Some holiday gift ideas that support RRBO

In addition to making a donation, you can support RRBO by shopping. Any time you buy any product from Amazon through RRBO, for example, we get a small commission that goes to support our research. You can always find some recommended books and Amazon search box on the "Shop" page of the RRBO web site and on the right sidebar of this blog.

This season, I have a particular book recommendation. It the newest edition of one of our favorite field guides: the newly released National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Sixth Edition. While not the best book for beginning bird watchers (try Peterson's Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America or The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America), the Nat Geo guide is great for coverage of all of North America. Nearly 1,000 species are included, many with new illustrations and excellent maps. You can see examples of both in this interview with the illustrator at BirdWatching Magazine. This will be the first of the major field guides to cover all the recent taxonomic changes as well.

On our "Shop" page you can also find a link to our Cafe Press store, where you can get all sorts of RRBO logo gear, including organic cotton t-shirts, sweat shirts, tote bags, buttons, and more. New products this year include a ceramic/stainless travel mug with the RRBO logo and a hardwood keepsake/knick-knack box with a ceramic photo tile on top featuring a White-throated Sparrow banded here by RRBO. Other bird photos appear on various greeting cards, like this Eastern Bluebird.

We also had a contest on our Facebook page to vote for the bird to appear on the 2012 calendar. The winner was this great Blue-headed Vireo:

Thanks for your support this holiday season!