Wild Wings: An Introduction to Birdwatching

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Fitzharris is easily among Canada’s top 10 wildlife photographers. His
meticulous bird shots have been published in most of the leading nature
magazines, displayed in many art galleries, and featured in several of
his own books. In this latest volume, he goes beyond showing us how
birds appear and behave to introducing the how-to of birding as a hobby.

The photographic plates dominate the work, with the text becoming the
thread on which these visual gems are strung. This is not to imply that
the text is superficial, as is so often the case in photo-album
publications. While it is obvious that Fitzharris is a photographer by
calling and a writer by necessity, the text is clear, clean, and
adequate.

The introductory chapter on getting started in birdwatching makes
interesting reading because of the tone of a one-to-one chat. The
balance of the text, which introduces birds according to their habitat
(field, shore, forest, etc.), is somewhat more mechanical and, while
okay, uninspiring.

It is for the photographic plates that birders will covet this book.
Fitzharris has developed his mastery of the camera and the special
demands of nature photography to the level where we see his subject
before we see the photo. We see the crane striding across a meadow
before we notice the composition, the patterns of light and shadow, the
depth of field, the focus, and the color saturation. I saw a robin gulp
down mountain ash berries before I realized I was looking at an artistic
work with carefully placed colors and visual interests to balance the
composition. With a few exceptions, the photos focus in on a single
bird, emphasizing details of plumage and coloring. The birds are all
photographed in their natural habitat; no tabletops using skins. The
book concludes with notes on nine great birding spots (six in the United
States, three in Canada), and a brief list of recommendations for
further reading.