In 1983, Mike O'Connor opened the Bird Watcher's General Store on Cape
Cod, which might well have been the first store devoted solely to
birding in the United States. Since that time he has answered thousands
of questions about birds, both at his store and while walking down the
aisles of the supermarket. The questions have ranged from inquiries
about individual species (Are flamingos really real?) to what and when
to feed birds (Should I bring in my feeders for the summer?) to the
down-and-dirty specifics of backyard birding (Why are the birds dropping
poop in my pool?). Answering the questions has been easy; keeping a
straight face has been hard.
Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches? is the solution for the beginning
birder who already has a book that explains the slight variation between
Common Ground-Doves and Ruddy Ground-Doves but who is really much more
interested in why birds sing at 4:30 A.M. instead of 7:00 A.M., or
whether it's okay to feed bread to birds, or how birds rediscover your
feeders so quickly when you've just filled them after a long vacation.
Or, for that matter, whether flamingos are really real.