The book has only 95 numbered pages to begin with. The first five of those are -- get this -- the title page, a page listing other Stokes publications, another title page. the publisher's information page, and the table of contents.

Okay. That leaves 90 pages for content, right?

Not really. The last 31 pages are given over entirely to glossy, full color bird identication photos. And approximately one third of the remaining pages are also devoted to pretty bird photographs. The book is almost entirely "boiler plate", in other words. What content there is is fine -- there just isn't much of it.

If information is what you want, get _The Bird Garden_ by Stephen Kress (The Nation Audubon Society) instead. It's much better.


Great for beginners   April 6, 2000
 19 out of 19 found this review helpful

This book is a wonderful starting point to help you learn about bird gardening. It starts with the four basic needs and then explains in a clear and simple fashion how to meet these basic needs, as well as other considerations. The book also has a small picture glossary of the most common birds and their "bio". This book is very well written, has charts that are easy to follow, full of gorgeous color photographs, and though they keep it short, it's crammed with helpful info!