Recommended bird books, ratings & reviews. Basic, advanced or breeder level avian libraries
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February 1997 Magazine
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February 1997 Magazine
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Topic II - Building a Good Avian Library
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See Building a Good Avian Library II for more books.
This is a newer version of Forshaw's "Parrots of the World". Beautifully illustrated, the text descriptions are not quite as technical as Forshaw's. Illustrations are mostly modeled from museum specimens; therefore, some of the skin colors are off and postures may not be true-to-life. (Tucker) 
This is the bible that your Avian Veterinarian uses. Written as a textbook for veterinarians, it assumes that a person has had all the undergraduate courses in medicine. But, many parts can be used without a sophisticated lab or advanced degrees. Worth having for the section on Neonatal Care alone. If it saves the life of one parrot baby, it will have paid for itself. I use post-it notes to flag the pages that I may need in a hurry. (Tucker).For veterinary use or breeders with experienced ornithology background.
Excellent reference book for veterinary use, covers chapters on Internal Medicine, Diseases, Surgery and other related topics. Wouldn't come home without it! Many contributing top veterinarians in North America. (Longo). The 1994, New Edition has a handy quick-reference guide of
symptoms (signs) in the inside front cover. IMHO, this is one of the better bird-vet books. The chapter on behavior is written by Chris Davis, which demonstrates that Gallerstein knows where his expertise stops. I find this a most commendable trait. (Tucker) Gary A. Gallerstein pretty much covers the topics of bird care, first aid, health and medicine and a lot more which would be very useful and great to have on hand in case of any emergency. I rated this book four out of four feathers and think this should be an addition to any library collection. It features two topics which should be seen more often in other publications covering "The Loss of a Pet Bird" and "Weights and Measures". (Longo)
A good beginner's guideline for a general reference. This book is a pleasure to read and covers pretty much all the basics the first time parrot owner should know about. A few of these chapters includes nutrition, grooming and a special Q&A chapter. I rated this book three feathers out of four and thought it was well laid out for the beginner and intermediate parrot owner. (Longo) This is one of the few avian veterinarians who is actually conducting studies on avian nutrition. His diet study using Quaker Parrots first raised the alarm about excess protein in bird diets. Myths are debunked. Dr. Murphy's instructions on diet, housing and behavior are easy-to-read. Reasons are given for doing things that make sense. There are no gross pictures. There are no pictures at all. (Tucker) One of the most well covered books on Parrot Behaviour. Mattie covers everything from where your parrot's behaviours are learned to how they get along with children. The reason my rating is missing a feather is because there were a few methods I found that may not be as effective to someone who does not know how to apply them properly and they can lead to negative results.
When I send a parrot home with their new owners I will not let them leave without this book in their hands. I believe it is effective and very easy to follow and have not had any bad stories come back from bird owners who have this book. (Longo) This is a controversial book with a lot of good advice and some advice that could be very bad in the wrong hands or with some birds. Her method of toweling and grooming is excellent. It is totally non-traumatic for the bird and person. We give one of these books to every
pet bird who leaves our house. Required reading before you get one of our babies. Then we discuss it because we don't agree with everything in it. (Tucker)The reason I chose three feathers is because Rosemary Low is one of the pioneers in handraising and breeding parrots and uses a lot of traditional but accurate methods. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, but I feel we as readers should be provided with the most current and accurate methods. Overall an excellent reference manual for handrearing parrots (Longo)Dr. Vriends has written over a hundred books on birds and other
animals, they always seem to keep getting better. This includes accurate records, better methods on handfeeding and raising parrots and other species.(Longo) If there is one behavioural book that should be owned by the experienced pet owner it is this one. This book does not only have to be used for parrots, by the feedback I got from the information these behavioural techniques can be applied to dogs and other animals as well. (Longo) 
The old stereotypes about species behaviour initially turned me off. So many of them are untrue or only partially correct in my experience that I had a hard time getting past this to the good parts. The good parts cover non-aggressive behaviour modification techniques quite well. (Tucker) This book is not as outdated as it seems, info contained inside still holds
very true, couldn't find any false or outdated information. Overall a well laid out reference manual for the first time parrot owner who wishes to learn more about the background of their new friend. (Longo) Has some pretty good information on pet bird care. Chapter on Disease Problems is over 150 pages long - arranged alphabetically by disease. If you know what the problem is, then it's okay. My experience has been that once you can name the problem, the rest is pretty easy. For this reason, I haven't found this section very helpful. Explains many veterinary diagnostic tests. Can certainly save you some time asking questions at the vet's office. (Tucker) This book is more for the advanced and even professional level libraries, it is written more with a veterinarian's perspective in mind. Covers overviews and procedures of what the bird will endure when visiting the veterinarian. Great references for first aid. (Longo) This publication is for the breeders who incubate their eggs and raise their babies from day one. This is a great book on incubating exotic eggs and is a very thorough topic covering everything to do with the artificial incubation of eggs. Mr. Jordan had access to some of the best breeding facilities in the world to obtain his information recorded in this book and it should be well appreciated when reading this title.(Longo) Easy to understand, step-by-step instructions with clear photographs that illustrate what you need to know make this a must for every person who wants to raise baby birds. It's also good reading for anyone who wants to understand how birds develop in the egg. Parrots can no longer
afford the trial and error method of bird breeding. (Tucker) This TFH edition is still the classic guide used to identify parrot species world wide. Concise descriptions of each parrot species and subspecies are given with full-color illustrations of many. General notes on species include specifics of diet, habitat, breeding and behavior where known. While less than four pages of this book deal with parrots in captivity, by learning where and how individual species live in the wild we can improve our care of them. (Tucker) Anyone who plans to breed birds must have this book. Anyone
who wants to finish hand feeding a baby bird needs to read this book first. As a matter of fact, I would recommend that anyone who owns a domestic bred bird read this book in order to understand what does and should go into raising them. (Tucker) If one obtains a bird that is unweaned, this book should be read and followed. Every single topic imagineable from neonatal care up to fledging is looked at in this book. I do not think there is a more complete book on this topic. It is one of my personal bibles. (Longo) Charts, graphs and tables give details on growth and development of many of the large parrots and macaws. A large collection of birds from The Avicultural Breeding and Research Center were used to gather data for various studies compiled into one book. Everything from diets for breeding pairs and neonates to methods for minimizing damage from mate aggression is given.. (Tucker)
Slightly more than half of the 206 bird species highlighted in this book are psittacines. The rest are mainly finches and doves. Expand your horizons painlessly, parrot people. Although some of the text in the book is incomplete or out of date, especially in the treatment of disease and diet sections, this book deserves a place in your library for the beautiful photographs and natural history notes on many species. There is a lot of information packed into this compact book. (Tucker)A pet bird ezine, pet bird e-zine, for pet parrots & exotic birds. Cockatoo parrot picture courtesy of Glasgow Enterprises
Articles on the care & breeding of pet birds, pet parrots & exotic birds
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