With a yard devoted to attracting birds, I have collected quite a few books on the subject -- mostly, to help identify what we see in the yard and learn how best to attract species of interest. Recently, I picked up a copy of Noble S. Proctor's The Songbirds Bible.

One nice touch: It's spiral-bound, so it's easy to lay it open on a desk or table. (I see that standard paperback bindings are also available, if you prefer that style.)

The book devotes the first 40 pages or so to an introduction that provides some basic information on why birds sing, and why people have historically been inspired by the song. It explains how birds sing, describing in detail the anatomy that produces the unique sounds we hear. It also discusses when birds sing and where birds sing, and provides information on birdwatching in the field or in the yard and how to identify what you see and hear. There is even a section on the types of feeders, food and nesting options you can provide.

Then, it's on to the songbird directory, which makes up the majority of the book. Each two-page spread provides the common name of a bird in English, as well as its scientific name in Latin. There are a few paragraphs describing each bird, as well as tips for attracting them to your yard. There's a map of the United States on each spread as well, showing the bird's summer and winter distribution. (No sense looking for a lark bunting, for example, if you live in Pennsylvania; they're a Central Plains species.)

There's an "In Brief" column for each bird to give details on the species' behavior, visual identification cues, habitat, nest type and food preferences. And then there's the song itself, which Proctor reproduces in print as a series of syllables ("tiddle a see-che che che che tiddle lee," for instance) and a graphic shorthand consisting of dashes, arcs and squiggles denoting rising and dropping pitches, long and short notes, inflections and trills.

Fortunately, he CD that comes with the book is a nice bonus that helps make sense of what you see in the book. The disc includes 99 tracks, each naming a bird and then playing a brief recording of its song. It certainly helps to identify the individual sounds, much more so than the "too lee tee a too too la too see," "tweedle lee taw dee to see to we" and "chack-chack ree chip chip twee twee" transcriptions you find in the book.

Unfortunately, my copy of the book comes with a significant flaw, one that I hope wasn't reproduced in a lot of copies. Page 128 introduces the mockingbird, a frequent visitor to my yard, but the facing page repeats the entry about the mountain bluebird from page 113. Pages 113-128 are duplicated, and pages 129-144 are missing. (If you're curious, that means I am missing pages that describe mimic thrushes, wrentits, pipits, waxwings, shrikes and vireos.) Very disappointing!

That complaint aside, The Songbirds Bible is an excellent resource for bird enthusiasts. It is a handy approach for identifying the songs that surround us!