Bird watchers - please recommend a good book on birds for me to give my sister

[Mabouya]

I continue to feed them and the other birds in my yard, but I have to say that woodpeckers aren't my favorite species. Every few weeks one will decide that there's something worth going after in the siding outside my bedroom and I'll be woken up by what sounds like a jackhammer a foot or so from my pillow.

[abbeyQ]

interesting anecdote; A friend of mine that works for the forest service told me that bird watchers were the most disruptive of wilderness users to wildlife. While other wilderness users just pass by, bird watchers commonly stalk the birds to get a better look. I thought it was rather interesting that something that seamed so passive was actually disruptive. Obviously the bird watchers aren't actually harming the birds bur interesting none the less.

[monadnocky]

^^^ not saying this isn't true in your neck of the woods, but here in New England serious birders are the most environmentally mindful people I can think of. Odd.

[11.4]

I think it's a regional perspective. If you watch birders around Point Reyes, people are used to seeing them walking into ranch yards and into tree lines immediately above the homes of the ranchers. But also, no one seems to mind. At Quaker Ridge, you can get snapped at if you slow down on a trail to dig through a birding guide to verify a difficult warbler. It's both the behavior and how it's perceived. Shorebirders are more of the same -- hated in some areas, ignored in others. And the big raptor days? In New Jersey they look like July 4th at big hiking trails into the mountains, but in California they get criticized for even driving to a trailhead. Certainly if a bunch of birders are intruding into someone's yard or on a fragile beach to catch a rarity, they can be seen as asses by just about everybody. Throw in someone using recordings or other methods to lure birds, and it's even worse. Birding is only as good as the individual birder -- and that can be magnificent or just plain rude.