The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds With Common Birds Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Julie Zickefoose lives for the moment when a wild, free living bird that she has raised or rehabilitated comes back to visit her; their eyes meet and they share a spark of understanding. Her reward for the grueling work of rescuing birds—such as feeding baby hummingbirds every twenty minutes all day long—is her empathy with them and the satisfaction of knowing the world is a birdier and more beautiful place. The Bluebird Effect is about the change that's set in motion by one single act, such as saving an injured bluebird—or a hummingbird, swift, or phoebe. Each of the twenty five chapters covers a different species, and many depict an individual bird, each with its own personality, habits, and quirks. And each chapter is illustrated with Zickefoose's stunning watercolor paintings and drawings. Not just individual tales about the trials and triumphs of raising birds, The Bluebird Effect mixes humor, natural history, and memoir to give readers an intimate story of a life lived among wild birds.
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (March 20, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0547003099
ISBN-13: 978-0547003092
Product Dimensions: 8 x 1.1 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (97 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #312,499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #292 in Books > Science & Math > Biological Sciences > Animals > Birds & Birdwatching > Field Guides #383 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Field Guides #388 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Nature Writing & Essays
What I absolutely love about this book is that it is written like a personal and heartfelt journal about the author's experiences with birds that she has rehabilitated and/or had other personal experiences with. This book has interesting facts about the birds along with details on their individual personalities. This isn't the standard and straightlaced ornithology book.The author had long dreamed of being an Ornithologist, but couldn't get into the college she had dreamed of because of her math scores on the SAT. She turns this failure into a success as she gets to take an even more hands on approach working with birds, getting to the real and the personal side of birds. She describes her emotional bonds with the birds and documents how each of her birds is different in their personalities. I found it very touching and something most anyone would relate to.This is really a beautiful book from the cover art throughout. It contains gorgeous drawings that the author drew of her inspirations, the birds in her care. It also includes interesting side notes that she kept on most of her willing subjects.If you love birds or love reading about them, I'd highly suggest getting this book. This book is one I will treasure in my library for a long, long time.
I'm simply in awe. Julie Zickefoose is a marvel.Zickefoose's dedication to bird rehabilitation in tandem with her insight as a writer and painter make this collection so incredibly engaging. She recounts her personal experiences and connections with 25 different species of birds, weaving comedy, tragedy, romance, and natural history into a rich, illustrated memoir of sorts. Zickefoose is a naturalist and a storyteller; she observes and conveys. And as she relates her tales through text and visual art, she becomes a guide for her audience to live her experiences as she has lived them, see what she has seen, and achieve a greater awareness of the complexity (and the undeniable individuality) of our avian cohabitants.Bird lovers will delight in perusing this collection of stories and illustrations; they may also find some of their more emotional biases challenged (as I did mine). Zickefoose's sentimentalism is always tempered with realism, in a way that has impacted me deeply. Her views are logical; she actively criticizes and dissects her opinions where sensitive issues (e.g., hunting, protection of endangered species, euthanasia, keeping parrots as pets) are concerned. The resulting perspective she offers is diplomatic and, I believe, of immense value.As I was reading an advanced copy, none of the illustrations were printed in color -- I'm really looking forward to seeing the final product!
The Bluebird Effect is a charming book, about one woman's kindly and unique relationship with birds. Each story has loving illustrations of avian, and cute little comments, done in a scrapbook-style. The author really breathes life into the tiny creatures, and talks about them in such a way that they truly touch the heart.I particularly liked the story about the bird with the twisted head, the author found and nursed back to health, but there are so many good ones it really is impossible to choose just a single story. I got the impression that the author and her husband truly cared about the animals they wrote about and spent so much time with.The artist in particular really needs to be commended for the loving, cute and cheerful pictures of birds. I like the way that they are illustrated in a sketch-like manner inside the margins and including cute little notes. This is a great book for bird lovers or to send a friend. I know I will cherish this book on my keeper shelf.
