One year, when our now-high school freshman son was back in grade school, the teacher invited us to his class to give a short presentation on birds. At the end, we did a loud “who-cooks-for-you” barred owl imitation and then invited the students to try. Of course, bedlam ensued as 20 or so kids began hooting all at once. But it was great fun, and the kids quieted down quickly enough that we didn’t have any irate visits from teachers in adjoining classrooms. At the end of our visit, we presented each of the children in the class with a copy of our book, “Maine’s Favorite Birds.”

Multiple times in the years after that visit, we have had kids from that class visit tell us that they still have and love their bird book. We always ask them a few bird questions and are delighted to find that they usually know the local birds and they almost always have a few bird stories to tell us.

We created “Maine’s Favorite Birds” because we thought there was a need for a book that could be a simple, attractive, and unimposing introduction to Maine birds for people of all ages. Most bird field guides have hundreds of species to sort through, many of which either do not occur in our area or do so only rarely. Our book shows you the 100 or so birds that you are most likely to see. That can turn a person’s initial encounter with a bird from an experience in frustration to a positive “ah-ha” moment that may change them forever.

One of the things about “Maine’s Favorite Birds” that younger kids seem to really enjoy is the brightly colored illustrations painted for the book by our friend Evan Barbour. Evan’s illustrations show birds in active poises, as if the bird were in the middle of doing something interesting—catching a fish, pecking into a tree, scolding a predator, or swooping down to catch a bug. In fact, one of our favorite aspects of Evan’s paintings is that he often includes some extra surprising details. The belted kingfisher has a fish drooping from its bill. Look carefully at the flycatcher illustration and you’ll find five insects, including one just captured, by an eastern phoebe. The European starlings are clearly sitting on a telephone line—a situation where one often finds starlings, as they are creatures of urban environments.

We have also found that “Maine’s Favorite Birds” is a favorite keepsake for visitors to the state. Memories of listening to and watching a loon on a favorite lake, seeing puffins on a cruise to Eastern Egg Rock, watching a chickadee or a robin from the porch of a cottage or home—all are brought back to life for many people as they thumb through the book from far away, dreaming of their next trip to our incredibly beautiful state.

You can find the book online and at local bookstores and gift shops. We hope that you may find opportunities this holiday season to share a copy with kids and friends as a way to introduce more of them to the amazing world of Maine’s wonderful birds.

Jeffrey V. Wells, Ph.D., is a Fellow of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Dr. Wells is one of the nation's leading bird experts and conservation biologists and author of the “Birder’s Conservation Handbook.” His grandfather, the late John Chase, was a columnist for the Boothbay Register for many years. Allison Childs Wells, formerly of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is a senior director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, a nonprofit membership organization working statewide to protect the nature of Maine. Both are widely published natural history writers and are the authors of the book, “Maine’s Favorite Birds.”