Feel Good by Doing Good: 4 Informative Citizen Science Books

The Field Guide to Citizen Science by Diane Cavalier, Catherine Hoffman, and Caren Cooper 

The Field Guide to Citizen Science provides everything you need to get started.

Citizen Science: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction by Mary Ellen Hannibal 

A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2016: “Intelligent and impassioned, Citizen Scientist is essential reading for anyone interested in the natural world.”

Award-winning writer Mary Ellen Hannibal has long reported on scientists’ efforts to protect vanishing species, but it was only through citizen science that she found she could take action herself. As she wades into tide pools, spots hawks, and scours mountains, she discovers the power of the heroic volunteers who are helping scientists measure—and even slow—today’s unprecedented mass extinction. Citizen science may be the future of large-scale field research—and our planet’s last, best hope.

Citizen Science: How Anyone Can Contibute to Scientific Discovery by Kathryn Hulick 

Citizen science has opened up the world of scientific research to anybody and everybody. It is being done in all areas of scienceincluding zoology, biology, astronomy, chemistry, and more. Some projects involve going outside and observing nature while others revolve around data obtained and shared over the internet. And whether one has scientific training or not, the contributions being made by citizen scientists are making a difference.

Handbook of Citizen Science in Ecology and Conservation by Christopher A. Lepczyk

Handbook of Citizen Science in Ecology and Conservation is the first practical and comprehensive manual for creating, implementing, or improving natural science research and monitoring projects that involve collaboration between scientists and the general public. As citizen-science projects become increasingly common, there is a growing need for concrete best practices around planning and implementing successful projects that allow project leaders to guide and gauge success while also ensuring the collection of high-quality data and rewarding experiences.

 

Book Review - BETTER BIRDING: Tips, Tools, & Concepts for the Field

BETTER BIRDING: Tips, Tools, & Concepts for the Field

It is a lot of fun to develop better birding skills through the years as it enhances your enjoyment. If you are able to study a bird and find field marks for comparison with a field guide, birding is fun. But if you cannot study a bird, and you get only a brief glimpse, birding can still be very fun. As they point out in this book, you have to get to know a bird, notice its behavior, listen for songs and even call notes, assess the habitat - all can lead you to identification. One of the multiple attractions of birding to me is being a "detective", observing and assessing the clues presented. You have to become good at observation - there is no substitute for that. This book states as its purpose:

"Our primary goal for this book is to help you develop a solid foundation for building your filed skills...By providing information about a bird's habits...a better chance of knowing a species..." And that is perhaps the crux of being a better birder - knowing the species.

Before I go any further let me mention the gorgeous photographs in this book (e.g. check out the breeding plumage Pacific Loon on page 28. Wow!). As a person who loves to look at beautiful birds, I enjoy this element of the book greatly.

If you do nothing else but read the Introduction to the book, you will learn things to help you identify more birds. I particularly like the caption for the Black-chinned Sparrow which points out that "many birds have a suite of other distinctive vocalizations that aid identification, including chip notes and flight calls". I have learned the value of these subtler vocalizations through the years - I tended to be dismissive of them as a younger birder. Now I know quite a few more birds just from recognizing the call notes - sometimes that is all you get!

After the Introduction, the book examines twenty four groups of birds in detail to give you a feel for getting to know a bird. I was particularly taken with the section on the Bristle-thighed Curlew. I spent the summers of 1979 and 1980 in remote NW Alaska (on the job) and I was incessantly searching for this bird among the many Whimbrels that occur there. After reading this section I realized I was not looking for the best field marks - you have to look at the streaked neck and breast contrasting with the plain belly and flanks - I did not know this! I saw a lot of great birds during those two summers so I can't complain, but I may have picked up a Bristle-thighed Curlew had I known what to look for.

All in all, I would say the book is a worthwhile addition to any birder's library. The photos alone are worth the price of the book!

