Hummingbirds and Butterflies

by Thompson, Bill, III; Toops, Connie

• ISBN13: 9780618904457
• ISBN10: 061890445X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-04-21
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary

Hummingbirds and butterflies are some of the most beautiful visitors to a backyard, but they can also be some of the most elusive. This second collaboration between the Peterson Field Guide series andBird Watcher's Digestincludes tips on how to attract hummingbirds and butterflies to backyardsand how to identify them once they've arrived. Bill Thompson III and Connie Toops have decades of firsthand experience and have written the book in a fun, lighthearted style, providing both amateur and veteran nature watchers with need-to-know information, including where hummingbirds and butterflies live, what they eat, and the best garden plants to attract them. The species profiles of the 15 most common hummingbirds and 40 most common butterflies serve as a field guide, showing ranges, identifying marks, and preferred habitats. Full-color photographs and detailed drawings make attracting, identifying, and feeding these colorful creatures a snap.

Excerpts

Introduction

Welcome to the buzzing and beautiful world of hummingbirds and
butterflies. These two types of creatures may not be related taxonomically;
after all, hummingbirds are birds, and butterflies are insects.
But to those of us who love them, they are related in several ways.
Hummingbirds and butterflies are experts at flying, they can be quite
colorful in appearance, and they are easily attracted to our yards, gardens,
and even our patios and windowsills.
 This book will help you enhance your enjoyment of hummingbirds
and butterflies, no matter where you live in North America. We will
guide you along the path to attracting more of these delightful creatures
and to identifying them when you see them.
 My coauthor for this book is Connie Toops, a lifelong naturalist,
knowledgeable gardener, talented photographer, and the author of
many books and articles on natural history topics. Connie has a special
interest in gardening for wildlife, so she was the perfect coauthor
for this project. Connie wrote the text for all of the butterfly chapters,
as well as the chapters “Plants for Hummingbirds” and “A Hummer
Garden Plan.” She also contributed many of the photographs in
the book.
 I wrote all of the hummingbird chapters as well as some of the front
and back matter of the book.
We hope you’ll enjoy Hummingbirds and Butterflies, which we’re
proud to contribute as a volume in the legendary Peterson Field
Guide series.
—Bill Thompson III