Chapters on ten of the commonest birds that visit backyards and bird feeders are a welcome supplement to the few sentences in field guides. The eleventh chapter gives such a hurried overview of all the rest of the birds that visit us that it adds only a little to the field guides' coverage. But it does add some information. An appendix on food and habitat preferences, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index make the book even more useful.

The ten birds that the book treats thoroughly are: the American robin, the black-capped chickadee, the northern cardinal, the mockingbird, mourning dove, house wren, goldfinch, nuthatch, downy woodpecker, and bluejay. All but one of these are found in our Ontario backyard. ( )