Why Do Bluebirds Hate Me?: More Answers to Common and Not-So-Common Questions about Birds and Birding

A collection of humorous Q&As about everything you've always wanted to ask about birds and birding Mike O'Connor knows bird watchers as well as he knows birds. He knows that if you're even slightly interested in identifying birds or attracting them to your backyard with a feeder, then you've also had your share of strange and silly questions about birds and their sometimes inexplicable behavior. In Why Do Bluebirds Hate Me?, O'Connor applies his deep knowledge of all things avian to answer the questions that keep birders up at night. Questions like Should you clean your birdhouses? Do swallows have a feather fetish? How much does it cost to run a heated birdbath? Is drinking coffee bad for birds? Other questions O'Connor covers range from the practical (Should I rotate the seed in my feeder?) to the quirky (Why are vultures eating my vinyl screen door?) to the just plain adorable (Are those birds kissing or feeding each other?). And he also explains why bluebirds just don't seem to like some people.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Exactly the Same, Only Different............................ ix

1.
Birds Everyone Should Know
Why Do Bluebirds Hate Me?...................................................... 1
Woodpeckers Do Take Baths....................................................... 4
Hip Catbirds........................................................................... 7
What’s with All the Grackles?................................................... 10
Why Hummingbirds Hum....................................................... 12
Carolina Wrens Singin’ in the Fall........................................... 14
Titmice Love Peanuts but Hate Water....................................... 16
No-Bird Syndrome.................................................................. 19
Birds Can’t Afford Bottled Water.............................................. 21
Not All Cardinals Are Catholic................................................ 23

2.
It’s Time to Look Past the Feathers
Don’t Call Me “Pretty Boy”...................................................... 26
Swans Support Integration...................................................... 29
Sandhill Cranes Migrate (Mostly)............................................. 31
Quail Chicks Have Two Dads.................................................. 34
They’re Called Snowy Owls for a Reason.................................... 36
Doves Can Whistle without Moving Their Lips........................... 39
Cattle Egrets Fit Right In......................................................... 41
Fearless Red-breasted Nuthatches.............................................. 43
Chickens Get No Respect.......................................................... 45
Don’t Be a Bird Bigot.............................................................. 48

3.
A Few Things Even You Can Do
The Cost of Running a Heated Birdbath.................................... 51
Clean Your Birdhouses!........................................................... 54
Sugar Water Brings More Than Just Hummingbirds................... 57
Bluebird Housing................................................................... 59
Tree Swallows, the Bluebird Alternative..................................... 61
Homeless Baby Ospreys............................................................ 64
Vintage Birdseed Is Not the Best................................................ 66
Orioles Like It Sweet, Perhaps Too Sweet.................................... 67
Oh, Rats!.............................................................................. 68
Rotating Seed........................................................................ 70

4.
There’s More to Life Than the Backyard
Pyrrhuloxia Is a Real Bird (Not a Strange Disease)..................... 73
Avocets, the Birds to See When You Can’t Go Shopping................ 76
Spoonbills Don’t Eat Soup or Chowder....................................... 78
Kookaburras Always Get the Joke.............................................. 81
Lapland Longspurs, More Fun Than Going to the Dentist........... 84
Caracara, the Mexican Eagle................................................... 86
Not All Flycatchers Are Dull..................................................... 89
Nënë, Not Easy to Say and Impossible to Type............................. 91

5.
Bet You Didn’t Know Birds Did This
All Hatched Out and Ready to Go............................................ 94
Some Birds Fly in the Dark Better Than Owls............................. 97
Paint-Eating Jays................................................................... 99
Bee-Eating Birds.................................................................. 101
Puffins Aren’t That Fussy...................................................... 103
Kissing Cardinals................................................................ 106
Hummingbirds—They’re on Everyone’s Menu.......................... 108
Vinyl-Eating Vultures........................................................... 110

6.
Don’t Forget Cities Have Birds, Too
Big-City Lifestyle Suits Peregrine Falcons Just Fine.................... 113
Birding in Central Park........................................................ 116
The Legend of Pale Male....................................................... 118
City Turkey......................................................................... 121
City Bird Assortment............................................................. 123

7.
Being Free as a Bird Isn’t Always That Great
Birds and Power Lines—Sometimes It Works,
Sometimes Not So Much........................................................ 126
Battling Hurricanes............................................................. 128
Birds Care about Which Coffee You Drink................................ 131
Pesticides Aren’t as Healthy as They Sound.............................. 134
The Disappearing Song of the Wood Thrush............................. 136
We’ll See Your Sparrow and Raise You a Squirrel...................... 138
Birds and Planes—and You Think YOU
Have Trouble with the Airlines............................................... 141
The Loss of the Carolina Parakeet........................................... 144

8.
Birds Are Superstars—and Publishers and Hollywood Know It
Bond, James Bond, Ornithologist............................................ 147
African Eagles Can’t Compare to Ours.................................... 150
That Quail, Robert............................................................... 153
Turkeys Don’t Come in Flocks................................................. 155
A Good Movie No One Saw................................................... 158

9.
A Bird Buffet
And You Think YOUR Feet Are Cold...................................... 161
The Twelve Days of Christmas Explained, Finally..................... 164
How Could Anyone Be Afraid of a Chickadee?......................... 166
Even Scary Places Have Birds................................................ 168
Red Squirrels, the Overlooked Annoyance................................. 171
Stick with Who You Know..................................................... 174
Scary Owls.......................................................................... 176
Don’t Give Kids “Bird Stuff”................................................. 178
Turkeys Rule, Eagles Drool.................................................... 181
Start the Year with a Bird List . . . Instead of a Hangover.......... 183

About the Author :
Mike O'Connor is the owner of the Bird Watcher's General Store on Cape Cod. His column, Ask the Bird Folks, appears in the Cape Codder, and his writing has been included in Good Birders Don't Wear White and The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004. The author of Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches?, he lives in Orleans, Massachusetts, where, try as he may, he cannot entice even a single bluebird to come to his yard.

Review :
"This detailed q&a will appeal to bird enthusiasts and birdwatchers, but O’Connor’s friendly approach will also appeal to novices.” —Publishers Weekly

"A nice selection of quirky and more common questions that teach the reader quite a bit of ornithology between the chuckles.” —Booklist

“I laughed as I learned my way through this quirky, well-researched question-and-answer book.” —Houston Chronicle

“You will be hard-pressed to find a funnier writer in all of birding than Mike O’Connor.” —Birder’s World Magazine

“[A] whimsical and insightful new opus...a treasure-trove of information.”
 —American Birding Association blog