It's a beautiful day when you take possession of something as wonderful as The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds by Julie Zickefoose. One of our local libraries had jumped the gun and inadvertently released this book to me in hard cover ahead of its publication date, and I fell in love with it. But I wanted in my Kindle app for iPad. When I woke up way too early this morning and wondered about going back to sleep, it came to me that this was the day I could get it for the Kindle. In my rush, I accidentally first sent it to one of my e-ink Kindles, and I don't recommend that, because its illustrations are beautiful and need to be seen in color. On the iPad you can spread to enlarge each of those and get the full effect. If you love birds. you need this book. It's a real charmer. Highly recommended in hard cover or Kindle. I have also tried it on the Kindle Fire where the illustrations show up well, but can't be enlarged as they can on the iPad. It is still worth buying for the Fire.
This is a very interesting book about the author's experience with birds, many of which she rehabilitated or raised from fledglings. The author is also a good sketcher and sketches many of the birds she handled peppering the book with many of these delightful images. Sometimes she temporarily "borrows" wild birds from their nest to sketch. This is not something I agree with but this practice seems to have litte affect on the birds according to the way she justifies it.It is obvious that Julie has a dislike of free-roaming cats who injure birds and several of the birds she rehabilitated or attempted to rehabilitate were mauled by cats.She talks about phoebes, starlings, chimney swifts, a titmouse, grouse, etc., etc. She also included a very interesting story about a turkey vulture which throws up in her car. Apparently turkey vulture vomit is awfully fetid--not that other vomit isn't but this is worse. I like how she ends her book with Charlie, her parrot. I did not realize parrots were such bad pets. She defines a pet as an animal whose emotional needs can be met by a human being and a parrot does not fit this definition according to Julie.Her sketches throughtout the book are wonderful and her bird stories kept my interest. She named many of the birds and when rehabilitated always released them if they could live on their own. Julie is definitely a "bird mother" and from my perspective her husband Bill is a saint to put up with it all. Although I'm not a birder, it was great to read about Julie's experiences and I'm am thankful their exists all forms of people in this world who take care of orphaned animals avian or otherwise.
The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds Philip A. Fisher Collected Works, Foreword by Ken Fisher: Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, Paths to Wealth through Common Stocks, Conservative Investors ... and Developing an Investment Philosophy Why Bother With Bonds: A Guide To Build All-Weather Portfolio Including CDs, Bonds, and Bond Funds--Even During Low Interest Rates (How To Achieve Financial Independence) Devil and the Bluebird The Wild Game Birds Manual: A Guide To Raising, Feeding, Care, Diseases And Breeding Game Birds (Pet Birds) (Volume 4) Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits America's Favorite Birds: 40 Beautiful Birds to Color Drawing: Birds: Learn to draw a variety of amazing birds step by step (How to Draw & Paint) Birds: An Adult Coloring Book: Over 30 Fun Stress Relieving Illustrations of Birds, #1 Book For Your Inner Artist, mindful meditation coloring book, bird guide natural world coloring book Birds: An Adult Coloring Book: Travel Edition Size, Over 30 Fun Stress Relieving Illustrations of Birds, #1 Book For Your Inner Artist, mindful ... book, bird guide natural world coloring book The Angry Birds Movie: Meet the Angry Birds (I Can Read Level 2) Learn to Draw Angry Birds: Learn to draw all of your favorite Angry Birds and Those Bad Piggies! (Licensed Learn to Draw) Learn to Draw Angry Birds Space: Learn to draw all your favorite Angry Birds and those Bad Piggies-in Space! (Licensed Learn to Draw) Angry Birds Playground: Atlas: A Global Geography Adventure (National Geographic Kids: Angry Birds Playground) Edward's Menagerie - Birds: Over 40 Soft Toy Patterns for Crochet Birds Sibley Birds West: Field Guide to Birds of Western North America Birds of the Carolinas Field Guide, Second Edition: Companion to Birds of the Carolinas Audio CDs Birds of Lake Pond & Marsh: Water and Wetland Birds of Eastern North America Common Birds Stickers (Dover Little Activity Books Stickers)