I will conclude with a comment on an interesting section of the book (in the Introduction) - Why Birding is Cool. They pose the question: "What is it specifically that you like about birding?" They point out that birding is at least a pleasant activity and at times it is utterly thrilling. I agree wholeheartedly with that supposition. My thoughts are that what I love about birding is that birds are very, very beautiful to see, I enjoy the "detective" element of birding, and at times I love the "thrill of the chase" in finding an identifying Life Lister birds. It has been a life long passion that began at age 5 or 6 with the surprise discovery of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird (See The Passion for Birds Begins in a Wondrous Way) and has continued on for more than 50 years and 500+ species! 

Add this book to your birding library right now!

Feel free to post a comment below on the question: "What is it specifically that you like about birding?" Express yourself!

Review of Birds of South America - Passerines

Birds of South America: Passerines (Princeton Illustrated Checklists)

For anyone with an interest in the birds of South America, this book looks to be a must have in your library. It is intended to be a companion to Birds of South America: Non-Passerines: Rheas to Woodpeckers by Francisco Erize. Now all of the known species of birds of South America are now illustrated in a compact two volume set with the accompanying text and range maps on the facing page. Most excellent for South American birders!

By way of description, this field guide covers all 1,952 passerine species to be found south of Panama, including offshore islands such as Trinidad, the Galapagos, the Falklands and the islands of the Scotia Arc leading to the Antarctic mainland. It features 197 color plates that will aid you in identification (not to mention being enjoyable to look at for a lover of beautiful birds). All plumages are illustrated, including males, females, and juveniles.

As a way of giving you a feel for the book I will open the book to a random page and take the topmost bird and reproduce the text for you:

(Range map is here) SWALLOW TANAGER Tersina veridis 14.5 cm Broad bill and barring across flanks are distinctive. Hurried very high, to ultra-high mixture of notes, including a slightly empasized tjuw. At borders of forest and woodland, scattered trees, riverine belts. Less than 1,500m, locally higher.

SWALLOW TANAGER illustration from facing page

In closing, I will say that for a South American birder, this the ideal guide to take on your travels. This book would be invaluable, if not essential, for a birder traversing more than one South American region. I personally enjoy having it in my library as a way perusing beautiful birds and perhaps learn about new birds - which is a lifelong pursuit of happiness for me!

A Seemingly Forgotten Book Every Serious Birder Will Be Absolutely Delighted To Own

On a cold night this past January here in Wisconsin, I was browsing the books at a local Goodwill store when I happened upon a book I did not recognize entitled BIRDS OF THE WORLD. I opened the cover and checked the copyright date: 1961...This format, 1983. I thought that seems a bit out of date but I began leafing through the book out of curiosity. I was immediately enamored of the book because of the all the really beautiful illustrations (by Arthur Singer)! I am one who is always in the market to learn, and birds are one of the great loves of my life, so a book about birds of the world held great appeal. I decided to purchase it and have never looked back. What a great decision! Already it has provided me with a lot of wonderful times reading and enjoying the beautiful drawings. It is reminiscent of my childhood when I used to peruse the SONG AND GARDEN BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA (National Geographic, 1964) in a state of rapture over the beautiful photographs of birds (e.g. Red-faced Warbler, which I was subsequently thrilled to finally see in 1988). I will not be able to come close to doing justice to these drawings with these smartphone photos, but let me attempt to give you a feel for this terrific bird book.

Cover

Title page

A potpourri of colorful interesting birds on facing pages!

Hummingbirds!

Hummingbird distribution map

Toucans

Trogons!

It is fun to just randomly browse through the text as you will learn things right and left. On occassion the bird names are out of date e.g. North American Brown Creeper is called Tree Creeper, but don't let this detract from an extraordinary book!

I want to insert several reviews that I found - they are helpful in conveying how cool this book really is:

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.

Inspirational, invaluable, still great today
By goosefish
Twenty years ago, when I was a young boy, I refused to leave a bookstore until this book was bought for me. To this day, I still enjoy referring to it. In the intervening years, I've traveled the world watching birds. I've studied them at the highest levels. And yet I continue to find intriguing facts in this book which are new to me. I continue to be awed by the beauty of birds I've not yet seen, and may never see.

