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A Book for Beginning Birders
Finding fun ways to introduce people to birds!
© Jerry McFarland
After countless birding adventures of her own, Sharon Stiteler — who’s also known as Birdchick — decided to write a book that could serve as a fun introduction for beginning birders. Sharon compares the size and shape of each bird species in the book to everyday objects as a memory aid. She likens a Ruby-throated Hummingbird to a jalapeno, for example. Handy phonetic pronunciation guides break down how to say each bird’s name. Learn more in Sharon Stiteler’s book, North American Bird Watching for Beginners: Field Notes on 150 Species to Start Your Birding Adventures.
BirdNote®
A Book for Beginning Birders
Written by Conor Gearin
This is BirdNote.
After countless birding adventures of her own, Sharon Stiteler — who’s also known as Birdchick — decided to write a book that could serve as a fun introduction for beginning birders.
Sharon Stiteler: A mistake that sometimes gets made with new birders is that we want to tell them everything, and it can be easily overwhelming. I try to tell people funny-slash-interesting things about birds.
Sharon compares the size and shape of each bird species in the book to everyday objects as a memory aid. She likens a Ruby-throated Hummingbird to a jalapeno, for example. Certain hawks remind her of a different kind of food.
Sharon Stiteler: The first time I ever held a Sharp-shinned Hawk, it was so small and I'm like, you are just like a Baskin-Robbins ice cream cone. And yeah, it's just something a little more relatable than "nine inches."
Handy phonetic pronunciation guides break down how to say each bird’s name.
Sharon Stiteler: Well, everyone, when they start birding, they don't know how to pronounce things, and I was the same and I called avocets "a-vo-kets" for years, and then I heard someone say it and I'm like, oh yes, of course. So just trying to level the playing field and try to prevent people from feeling silly when they're around other birders.
[American Avocet calls, ML 130732, 0:15-0:18]
Sharon’s goal is to move readers to plan their next adventure and deepen their knowledge.
Sharon Stiteler: My hope with this book is that it will inspire people to buy other books because I love bird books. I can never have enough bird books.
Learn more in Sharon Stiteler’s book, North American Bird Watching for Beginners: Field Notes on 150 Species to Start Your Birding Adventures. Find a link on our website, BirdNote dot org.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Content Director: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. American Avocet ML 130732 recorded by D. Herr.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2022 BirdNote August 2022 Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# stitelers-01-2022-08-12 stitelers-01
Conor Gearin
Writer Narrator
Jerry McFarland
PhotographerSights & Sounds
