This one's about bird books.

I have to admit I feel a bit guilty talking about bird books. We will, perforce, be ignoring great new novels and short story collections. We will not be mentioning books on relationships, chess, the flower biz, risotto, or cats, current events or lost battles, all currently hitting book stands like birds hit windows.

So we are speaking of birds, and this is my chance to recommend the excellent Birder's Handbook, subtitled "A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds" sub-sub-titled "The Essential Companion to Your Identification Guide."

Never mind this book was first published eight years ago and I found out about it last week. Birds haven't changed that much. Bird science has, but a black-headed grosbeak is still a black-headed grosbeak. Unless the scientists decide to rename it, re-speciate it, or otherwise mess with the cute little things.

I'm thinking grosbeaks because one showed up for the first time at our bird feeder. She stood out from the chickadees and pygmy nuthatches like a fire truck at your company picnic. She awed us with her robust size and magnificent colors. She turned around so we could observe her bright streaks of gold and black and her feathered yellow necklace.

I believe she also was sporting a Kerry for President button but that could simply be smeary binoculars.

The various field guides lying around the scatter confirmed we have a female. The male grosbeak showed up a couple of days later. Apparently he had lingered over some delicious invertebrates, next forest over.

In the process of trying to name this colorful bird, an occupation, I caution you, which will consume surprisingly large blocks of time if you let it, I got in touch with local birders and even corresponded with one on the other coast.

This led to further conversations about birds and books on birds. A local expert recommended The Birder's Handbook, and for this I am grateful.

It's different from all the other guides. The Birder's Handbook of course has the required descriptions of species, but it goes much beyond that. The Handbook fills in questions any child -- or beginning birder -- would ask.

"Who Incubates?" (most parents share); "Salt Glands" (who knew?); "Feathered Dinosaurs?" (Quelle surprise!); "Avian Invaders" ("We owe the pestiferous European Starling to William Shakespeare" and something called The American Acclimatization Society.).

From an essay on "The Plume Trade:"

"During two walks along the streets of Manhattan in 1886, (an ornithologist) spotted 40 native species of birds including sparrows, warblers, and woodpeckers... painstakingly positioned on three-quarters of the 700 women's hats (the ornithologist) saw. The North American feather trade was in its heyday."

The back story is the delicious bird stuff you've didn't realize you've always wanted to know. As the authors point out, all this information is available to anyone, but it's mostly locked up in scholarly or highly specialized publications.

And as for those birds hitting our windows. This is a huge, world-wide problem. Wherever there is reflective glass, birds mistake the reflection for open sky and smash themselves to smithereens. It's very sad. Migrating birds hit skyscrapers, and entire species can be decimated.

Although the Handbook discusses all sorts of bird flight, the authors fly over this serious issue. One of the best sources for information and devices to minimize window collisions is FLAP or "Fatal Light Awareness Program" run by a selfless group in Toronto. You can find them on the web at flap.org.

Aired Sunday September 10, 2006 at 10:55 am and Wednesday September 13, 2006 at 1:00 pm

Orders/Information:

The Birder's Handbook by Paul R. Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin, and Darryl Wheye. Simon & Schuster paperback $20. ISBN 0671659898.

Concerning bird hits on windows, FLAP has excellent information and links: http://www.flap.org/new/nestegg_3.htm

http://www.birdscreen.com/ This is a fairly inexpensive window screen that completely covers windows but does not impair your ability to see through. You can see these bird screens in the gift shop of the Fort Bragg Botanical Gardens. Audubon at the Gardens, 18214 N Hwy 1 Fort Bragg, CA 95437 (707) 962-9413 audubon@mcn.org

Other good discussions of birds and windows:

The Toronto Humane Society: http://www.torontohumanesociety.com/caringforPet/prewindows.html

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB): http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/behaviour/birdwindows/index.asp