The illustrations by Singer can quickly transport the reader emotionally. In contrast with his illustrations for the Golden Field Guide to Birds of North America, these paintings are far more artistic. In most cases, the species chosen to represent families are just right: exemplary, yet extraordinary. There are only a few families missing the ideal illustration, e.g. the herons have no Goliath Heron, the cuckoos have no Chestnut Malkoha. One look at the toucans, the hummingbirds, the birds of paradise... and you wonder how anyone could dare harm a feather on these birds.

Austin's text is remarkably current, despite being 20+ years old. His ornithology is first rate. Sources cited are exhaustive, and include Mayr, Lorenz, and Charles Sibley, whose later works include the landmark "Phylogeny" and "Taxonomy" tomes. The chart of species diversity through time... who would have thought that there were once as many species of Gruiformes as there are now of Passeriformes? What drove the Diatryma group to extinction 30 million years ago? -or the section on hummingbirds... it's amazing to think that some species are known to science thanks only to the 19th century millenary trade, which preserved now-extinct hummingbirds as brooches. -Little morphological facts like the Touraco's water-soluble copper-based pigment, turacin... they can stimulate a thousand more questions. When most bird colors are due to refraction, why does this group rely on real pigments?

I glanced at the dust cover's list price. Back in 1984, $26.95 was a significant sum. In today's dollars, that would be about $53 according to Fed Reserve CPI stats. I'd say the book is worth even more. If only all children grew up with a book like this at home, the world would have no trouble conserving nature; everyone would be on the same page.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent book with lots of beautiful drawings.
By twopurringcats
This book is loaded with color pictures of numerous birds from around the world..I found pictures of birds in this book that I couldn't find in my other bird books (I have many). Though it's an older book,it's a useful addition to my bird reference library. Definitely worth buying if you like pictorial bird books.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
AUSTIN: BIRDS OF THE WOLD
By Dr. Larry W. REED
THIS VOLUME STILL STANDS AS ONE OF THE GREAT DEFINITIVE WORKS ON BIRDS. EVEN THOUGH OUT OF PRINT FOR MANY YEARS, I WAS HAPPY TO FIND THE BOOK ON AMAZON. I HAPPENED TO BE A FRIEND OF DR AUSTIN AND AM GLAD NOW TO ADD HIS WORK TO MY COLLECTION.

"Coming home to a place he'd never been before"

This line from a John Denver song seems appropriate for a post on pictures from nature that illustrate the transcendental beauty of the natural world. Enjoy!



Wenkchemna Peaks Reflected in Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
Adam Jones



Colorful Way
Philippe Sainte-Laudy



Female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird Feeding on Flower
Adam Jones


A Loon Chick Rides Piggy-Back on its Parent
Michael S. Quinton




A Channel Billed Toucan, Ramphastos Vitellinus, Eating Fruit
George Grall




Mountain Lion and an Eight-Week-Old Kitten





Swift River with Aspen and Maple Trees in the White Mountains, New Hampshire
Darrell Gulin




Beach and Palm Trees, Oahu, HI
Bill Romerhaus




Dawn Over Mountains and Lago Pehoe in Torres Del Paine National Park
Beth Wald




A Male Magellanic Woodpecker, Torres Del Paine National Park, Patagonia, Chile
Marco Simoni




Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus Mocinno), Costa Rica
Gregory Basco


Tropical Underwater-Ocean




Sand Verbena and Dune Primrose Wildflowers at Sunset, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California
Christopher ...




Barn Owl
Andy Harmer




California, Sequoia National Park, General Sherman Tree, USA
Michele Falzone




Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock, Crescent Beach, Ecola State Park, Oregon, USA
Jamie & Judy...




Iguazu Waterfalls and Rainbow
Joseph Sohm

Citizen Science Books to Help You Make a Difference

Citizen science is an exciting topic in this day-and-age. People other than trained scientists can contribute to science and nature conservation and help to make a difference! Here are some excellent books that will guide you in your efforts along these lines. 

