How to Look at a Bird

Bestselling author and acclaimed nature illustrator Clare Walker Leslie invites beginning birdwatchers to hone their observational skills with this easy-to-use visual guide.

Using her signature nature journal illustrations, Leslie shows readers the key clues to look for, from the shape of the beak or talons to distinctive feather colorings, flight patterns, and behavioral traits. She offers simple prompts that encourage readers to embrace curiosity and take a closer look: Where are you? What season is it? How is that bird moving or eating? With an emphasis on the birds that are most likely to be seen at a feeder, in a city park, or at a nature preserve, How to Look at a Bird makes bird watching, identification, and appreciation accessible to everyone, no matter where they live.

• “If you are curious about the amazing world of birds but not sure where to start, How to Look at a Bird is the book for you. With her colorful illustrations and easy-to-understand prose, Clare Walker Leslie guides the reader through the process of identifying birds. Whether writing about a small bird like a warbler or the type of large falcon that I work with, Leslie's love for birds comes through loud and clear. She has learned — as I have — how everything changes when you ‘look up.’”
  Rodney Stotts, author of Bird Brother: A Falconer's Journey and the Healing Power of Wildlife
• “This lovely, wonderfully accessible book is a warm and friendly invitation to pay attention to the birds around us, whether we live in a big city, on the edge of wilderness, or anywhere in between. The section on how to draw birds is especially valuable.” 
  Laura Erickson, author of 100 Plants to Feed the Birds and contributing editor to Birdwatching magazine
• "Leslie, the doyenne of nature journaling, whose best-selling Keeping a Nature Journal is now in its third edition, here narrows her focus to avian life. Joy and wonder abound in more than 140 pages that she characterizes as “more than a guide book.” The text is brief and the language simple, but the book’s pencil sketches and watercolors are plentiful and lovely... Leslie’s gentle, encouraging tone will assuage any doubts of readers new to sketching nature. An inspirational first flight for fledgling birders."
  Library Journal
• "An invitation to gaze up and around and follow a childlike curiosity, and yes, simple delight, in really seeing our feathered friends. Call it an “introduction to hanging out with birds.” Leslie’s utterly charming journal-style sketch illustrations had us smiling from start to finish."
  Orion Magazine