Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. The opinions written are completely honest and my own.

Cute book with funny illustrations. Highly recommended for the adult or child bird lover in your life

Bird Talk is a lighthearted but useful and accurate guide to IDing birds based on the sounds they make collected by Becca Rowland. Released 24th June 2025 by Hachette on their Storey imprint, it's 256 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats.

The author has a wry sense of humor and the book is absolutely full of clever (and accurate!) descriptions of the everyday sounds made by different North American bird species. She covers the common to the rare and each species description is accompanied by delightfully rendered simple (but identifiable) illustrations.

Four stars. Fun and quite useful. It would be a good choice for public or secondary school library, for home use, or for gift giving to a nature-loving friend.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Bird Talk offers a fun twist to learning about birds and the silly sounds they make! Becca’s illustrations and witty descriptions make this a fun and fast read for birders and non-birders alike.

Birding is fun, but sometimes finding creatures who are experts at camouflaging themselves high up in trees and who possess the ability to fly away can be hard. That's where birding by ear comes in. But with so many birds in the world, how do you know which one is singing? Enter Becca Rowland and her social media account which describes birdsongs in ways anyone can understand. Bird Talk puts into to book format what she has been sharing online for years. This delightful book translates bird song from around the world into language a human can understand by comparingit to everyday sounds people are familiar with. It is an easy, enjoyable read sure to delight birders of all levels.

As a bird lover and a self-professed bird nerd, I was excited to read this book! Illustrations, humor, easy and entertaining reading, and information gets four plus stars. I do feel this book would be better if it were divided into regional areas instead of types of birds. Although it's interesting to read about, knowing how to identify a bird that lives in a country that I've never been to and most likely won't ever get to isn't super helpful. Other than that I thoroughly enjoyed it and would put it somewhere around 3.75 Stars if that were an option LOL.

As I've gotten into my mid-thirties, I'm finding myself enamored with learning more about birds. This book is hilarious yet informative. Most bird books have them categorized by location or color, but this one you search by sound to find the bird you're looking for. Love it!

Charmingly illustrated Bird Talk is a delightful book resplendent with comical bird identification descriptions according to the sounds they make. As a twitcher myself, I devour all the bird books I can find. The descriptions here are brief but memorable. There are 10,000 bird species worldwide which means we will never run out of material!

Ever think you hear the sounds of shutters of paparazzi cameras, machine guns, kazoos, tapping a pencil on a table or a squeaky whiteboard in your garden or nature? Chances are you are hearing the great-tailed grackle, shoebill, long-eared owl (they are fairly elusive but I have had the pleasure of seeing a parliament of them huddled together on a branch), yellow rail (also shy but we have a resident one in our nearby marsh), and American kestrel. Of the 101 birds described here, I have had the pleasure of observing many as I live in both North America and Europe. We often hear what sounds exactly like newborn kittens, dragging a stick along a wooden fence and water sprinklers in our garden. Makes sense...they are outdoor sounds...but in our case, they are not what they seem. The loudest bird in the world is highlighted here as well.

This book is clever and relatable. My husband and I happily assign names to "our" birds according to the sounds they make, a beautiful cacophony of countless species especially during the mornings and nights. The sounds are as varied as their sizes and colours. Some give goosebumps, others make us chuckle. This book would be an amusing addition to any bird lover's library.

This book was such fun but caused absolute chaos in my home with the grandchildren trying out the bird calls and trying to identify them by the book. We were also almost thrown out of the local park for the same caper ! Glad they have gone back to school.

A cheerily illustrated and goofy guide to how to spot birds by their calls! I learned about some new birds in this quick read, many of which I'll probably never encounter in my everyday life. I'm not sure if I agree that the birdcall breakdowns are "accurate," as they seem more humorously subjective than super informative. Still, this would make a fun gift for a bird lover!

A fun book which goes through how to identify different bird calls making comparisons to more everyday noises with a good deal of humour. It does deal with popular birds worldwide, but it is mostly focused on North America, there are less examples of birds from other continents.

I like the way this book was presented. I wish it was more balanced in its examples across the world. But I would recommend for the bird lovers from The North American continent.

I was so excited to be given the opportunity to read this book, however, I left feeling disappointed due to not being about to read white text on background the illustrations however were beautiful. If this was a UK based bird book I'd know more of them. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Witty and informational this book is entertaining for both new and experienced birders. Rowland’s stunning drawings paired with comical comparisons are sure to teach readers new bird facts.

I really enjoyed the descriptions of the bird calls ... some were so funny because they were described perfectly in a very clever way! The illustrations are terrific as well. Buy this book for any bird lover you know!

This would be a great book for people who are just getting into the bird world. The book talks about some common bird in North America but also birds around the world you probably never see in person. While I was reading the book, I would highlight the bird on my tablet and use a search engine to hear the actual sound of the bird, which is pretty cool. While listening to the various bird, I would explore more details about the birds life. I loved the illustration and found the descriptions of the birds funny and delightful. Terrific book.

I want to thank Storey Publishing | Storey Publishing, LLC and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book about Birds

"Bird Talk" was a funny, fast-paced read. I appreciate the information about each of the birds, and I had a really fun time looking up the birds and comparing them to the sounds described in the book.

Pretty fun read, even if you're like me and don't have a real connection to or interest in serious birding.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Rowland is incredibly witty and informative as she breaks down various birds and their sounds. I really enjoyed coming home after a stressful day and having a laugh. Also the illustrations are so cute and personable I loved them all.

I loved the colorful illustrations of each bird and of each and the easy to read descriptions of plumage, environment, and anything fun and extra

This is a beautiful book. I appreciated the gorgeous illustrations. The book was centred on American birds rather than UK or European. However there's a bit of an overlap. It's an interesting way of teaching bird calls without listening.

This was a great time! A whistle-stop tour of the birds of the world, categorised by what they sound like. Informative and hilarious at the same time, accompanied by delightful, and punny, illustrations that will make you smile! No need to be a twitcher to have a blast with this book!

This is a fun and quirky book for bird lovers. It includes ten sections with different categories like: “Birds with Unique Sounds”, “Birds That Sound like Other Animals” and “Birds That Sound like Us”. Each section includes a sampling of birds with corresponding sounds from every day life that the bird sounds like. I found myself looking up the birds sounds to see if a Red-breasted Nuthatch really did sound “like a truck beeping as it backs up”, it does. 😂

Fun illustrations accompany each page. Would make a great gift for the bird enthusiasts in your life.

There is a chapter called “It Doesn’t Mean What You Think: Birds with Suggestive Names” so a little adult humor there, in case parents are wondering.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

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