From our own backyards to the rim of the Arctic ice, countless birds have adapted to meet the challenges of the winter season. This is their remarkable story, told by award-winning birder and acclaimed writer Pete Dunne, accompanied by illustrations from renowned artist and birder David Sibley.

Despite the seasonal life-sapping cold, birds have evolved strategies that meet winter's vicissitudes head on, driven by the imperative to make it to spring and pass down their genes to the next generation. The drama of winter and the resilience and adaptability of birds witnessed in the harsher months of the calendar is both fascinating and astonishing.

In The Courage of Birds, Pete Dunne--winner of the American Birding Association's Roger Tory Peterson Award for lifetime achievement in promoting the cause of birding--chronicles the behavior of the birds of North America. He expertly explores widespread adaptations, such as feathers that protect against the cold, and unpacks the unique migration patterns and survival strategies of individual species. Dunne also addresses the impact of changing climatic conditions on avian longevity and recounts personal anecdotes that soar with a naturalist's gimlet eye.

Filled with unforgettable facts, wit, and moving observations on the natural world, Dunne's book is for everyone; from the serious birder who tracks migration patterns, to the casual birder who logs daily reports on eBird, to the backyard observer who throws a handful of seed out for the Northern Cardinals and wonders how the birds magically appear in the garden when temperatures begin to fall.

Praise for Pete Dunne

Dunne's prose is lyrical, sensitive, and full of feeling.

--Ted Floyd, editor, Birding

Pete is arguably North America's best and best-known birder--and he's also a terrific writer.

--Scott Shalaway, author and former syndicated nature columnist

Praise for David Sibley

There are 47 million birdwatchers. But there is only one David Sibley. . . . He is a boon to both the birding world and the art world.

--The National Audubon Society

[His] exacting artwork and wide-ranging expertise bring observed behaviors vividly to life.

--Birdwatching

A lavishly illustrated, large-format reference book by two preeminent experts on North American shorebirds

More than half a century has passed since the publication of The Shorebirds of North America, Peter Matthiessen's masterful natural history of what is arguably the world's most amazing and specialized bird group. In the intervening decades, our knowledge about these birds has grown significantly, as have the threats to their populations and habitats. Pete Dunne and Kevin Karlson celebrate Matthiessen's classic book with this updated and expanded natural history of North American shorebirds. This elegantly written book begins by introducing readers to the unrivaled splendor of shorebirds and goes on to cover topics ranging from their biology and habitats to courtship and breeding, flight, the perils of migration, and conservation. Detailed accounts convey the richness and variety of the five family groups, with incisive, fact-filled descriptions of all 52 species of shorebirds known to breed in North America.

Featuring hundreds of breathtaking images by Karlson and other photographers and drawing on the latest science, The Shorebirds of North America is a worthy tribute to Matthiessen's enduring work and an indispensable reference for bird lovers everywhere.

A simpler and more user-friendly visual approach to gull identification

This unique photographic field guide to North America's gulls provides a comparative approach to identification that concentrates on the size, structure, and basic plumage features of gulls--gone are the often-confusing array of plumage details found in traditional guides.

Featuring hundreds of color photos throughout, Gulls Simplified illustrates the variations of gull plumages for a variety of ages, giving readers strong visual reference points for each species. Extensive captions accompany the photos, which include comparative photo arrays, digitized photo arrays for each age group, and numerous images of each species--a wealth of visual information at your fingertips. This one-of-a-kind guide includes detailed species accounts and a distribution map for each gull.

An essential field companion for North American birders, Gulls Simplified reduces the confusion commonly associated with gull identification, offering a more user-friendly way of observing these marvelous birds.

• Provides a simpler approach to gull identification
• Features a wealth of color photos for easy comparison among species
• Includes detailed captions that explain identification criteria and aging, with direct visual reinforcement above the captions
• Combines plumage details with a focus on size, body shape, and structural features for easy identification in the field
• Highlights important field marks and physical features for each gull

A visually stunning, comprehensive resource on North America's birds of prey

Always a popular group of birds, raptors symbolize freedom and fierceness, and in Pete Dunne's definitive guide, these traits are portrayed in hundreds of stunning color photographs showing raptors up close, in flight, and in action--fighting, hunting, and nesting. These gorgeous photographs enhance the comprehensive, authoritative text, which goes far beyond identification to cover raptor ecology, behavior, conservation, and much more. In returning to his forte and his first love, Pete Dunne has crafted a benchmark book on raptors: the first place to turn for any question about these highly popular birds, whether it's what they eat, where they live, or how they behave.

