'Birding is one of the fastest-growing activities in America, and this book is aimed at the millions of birders who want not only to identify birds but also to understand them. Key features of this comprehensive and indispensable handbook include: coverage of every species found in North America - more than 900 species, including accidentals and exotics - as well as the larger genus and family groupings; vividly written, detailed descriptions of each species, genus, and family: personality, habitat, feeding habits, nesting habits, migratory patterns, characteristic displays, and conservation status; color photographs and range maps for the more than 600 species regularly seen in North America; an introduction to birds and birding. Just as a Peterson Field Guide(tm) is an essential tool for birding in the field, Kenn Kaufman\'s Lives of North American Birds is an essential reference for anyone interested in birds in particular or nature in general.'

This is the book that goes beyond the field guides - not a guide for naming the birds, but a reference for understanding them - a complete, handy, one-volume encyclopedia on the fascinating lives of our birds. The essential companion to your field guide. Information on more than 900 birds: complete life histories for 680 species that occur regularly in North America and shorter accounts for more than 230 others that visit occasionally; every important detail about the lives of birds: what they eat, where they build their nests, how many eggs they lay, what habitat they choose, when they migrate, their current conservation status, and much more; over 600 beautiful photographs and over 600 range maps; and up-to-date, thorough, and accurate, but written in clear, nontechnical language.

'Kenn Kaufman is a legend among birders. At sixteen he hitchhiked back and forth across North America, traveling eighty thousand miles in a year, simply to see as many birds as he could; he came back to tell the story in KINGBIRD HIGHWAY. A field editor for AUDUBON and a regular contributor to every major birding magazine, he is the youngest person ever to receive the Ludlow Griscom Award, the highest honor of the American Birding Association. His natural history pursuits have taken him to all seven continents, but he has made a special study of North American birds. His books include LIVES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS, the PETERSON FIELD GUIDE TO ADVANCED BIRDING, and the FOCUS GUIDE TO BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. He resides in Tucson, Arizona.'