she is getting. If you know of any with colored photos would be great.

[Paul]

I just bought the Sibleys Guide to Birds. It has everything. I sure others will chime in here and tell you the same thing. I think I found it on amazon for about 30 bucks.

[dockothebay]

When I started feeding birds and wanted a quick guide, I got a copy of Stan Tekiela's Birds of MN - the photos are great and it's easy to find the most common birds. I recently checked out the Sibley's and the Nat'l Geographic Bird books from the local library and I loved the Sibleys - I'll need to get one for myself now. It has lots more detail and information, maybe more than a beginner wants? Tekiela's book is about $10 on Amazon and is easy to carry around -- although the photos posted by the guys on this forum are every bit as good as those in the book! At any rate, those two would be my recommendations & if you have kids the Tekiela book is fun and easy for them to use too - it's the first book my grand-daughter wants to look at when she gets to the cabin!! So good luck - my guess is you will both enjoy watching the little guys!

[jiggin pig]

Unforturnatly she tends to pick up stuff fast. One of the reasons i had to slow down buying ice fishing equipment (she noticed). I appreciate the posts. I will go and check out the Sibleys. once again thanks for the fast response. IF you guys have any hints on bird seed, food or anything like that I would take those also. It would make a nice gift set out of the blue for her.

[Paul]

Depending on the type of birds in your area, some good starting points would be black oil sunflower seed. Seems to be the favorites around here. there are differetn combinations for Different birds. Thistle Seed for the Mustard Birds (yellow gold finch), nectar for the Oriales and the Hummingbirds. If you have Oriales around you can hang out half slices or Oranges and you'll have a flock around in a hurry. I have also heard of Grap Jelly on a plate for hummers.

If you post this questions seperatly in the Bird Watching Forum you may get some good answers as well.

Oh Ya, They all love Suet.

[Steve Foss]

Sibley, black oil sunflower and suet.

I've been a birder and feeder of birds since 1972, and the three ingredients mentioned above will take you 99 percent of the way toward perfection. And since perfection is elusive, that's close enough.

Seriously, you can buy a lot of different bird guides and bird foods, but you'll have an impossible time trying to beat sunflower, suet, and Sibley.

As a side note, the Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior is an outstanding companion to the Sibley Guide to Birds.

[jiggin pig]

ok sunflower and suet, got it along with sibley. that shouldn't be to hard. Now i just have to get off my butt and get it for her. This should be a nice suprise for her. I have already read multiple posts about putting out landing perches on the bird feeder which i'm going to do for her also. THanks again

[JayinMN]

This time of year I would put out some grape jelly and oranges for the orioles too. She will love having them around with their color. I also like to throw out some white millet, in addition to the sunflowers and suet for the sparrows.