Canter Bridge

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Two years ago my family and I moved from Costa Rica to Indianapolis. From one of the world’s great bird paradises to an endless succession of corn field bejeweled with a gray ring road.

Or so we thought.

‘Truth be told, America’s Heartland is a great place to live. This extends even to backyard birding. We live across the street from a marvelous park, half of which is kept in forest and meadow. The good folks at the local Wild Birds Unlimited are just a short drive away, which makes running out of saffron seed something less than a tragedy.

And Stan Tekiela’s Birds of Indiana Field Guide is on my den shelf, where it’s stunning photos and one-page-per-bird descriptions provide instant identification when a first-time guest arrives at my feeders. I pair Tekiela’s work with the Peterson Field Guide for this part of the country.

Tekiela’s photos are a stunning complement to Peterson’s drawings. I also appreciate Tekiela’s seasonal habitation map for each bird, which appears in the upper left corner of each description page. Finally, he pulls a ‘birding for dummies’ move that I appreciate by arranging the birds by color. This makes it easier to locate a bird’s identity when all you know is what you see.

This well-done work should be in every Hoosier birder’s home.