Even people with little interest in birds will stop in their tracks at the sight of a hawk soaring overhead or a falcon perched on a window ledge. Birds of prey have an aura that few other creatures have. In the acclaimed Hawks in Flight, Pete Dunne showed what birds of prey look like. In The Wind Masters, he shows what it is like to be a bird of prey. He takes us inside the lives and minds of all thirty-four species of diurnal raptors found in North America -- hawks, falcons, eagles, vultures, the osprey, and the harrier -- and shows us how each bird sees the world, hunts its prey, finds and courts its mate, rears its young, grows up, grows old, and dies.
Vividly written, and beautifully illustrated by David Sibley, The Wind Masters is a brilliant work of narrative natural history in the tradition of Peter Matthiessen's The Wind Birds and Barry Lopez's Of Wolves and Men.

When a flash of pink was spotted in a cloud of gray gulls over Newburyport, Massachusetts, ten thousand people descended on the town in hopes of seeing a rare Ross's gull from Siberia. Among them were Pete and Linda Dunne, who set off from there on a year-long odyssey. Dunne had poured the most remarkable stories, birds, and characters into this unforgettable book about their once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

Focusing on families and their shared traits makes bird identification easier than ever.

This guide takes readers beyond merely identifying birds to understanding them. Many birders can tell the difference between a White-eyed and Bell's Vireo but cannot begin to describe a vireo and what distinguishes members of this family from warblers or flycatchers. The species by species approach makes it difficult to appreciate birds for what they are: members of well-organized groupings united by common traits. Putting the focus on families, and their shared characteristics, makes bird identification easier and more meaningful. More than 150 color photos illustrate the 81 bird families of the United States and Canada.

Tales of a Low-Rent Birder is a collection of nineteen essays and sketches written between 1977 and 1985. It was originally published in 1986.

The leap from concept to final draft is great, and the task is filled with hard work and horrors. It is here that most writers struggle to get the plot right at the expense of the story's real power. The result is a script that is logical in every way, yet unmoving. Emotional Structure, by Emmy- and Peabody-Award winning producer, writer, and teacher, Peter Dunne, is for these times, when the plot fits nicely into place like pieces in a puzzle, yet an elemental, terribly important something remains missing. The missing piece won't be found by adding action, you can't stir the soul with a car chase. And the problem won't be helped by a change of location, the only location that matters is deep in your protagonist. The solution is to pay constant attention to the inseparable nature of plot development and emotional development. When you create any scene, whether it's a police pursuit on the interstate or a heart-to-heart in the kitchen, the emotional reasoning behind the scene has to be evident. When you develop the emotional current that sustains the action, you create a scene with heart and soul, and you-and your viewers-are going to feel the passion.

More Tales of a Low-Rent Birder brings together twenty-five essays that originally appeared in major birding publications. In these pieces, Pete Dunne ranges from wildly humorous to sadly elegiac, as he describes everything from the field plumage of the dedicated birder to the lingering death of an accidentally injured golden plover. Running like a thread through all the essays is Dunne's love and respect for the birds he watches, his concern over human threats to their survival, and his tolerance, even affection, for the human odd birds that birding attracts. Truly, these essays offer something for everyone interested in birds and the natural habitats our species share.

