Cooking for Birds: Fun Recipes to Entice Birds to your Garden

Diane Ward
Struik, Cape Town, 2004.
Hardcover
ISBN 1 77007 076 1, 180x155mm, 80 pages, ZAR 82.00

The growth of birdwatching as a hobby and interest in South Africa has progressed apace since the 1980s and the last few years have seen more and more publications geared towards attracting new birders to the field and new birds to those birders' gardens. This is obviously one of the latter (although it has a bit of the former as well).

The guide provides practical information on how to set up birdbaths and feeders in your garden in a way that will attract the maximum diversity of species and also ensure that they are not compromised by the attractions. The majority of the book - as the title would suggest - is devoted to preparing a variety of foods that cater for insect-, fruit-, and seed-eating species as well even, as ducks. There is also an interesting section on feeding wild baby birds and I was happy to see that it is introduced with instructions on how to try to ensure the hatchlings are cared for by the parent birds by first returning them to the nest. Thereafter, is a practical section on making your own feeders for all the dietary groups mentioned above.

Something that did jar a little in this book was the illustration by Verne of the various birds. For the most part these are great and there seems to have been an effort to illustrate indigenous bird species, something that is to be commended. Unfortunately, however, this does not extend throughout the book and worst of all includes the cover which leaves the casual browser wondering if the book is aimed at the local market or not (and perhaps then not bothering to investigate further).

It is a great little guide however and its light style, engaging illustrations and practical tips will be of use (and a great Christmas present) to many garden birding enthusiasts across the sub-region and further afield.

-Chris Roche-

Posted: Birds by CC Africa, Date: 23 November 2006