Citizen Science: Public Participation in Environmental Research
From Brand: Comstock Publishing Associates

Description

Citizen science enlists members of the public to make and record useful observations, such as counting birds in their backyards, watching for the first budding leaf in spring, or measuring local snowfall. The large numbers of volunteers who participate in projects such as Project FeederWatch or Project BudBurst collect valuable research data, which, when pooled together, create an enormous body of scientific data on a vast geographic scale. In return, such projects aim to increase participants' connections to science, place, and nature, while supporting science literacy and environmental stewardship. In Citizen Science, experts from a variety of disciplines—including scientists and education specialists working at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where many large citizen science programs use birds as proxies for biodiversity—share their experiences of creating and implementing successful citizen science projects, primarily those that use massive data sets gathered by citizen scientists to better understand the impact of environmental change.

Customer Review

5 stars

covers the basics very well 

By ephemeral

Citizen Science: Public Participation in Environmental Research is a collection of articles put together by the folks at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which is one of the hotbeds of citizen science activity in the US. As the title indicates, the book focuses on environmental (primarily biological) citizen science projects, but many of the key concepts are still relevant to people using citizen science in other fields. About half of the authors are from Cornell, so there is a definite species bias, but there are examples from plant and insect projects as well.

The book is divided into three parts:
-The Practice of Citizen Science describes the basics of what citizen science is and how it works, as well as providing some nice examples of how successful projects are run.
-Impacts of Citizen Science on Conservation Research discusses the role and potential roles for citizen science projects in legitimate conservation work.
-Educational, Social, and Behavioral Aspects of Citizen Science covers the benefits of citizen science outside of the traditional goal of collecting more data for large scale projects.

All told, this is a well written and extremely well edited book. The topic is very narrow, but I think anyone interested in citizen science (educators, scientists, volunteers) would benefit from reading it.

The Incidental Steward: Reflections on Citizen Science
By Akiko Busch

Description

A search for a radio-tagged Indiana bat roosting in the woods behind her house in New York's Hudson Valley led Akiko Busch to assorted other encounters with the natural world - local ecological monitoring projects, community-organized cleanup efforts, and data-driven citizen science research. Whether pulling up water chestnuts in the Hudson River, measuring beds of submerged aquatic vegetation, or searching out vernal pools, all illuminated the role of ordinary citizens as stewards of place. In this elegantly written book, Busch highlights factors that distinguish twenty-first-century citizen scientists from traditional amateur naturalists: a greater sense of urgency, helpful new technologies, and the expanded possibilities of crowdsourcing. The observations here look both to precisely recorded data sheets and to the impressionistic marginalia, scribbled asides, and byways that often attend such unpredictable outings. While not a primer on the prescribed protocols of citizen science, the book combines vivid natural history, a deep sense of place, and reflection about our changing world. Musing on the expanding potential of citizen science, the author celebrates today's renewed volunteerism and the opportunities it offers for regaining a deep sense of connection to place.

Editorial Review

"'Sensuously lush and thought-provoking chronicles... This is a beautiful and incisive affirmation of how "full engagement with the natural world enriches the human experience".' (Donna Seaman, Booklist, starred review)"

Customer Review

5 stars

A wonderful place to start

By Ann Klefstad

Akiko Busch has written a deeply researched and personally experienced account of what ordinary people can do to advance both scientific knowledge of the natural world and its preservation. In vivid, spare writing she accounts for the both the difficulties of perception in a realm that is new to one and the rewards of training that perception. Her appendix listing various citizen science initiatives is invaluable, and the bibliography is also of great use. A wonderful book.

Be the Change: Saving the World with Citizen Science
By Chandra Clarke

Description

Can You Save The World?

