The Bees In Your Backyard: A Guide To North America's Bees Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
The Bees in Your Backyard provides an engaging introduction to the roughly 4,000 different bee species found in the United States and Canada, dispelling common myths about bees while offering essential tips for telling them apart in the field.The book features more than 900 stunning color photos of the bees living all around us--in our gardens and parks, along nature trails, and in the wild spaces between. It describes their natural history, including where they live, how they gather food, their role as pollinators, and even how to attract them to your own backyard. Ideal for amateur naturalists and experts alike, it gives detailed accounts of every bee family and genus in North America, describing key identification features, distributions, diets, nesting habits, and more.Provides the most comprehensive and accessible guide to all bees in the United States and CanadaFeatures more than 900 full-color photosOffers helpful identification tips and pointers for studying beesIncludes a full chapter on how to attract bees to your backyard
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Princeton University Press (November 24, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0691160775
ISBN-13: 978-0691160771
Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 0.8 x 9.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #19,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #8 in Books > Science & Math > Biological Sciences > Animals > Insects & Spiders #11 in Books > Science & Math > Reference #20 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Natural History
This is an extraordinary new book! A must-read. Bees in Your Backyard is much more than a field guide. It introduces the natural history of bees along with the knowledge needed to identify their distinguishing morphological characters along with an innovative key to the major groups. All of the major genera anyone is likely to come across in Canada, U.S.A. and Mexico are here. I would have liked the distribution maps to be a bit larger, but this book is jam-packed with great information that will delight readers. The quality of the hundreds of photographic images by Wilson along with other contributors are outstanding. Wilson is a master of the macro photography technique of placing bees on white backgrounds, which makes them come alive as species portraits. I highly recommend this one-of-a-kind reference to our native bees for faculty, graduate and undergraduate students along with naturalists and gardeners who want to identify and understand our diverse bee faunas. Get this book, you won't be disappointed.
This is an excellent introduction to the bees of North America. Well-written and comprehensive, it provides general information of bee morphology, biology and behavior. Then, it covers ALL the families and genera of bees in NA, what their identifying characters are, and provides detailed information of the biology of each genus. Great illustrations, and wonderful photographs of live bees. This won't allow you to identify most bees to species, but given that there are c. 4,000 species in NA, that is beyond the scope of the book. This book is a classic, there's nothing else like it. It will do more to increase the (interested) general public's knowledge about the diversity of bee than anything currently available. A must-have.
Wonderful new book that provides a wealth of information on bee biology, habitat requirements and, especially, bee identification. We are bee photographers and biologists, though not bee experts, and this is perfect for us. We have several other general books on bees but this one is far better than others for those who really want to learn more about bee families and genera of the US and Canada.
This book is filled with info on the bees that many of us encounter in our daily lives but don't realy Recognize. In it I saw many that while growing up were said to be nuisance bees refered to as sweat bees and the such, Only after keeping bees and reading this book and other sources I now know how important a role native bees and honey bees together play in polination of our foods and to respect them and their place in our world. After reading, If you spend time outdoors and notice your suroundings, you will begin to be able to identify and tell the difference between the many different species of native bees and wasps that actually help us and shouldn't be just "destroyed" as many people feel when they encounter them. This book has great pictures and discriptions of the many bees of North America and how to recognize their characteristics form wings to eyes to the pollen collecting hairs and more. Even the imposters that exist. How to encourage and help them to thrive through planting bee friendly plants and flowers, to providing habitat. With this book we are easily able to teach our grandchildren all about 'The Bees In "Their" Backyard ' and to enjoy them, not fear these wonderous insects. Highly recomended !
This is the best book I've found, thus far, in the identification of the different bee species in North America that I come across, delivering on everything it promised and a lot more. It's easy to read and highly informative, touching on some of the basics of bees but then quickly gets into the details of identification for each species within the family -- where that type of bee can typically be found, when it's flying, and how to differentiate it from even some of its closest kin. It grants the more obvious distinctions in wing venation and hair placement then goes all the way down to minute anatomical differences between the species. It covers your typical -- honey bees, carpenter bees, bumble bees, ground bees, leaf cutter bees, squash bees, sweat bees, mason bees, etc -- but also the different subspecies within each set.If you are a beekeeper and want to expand your knowledge of 'the family' or you just want to know a bit more about the bees in your yard, and how to attract more, this is a fantastic resource to help further you toward those goals.
Overall, this is a wonderful book with lots of good information for the non-entomologist and fine pictures. There are just two things I have to take issue with. First, size should be measured in mm's, not inches. Every ruler I've seen has one side metric and with the tiny size of some of these creatures it is the only way to get a grasp on relative size. Second, the range maps are so tiny as to be pointless. They should have been made larger or left out altogether. The region/activity chart would be a fine compliment to a larger map.
This book is amazing. Not only is it illustrated with excellent photos on every page, but it covers everything you could possibly want to know about every species of bee found in North America. I've never seen a book like it anywhere. If your interested in bees than I highly recommend it. You'll never need another book.
After getting this book, the many bee photos I've taken began to make sense! I like the way this book is organized. It makes it easy for an enthusiast with no scientific background to narrow down the ID to one or two genera, which I can now take to bugguide.net (which is mind boggling if one's starting point doesn't go beyond "bee"), and go farther with ID. The book looked intimidating at first glance, but it actually simplifies a very complex group, and the life history info is very enjoyable reading. The photography is great, some pinned specimens for details, but more photos of live bees, which is more helpful for an enthusiast like me.
The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North America's Bees National Geographic Backyard Guide to the Birds of North America (National Geographic Backyard Guides) Beekeeping for Beginners: Your Ultimate Guide to Starting Your First Colony and Backyard Beekeeping with Honey Bees Farming in Your Backyard for Beginners, Book 2: Use Proven Strategies to Grow Plants, Herbs, and Food in Your Backyard Easily The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals: Choose the Best Breeds for Small-Space Farming, Produce Your Own Grass-Fed Meat, Gather Fresh ... Rabbits, Goats, Sheep, Pigs, Cattle, & Bees The Backyard Beekeeper: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden The Backyard Beekeeper - Revised and Updated: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden Midwestern Birds: Backyard Guide - Watching - Feeding - Landscaping - Nurturing - Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, ... Dakota (Bird Watcher's Digest Backyard Guide) Gardening for Birds, Butterflies, and Bees: Everything you need to Know to Create a wildlife Habitat in your Backyard The Backyard Birdsong Guide Eastern and Central North America: A Guide to Listening The Backyard Birdsong Guide Western North America: A Guide to Listening Backyard Chickens: The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Choosing a Breed, Chicken Coop, and Raising Backyard Chickens Backyard Chickens: The Essential Backyard Chickens Guide for Beginners: Choosing the Right Breed, Raising Chickens, Feeding, Care, and Troubleshooting Medicinal Plants of North America: A Field Guide (Falcon Guide Medicinal Plants of North America) Attracting Native Pollinators: The Xerces Society Guide, Protecting North America's Bees and Butterflies Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide (Princeton Field Guides) The Backyard Chickens Handbook: What You Need to Know to Raise Backyard Chickens (Modern Homesteading) (Volume 1) Sibley Backyard Birding Flashcards: 100 Common Birds of Eastern and Western North America Sibley's Backyard Birds: Eastern North America A Field Guide to Wildflowers: Northeastern and North-central North America (Peterson Field Guides)
