A retired biology professor at the University of Massachusetts, Donald Kroodsma's work on birdsong is legendary; his book The Singing Life of Birds won the 2006 John Burroughs Medal Award. The stories in Birdsong by the Seasons begin with a pileated woodpecker on New Year's Day; as they unfold through the year, Kroodsma discusses limpkins and scrub jays in February in Florida, prairie birds in May, and scarlet tanagers in July, and ends with a chorus of singing birds in Massachusetts just before Christmas. The book includes 2 audio CDs of birdsong recordings.
"Kroodsma can show us both the technical and the magical aspects of birdsong, marveling at it even as he explains it. Birdsong by the Seasons is, like the phenomenon it describes, both an education and a sheer delight."—Kenn Kaufman