It’s so easy to be overwhelmed by everything that is wrong in the world. In 2010, there were 660,000 deaths from malaria. Dire predictions about climate change suggest that sea levels could rise enough to submerge both Los Angeles and London by 2100. Bees are dying, not by the thousands but by the millions. 

But what can you do? You’re just one person, right? The good news is that you *can* do something. 

It’s called citizen science, and it’s a way for ordinary people like you and me to do real, honest-to-goodness, help-answer-the-big-questions science. 

This book introduces you to a world in which it is possible to go on a wildlife survey in a national park, install software on your computer to search for a cure for cancer, have your smartphone log the sound pollution in your city, transcribe ancient Greek scrolls, or sift through the dirt from a site where a mastodon died 11,000 years ago—even if you never finished high school. 

Part I of Be the Change: Saving the World with Citizen Science will show you what citizen science is, how important it is, and why we need more of it. You will also find out how it can personally benefit you, how you can get involved, and what it might mean to you if you did. 

Part II provides a large list of projects that you can join right now, concisely explained, and organized by the level of involvement required. 

Citizen science is fun, it's easy, and you can get started today. Be the Change: Saving the World with Citizen Science will show you how.

Customer Review

5 stars

Ways that the average citizen can help advance scientific research and change the world

By Charles Ashbacher

There have been many dramatic changes in society as a consequence of the development and continued function of the internet and World Wide Web in combination with the widespread use of computers. One that could be the most significant is the ability for ordinary citizens to become involved in scientific projects. Over the years I have been heavily involved in two distributed computing projects, the SETI@Home and the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search. In both of these projects, the contributor downloads the software to their computer and then downloads specific work files. The computer will then examine the data on background and then report the results and acquire a new work file when the processing is complete.
There are many projects that the citizen can work on and not all of them require the heavy use of processing. A list of the current projects along with statements of philosophy is available on the Citizen Science Center website. This book briefly touches on these points and gives the ways in which a citizen can contribute, from donating to fund organizations and research, to having your computer process data files to using your eyes to examine images to gathering data in the field and serving as a test subject. A large number of projects are available for participation and it is a way for the average person to be a part of something that could have significant positive consequences for the world.

I strongly recommend this book and the Citizen Science Center website for people that want to help the advancement of science but don't feel that they have the skills to do so. As can be seen from these two resources, if you can connect to the web, you can contribute. With so many projects available, you will find something that you are interested in.

I certainly hope that this gets you on the road to contribution in this wonderful and rewarding arena. If you participate in a project, feel free to come back and leave a comment so others can hear about your rewarding experience!

Here is a citizen science article for birders:

Citizen Scientist - Reporting Leg Flags

Strikingly Beautiful Birds - Cardinals

It seems appropriate to start a post on this special and beloved bird with a poem. Here is the first stanza of a poem by William Davis Gallagher written in the 19th century.

The Cardinal Bird

A day and then a week passed by:
  The redbird hanging from the sill
Sang not; and all were wondering why
It was so still—
When one bright morning, loud and clear,
Its whistle smote my drowsy ear,
Ten times repeated, till the sound
Filled every echoing niche around;
And all things earliest loved by me,—
The bird, the brook, the flower, the tree,—
Came back again, as thus I heard
    The cardinal bird.

- See more at: http://allpoetry.com/The-Cardinal-Bird#sthash.4xnbsY2t.dpuf

Now some beautiful pictures of Cardinals - keep the poem in the back of your mind as you view these images beginning with Audubon and the Northern Cardinal of North America.


Audubon: Cardinal
John James Audubon






Female Northern Cardinal in Snowy Pine Tree
Adam Jones







Male Cardinal With Wings Spread
Wendy Kaveney





Red Crested Cardinal
F.w. Frohawk





Dominican Cardinal
F.w. Frohawk





Green Cardinal
F.w. Frohawk





Yellow Billed Cardinal
F.w. Frohawk







Northern Cardinal Female on Snowy Ground
Tom Vezo/Minden...





A Touch of Red
Kevin Daniel







Male Northern Cardinal among Crabapple Blossoms
Adam Jones