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Product Description
From the Inside Flap
Exotic Birds
Detailed advice
on selecting and keeping
the world’s most unusual birds
More than 200 full-color photos
Facts and photos to help you identify, choose, and buy exotic birds
My Thoughts
This is my favorite pet bird guide. It’s a great, quick and easy reference to various pet birds. This book is small enough to carry with you to a bird store and comes in handy when considering what to add to your aviary.
Each species has a page with a photo, scientific name, description, housing, living conditions, social behaviors and diet categories. I especially like the social behavoirs section that tells what other birds they’re compatible with, such as “keep mating pair by themselves” or “peaceable, may be kept with other parakeets as well as birds from other groups.” There’s also a small highlighted section with an icon about the type of housing, noise level and difficulty keeping. Lastly, there’s a section showing their order, family, etc. and where they are distributed in the wild.
The only negative is that it’s sometimes hard to find a particular bird in the book due to the various names that are used for the species. For example, a St. Helena waxbill is in the book as a Common Waxbill, which is one name for it, but there’s no mention of St. Helena finch or St. Helena waxbill. A cross-referenced list of variant names to the listings would have been a great addition to the book.
Note: I’m not sure why the product description says it’s for birdwatchers. It’s not like you’re going to sit in your backyard and see both wild African Gray parrots and Umbrella cockatoos. If you’re a wild birdwatcher, you’d be better suited with a guide dedicated to the area that you’re birdwatching in.