Audubon Birdhouse Book: Building, Placing, and Maintaining Great Homes for Great Birds

Margaret A. Barker, a Chesapeake Bay–area writer and educator, grew up watching feeder birds in East Tennessee thanks to her bird-loving mother and grandmother. Covering environmental stories during a broadcast journalism career in the southeast, including at WGST, Atlanta, led to an MS degree via the Audubon Expedition Institute and an internship with Audubon’s Washington, DC, office. She managed the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Project FeederWatch and later the Kids Growing Food school garden program for Cornell’s Department of Education. She writes for newspapers and magazines, and she is co-author of Audubon Birding Adventures for Kids, the Audubon Birdhouse Book, The FeederWatcher’s Guide to Bird Feeding, and Feeding Wild Birds in America.Elissa Wolfson has written and edited numer­ous environmental, botanical, ornithological, and veterinary publications. After graduating from Cornell University, she worked as an environmental educa­tor for a decade, earned an MS degree, and transitioned into environmental journalism. Her clients include the National Audubon Society and Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology and College of Veterinary Medicine. She is former editor of E, The Environmental Magazine, and Cornell Plantations Magazine, current editor of Rationality and Society, author of 101 Cool Games for Cool Cats, and co-author of Audubon Birding Adventures for Kids, the Audubon Birdhouse Book, and the American Museum of Natural History Pocket Birds of North America, Eastern and Western Regions.Chris Willett is a craftsman and contractor in upstate New York, specializing in green building techniques, energy efficiency, and solar technologies. His academic work in environmental studies has included researching the effects of avian malaria on native Hawaiian bird populations, working to protect and preserve the endangered Marianas Crow's habitat in the Northern Marianas Islands, and banding raptors throughout New York State. He is currently developing a new business, Bird Brain Bungalows, in order to create ecologically sound, creative, and efficient habitats and homes for many avian species as well as flying mammals and honey bees.Stephen Kress, author of The Audubon Society Guide to Attracting Birds, is vice-president for bird conservation for the National Audubon Society and director of the Hog Island Audubon Camp. He also teaches a popular birding course at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. As director of Audubon's Project Puffin, he has restored puffins and other rare and endangered seabirds to islands on the Maine coast and other locations worldwide. Taking his interest in bird restoration to backyards and larger habitats, he has developed methods for creating bird-friendly habitats using nest boxes made with native plants.