National Wildlife Federation (R): Attracting Birds, Butterflies & Other Backyard Wildlife (Creative Homeowner) Paperback – January 1, 2004

This book outlines several topics, one or two pages per topic, such as birdbaths, artificial ponds, etc., various topics that are all relevant, interesting, and just what you want... but it doesn't treat any one topic thoroughly or well enough. Well before I bought this book, I already knew a bit about how to provide habitats to encourage bees (for example). This book only gave a very rough overview of how to create one type of bee environment (how to make tubes to attract mason bees) but didn't even indicate that there are other types of bees (such as bumble bees... honey bees... various other bee species, each of which need their own particular type of home built for them), let alone give guidelines how to attract them. The most important thing, choosing plants that are bird-friendly or bee-friendly or animal-friends, it handles in a very superficial manner. True, it may list a few species of plants, but it hardly gives a comprehensive list. It doesn't say anything about the plants, such as zones, light/shade preference, etc. In summary, if there's anything you want to do, such as choose plants carefully, you'll need to buy another book. Beehouses? Buy another book or scour the internet. Yes, this book will motivate you, will make you feel, how nice it will be to build a butterfly-friendly garden. But it doesn't really give you what you need to do it, besides make you feel good about it. Do you want to build a birdhouse? Scoure the internet or buy another book. The only thing this book is good for, is to tell you the few topics you should start to think about. And that, you can get just by reading the Table of Contents. Oddly, it spends many pages describing home recipes for making bird cakes and patties, out of animal fat and seeds, that you can hang up in your garden -- a sort of Martha Stewart section slipped in the middle of the book there, as though this was the only "specific" information the author had at hand. I would suggest that instead of this, you buy a book that is positively overloaded with info like Degraaf's "Trees, Shrubs, and Vines for Attracting Birds" which lists a page per specie various plants -- start there. Then look up bee boxes on the internet. Etc.

Lots of good, easy tips for bringing wildlife to your yard. We quickly picked up some useful tips that immediately made an impact on the birds we can attract up in ND, but most of this information is available online through internet searches. Still, it's handy to have it compiled in one easy reference source

My father recently took up bird watching and spent most of his Christmas day reading this book.He was amazed at the ideas he had never thought of, and happy at the things he was doing right. Made his Christmas day special.

Very good book, lots of good advice for anyone how wants to encourage wildlife to their garden.

I love this book. Anyone who loves the combination of birdwatching and gardening will love it also. It has wonderful tips on what to do in your garden to bring living things to make your garden much more enjoyable.

The book is useful, very informative and illustrated nicely on the topic. I like the fact that it was a book with alittle more research to it when it was written on the subject matter.

What I like about this book is the proportions that make a good looking, although wild, garden.

Relax and enjoy God's creation as His creatures come to visit your space designed to bring them in. Great photos and ideas to make a joy out of projects to transform your yard into a wildlife zone. Projects for adults and children alike that are inexpensive and fun with great benefits for all.