Bill Thompson, Julie Zickefoose, and Donald E. Kroodsma Reading
Bill Thompson and Julie Zickefoose discuss their book entitled Identify Yourself: The 50 Most Common Birding Identification Challenges. They explain how the book evolved from a column that Thompson edits in Iowa Bird Watching magazine, entitled “Identify Yourself.” Thompson provides a few tips for quick identification of birds, pointing out that approximately 85% of North American birds can be visually identified from the shoulder up.
Zickefoose discusses her role as illustrator of Identify Yourself, pointing out that she is a “bird painter"--a subset of “wildlife artists.” She details the considerations that have to be made when painting birds, such as how the skeleton is constructed, how they carry their weight, and how their feathers are layered. Zickefoose points out that she painted most of the illustrations in the book from museum study skins, but does admit that the Internet has become a great resource for images of birds.
Donald E. Kroodsma discusses his passion for the study of songbirds, and plays various audio tracks of bird-calls throughout his discussion. Kroodsma claims that songbirds “learn” their songs much in the same way that humans learn words, they go through a period of “babbling” before mastering their song. He points out that songbirds have two voice-boxes, each positioned at the top of each lung.
Kroodsma goes on to explain the main reason that songbirds sing: to attract a mate. He claims that, in order to get a male songbird to sing, one would only have to manipulate the hormone level of the female--they sing to females that are in a breeding stage. Kroodsma bluntly points out that the “survival of the fittest” notion definitely applies to songbirds--if a male does not have an attractive song, he will essentially fail to attract a mate.
In: "Live from Prairie Lights" Audio Archive | Nonfiction
Authors: Bill Thompson , Julie Zickefoose, Donald E. Kroodsma
Date Recorded: October 13, 2005
Works Read: Identify Yourself: the 50 Most Common Birding Identification Challenges by Bill Thompson, illustrated by Julie Zickefoose The Singing Life of Birds: The Art and Science of Listening to Birdsong by Donald E. Kroodsma
Program: --
Format: reading
Contributors: Introduction by host Julie Englander.
Topics: birdwatching, wildlife illustration, birdsong, ornithology
Note: Sound recording of bird songs are played during this discussion.