National Wildlife Federation Attracting Birds, Butterflies and Backyard Wildlife (National Wildlife Federation)

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 128 pages
• Published by: Creative Homeowner
• Edition: 1st Edition January 1, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1580111505
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1580111508
• Book Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.3 inches
• Weighs: 1.4 pounds

From Publishers Weekly
In this handsome book, Mizejewski, manager of the National Wildlife Federation's Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program, offers a short guide to creating gardens and yards that promote ecological balance and provide natural habitats for a wide variety of wildlifeâ€"birds, butterflies, toads, snakes, bats, bees and necessary predators such as spiders, beetles, owls and hawks. In uncomplicated text accompanied by stunning photographs, he suggests native plants that can be used to attract birds and butterflies and gives simple instructions for family projectsâ€"creating attractive bird feeders and stocking them with food; building nesting boxes for birds, butterflies and bats, and houses for frogs, toads and salamanders; making and maintaining birdbaths, drinking areas, ponds and wetland habitats. The most valuable parts of the book are those in which Mizejewski emphasizes the importance of using native plants to maintain the mutual relationships that plants, animals and other living organisms have developed over the millennia and explains how exotic imports can disrupt this balance. His lists of desirable native plants and undesirable exotics are far from comprehensive, but he directs the reader to Web sites where further information is available. The text is brief, but with its 170 color photos, it provides a good starting point for homeowners who want to create attractive natural habitats. The book concludes with instructions for registering wildlife-friendly gardens with the National Wildlife Federation as official Backyard Wildlife Habitat sites.
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Product Review
"To create your own backyarde habitat, you will need no other guide than this book. It is full of practical ideas, clever projects and delighful photographs."-Valerie Kelsey, President of the National Gardening Association.
-- Review

To create your own backyard habitat, you’ll need no other guide than this book, full of practical ideas, clever projects. -- Valerie Kelsey Ed.D, President, National Gardening Association

Reader Reviews
This book outlines several topics, one or two pages per topic, such as birdbaths, artificial ponds, etc., various topics that are all relevant, interesting, and just what you want... but it doesn't treat any one topic thoroughly or well enough. Well before I bought this book, I already knew a bit about how to provide habitats to encourage bees (for example). This book only gave a very rough overview of how to create one type of bee environment (how to make tubes to attract mason bees) but didn't even indicate that there are other types of bees (such as bumble bees... honey bees... various other bee species, each of which need their own particular type of home built for them), let alone give guidelines how to attract them. The most important thing, choosing plants that are bird-friendly or bee-friendly or animal-friends, it handles in a very superficial manner. True, it may list a few species of plants, but it hardly gives a comprehensive list. It doesn't say anything about the plants, such as zones, light/shade preference, etc. In summary, if there's anything you want to do, such as choose plants carefully, you'll need to buy another book. Beehouses? Buy another book or scour the internet. Yes, this book will motivate you, will make you feel, how nice it will be to build a butterfly-friendly garden. But it doesn't really give you what you need to do it, besides make you feel good about it. Do you want to build a birdhouse? Scoure the internet or buy another book. The only thing this book is good for, is to tell you the few topics you should start to think about. And that, you can get just by reading the Table of Contents. Oddly, it spends many pages describing home recipes for making bird cakes and patties, out of animal fat and seeds, that you can hang up in your garden -- a sort of Martha Stewart section slipped in the middle of the book there, as though this was the only "specific" information the author had at hand. I would suggest that instead of this, you buy a book that is positively overloaded with info like Degraaf's "Trees, Shrubs, and Vines for Attracting Birds" which lists a page per specie various plants -- start there. Then look up bee boxes on the internet. Etc.