Filling a gap in the vast literature on birding, Pete Dunne explains in his distinctive style how to find birds--the often-ignored first step in identifying, observing, and listing bird species

The best strategies for locating birds in any season and in every kind of weather

Techniques and expert advice applicable to species in habitats and environments throughout North America

For beginning bird-watchers or experienced birders who want to improve their chances for success

Birding is one of the most popular and fastest-growing outdoor activities, but it can seem intimidating for beginners who don't know where, when, or how to search for birds. Fortunately, Pete Dunne, one of the most popular and respected writers in the field, has written a guide that will help even the most casual observers identify the skills and tools they need to develop their interest in birding.- Popular how-to guide revised, updated, and now with color photos- For beginners and birders who want to improve their skills- Improve your odds of success with tips to get the most out of your equipment

How to get good, then better, then even better at identifying birds in the field-and have fun doing it

A straightforward approach from Pete Dunne, one of the country's top birders and birding instructors, written in his distinctive style

Includes descriptive information for 75 bird groups to help get the ID process off on the right foot

Practical, expert advice and entertaining in-the-field examples of birding successes and common mistakes

The natural world is a lot like a game of musical chairs, observes Pete Dunne. Everywhere you turn, everywhere you go, there are places where living things sit down, niches that support their specific needs. But just as in musical chairs, there aren't enough places to go around. Our species keeps removing them--forcing other creatures to leave the game.

In these twenty-nine essays, one of America's top nature writers trains his sights on the beauties and the vulnerabilities of the natural world. Writing to infuse others with a sense of the richness and diversity that nature holds, Pete Dunne ranges over topics from the wonder of the year's first snowfall to the lost art of stargazing to the mysterious forces that impel people to hunt--and not to hunt. Running like a thread through all the essays is Dunne's desire to preserve all that is natural in nature, to stop our unthinking destruction of wild places and wild creatures before we humans find ourselves with the last chair, in an empty room on an impoverished earth.

Pete Dunne, one of the foremost birding writers in the country, shares 33 funny, poignant, whimsical, and informative tales about birders and birding in his first collection of birding essays in more than ten years.

Dunne is an expert birder, sought-after teacher, and popular author

Includes wonderful illustrations by David Gothard

Dubbed the Bard of America's Bird-Watchers by the Wall Street Journal, Pete Dunne knows birders and birding--instinctively and completely. He understands the compulsion that drives other birders to go out at first light, whatever the weather, for a chance to maybe, just maybe, glimpse that rare migrant that someone might have spotted in a patch of woods the day before yesterday. And yet, he also knows how . . . well . . . strange the birding obsession becomes when viewed through the eyes of a nonbirder. His dual perspective--totally engrossed in birding, yet still aware of the odd birdness of some birders--makes reading his essays a pure pleasure whether you pursue the feather quest or not.

This book collects forty-one of Dunne's recent essays, drawn from his columns in Living Bird, Wild Bird News, the New Jersey Sunday section of the New York Times, Birder's World, and other publications. Written with his signature wit and insight, they cover everything from a moment of awed communion with a Wandering Albatross (the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen) to Dunne's imagined perfect bird (The Perfect Bird is the size of a turkey, has the wingspan of an eagle, the legs of a crane, the feet of a moorhen, and the talons of a great horned owl. It eats kudzu, surplus zucchini, feral cats, and has been known to predate upon homeowners who fire up their lawn mowers before 7:00 A.M. on the weekend.). The title essay pays whimsical, yet heartfelt tribute to Dunne's mentor, the late birding legend Roger Tory Peterson.

Pete Dunne has been watching birds since he was seven years old. But not just watching-deeply absorbing every nuance of color, markings, shape, flight, and song; all the subtle clues that can identify a bird barely glimpsed among the highest branches in fading twilight. With the same skill, he has been observing and writing about birding and birders for over twenty years, using humor, sentiment, occasional sarcasm, and unashamed passion for his chosen profession to explore why birdwatching is so irresistibly compelling to so many people.

This book brings together thirty-two vintage essays that Dunne originally wrote for publications such as American Birds, Bird Watcher's Digest, Birder's World, Birding, Living Bird, the New Jersey edition of the Sunday New York Times, WildBird, and Wild Bird News. Encounters with birds rare and common is their shared theme, through which Dunne weaves stories of his family and friends, reflections on the cycles of nature, and portraits of unforgettable birders whose paths have crossed his, ranging from Roger Tory Peterson to a life-battered friend who finds solace in birding. A cliff-hanger story of the bird that got away gives this book its title.