Reviews For Birds & Blooms Magazine

As an avid bird watcher and backyard feeder, I currently subscribe to four various magazines on the subject of our feathered friends. Some bird magazines, like any other subject of a periodical, are obviously designed for the true thorough enthusiast of the topic. Where the publishers assume that for the reader money is no object, and nary a page is turned without yet another colorful AD taking up most of what should be regular features and articles. Birds & Blooms is the definitive example in my opinion of a periodical on the subject of backyard birding and habitats written and designed for everyday, down home regular folks. It is interesting, colorful, easy to read, humorous, and always and ever informative. If you're looking for a travel log of some bird watcher who just got back from a mountain tour of Costa Rica, your looking at the wrong magazine. B&B is made up of articles, memories, and features written on a home spun level that could be easily drawn from the recesses of our own story. Backyard feeding advice and reader contributed pictures of yards, gardens, and home made bird houses make up the bulk of its material. Along with helpful, easy to understand departments that offer a variety of entertainment and valuable advice. I highly recommend B&B as a magazine to just sit back and relax with, and simply enjoy. As a subscriber to many magazines of this nature, its my opinion they don't come any sweeter...

Very colorful photos, informative articles written by subscribers and bird watching nuts like me! Tips on feeding birds, gardening, etc. Extremely informative magazine. Not a page of it wasted. There's as much info in the magazine on "birds" as there is on "blooms" so regardless of your interest, you'll enjoy the publication. I look forward to it every other (bimonthly publication) month and have gleaned a lot of tips on attracting, feeding and identifying birds as well as planting tips for flowers.

I have been reading Birds and Bloom for over 8 years and I find it a delight to comb each page for descriptions of tranquil peace and simplicity. It is a way to focus your attention to something outside of your daily reality and it brings you down to earth and grabs your attention away from those superficial clouds that make up daily life. You know that you should stop and smell the roses once and a while, but while you are at it check out the whole garden and stay for a while. The rest of the world can wait. It doesnt matter if you are an expert gardener or bird watcher, the colorful photos and lively articles will draw the attention of beginers and captivate seasoned agriculturalists from Seattle to Vermont. Beauty is universal. Let the magazine speak for itself.

I had a two year subscription to B & B and plan to renew this year again. I love the pictures of the birds best but both are terrific and have a way of uplifting me. The one picture I remember most was one of a grandmother and a very small child watering flowers together. That's why I recomend Birds and Blooms.

This is a magazine for those of us who appreciate and enjoy nature.

Articles mainly cover everything you could possibly want to know about birds (Hummingbirds, Woodpeckers, Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks and more) and flowers (Sunflowers, Roses, Lantanas and more). Additional articles include gardening, feeders, etc.

Readers are asked to contribute to such regular features as "Bird Tales" (unusual or remarkable stories about birds) and "Backyard Banter" (tips and ideas about yards and landscapes). Readers are also encouraged to submit related photographs to "Readers Scrapbook".

However, the real treat are the exceptional and vivid photographs which showcase nature in all it's beauty and glory.

I genuinely enjoyed the close-up photos of tiny dewdrops on individual blades of grass. Especially the photo of a ladybug within a single drop of dew.

This magazine is well worth your time, if for no other reason than the outstanding photographs.

Recommended:
Yes

At the end of a hard week, how many of us have time to relax? With all of the other things to be done, where is the time to indulge? How about if I knew of a place with beauty beyond description, and all at your fingertips? Birds and Blooms is your answer.
With pages and pages of wonderful pictures, and interesting facts thrown in too. I found I couldn't put the magazine down once I started reading it. And as soon as my children discovered it, it disappeared! When you find something that appeals to different generations and different tastes, you know you have found a winner!


Recommended:
Yes

Birds & Blooms has turned out to be one of my all time favorite magazines. This magazine has everything for the back yard bird watchers and home gardening enthusiasts.

There many different sections everything the backyard hobbyist could be looking for. Such as people seeking advice from other readers,gardening plans, reader submitted photos and even bird house building instructions. There are articles on how to attract wildlife to your yard or keep them at bay.

The photography is stunning. Many of the photos are sent in by subscribers. Everyone is always eager to share their discoveries and how-to tips. It really is a community magazine!

The only flaw is that it is published bi-monthly. However, on the plus side, and this is a big one, there are absolutely no adds. Just pure pleasure from this one!



Recommended:
Yes

Birds & Blooms is somewhat entertaining, but its far too thin and infrequent of a publication to pay this amount for. There isn't a lot of useful information but the photography is pretty good. There are better publications out there for the money.

They used to ban ads, now they fill it up with some "house" ads for travel, etc. Used to be a lot better choice of material, so I'm dropping it. Try Garden Gate for an easy gardening magazine.

Birds and Blooms is one of those magazines that tries to build readership by sending out free copies to people on gardening product mailing lists. I appreciate the free magazines, but to tell the truth, I don't keep any copy of Birds and Blooms away from my recycling bin for longer than a day. Why? The fact is that it only takes me about 15 minutes to read from cover to cover!

Desperately Seeking Content

Birds and Blooms is pathetically thin. Yes, part of the reason for its light weight is that it doesn't go heavy on the advertisements like so many other publications. The problem is, it doesn't go heavy on the content either. It seems that their writers are in dire need of some good organic fertilizer.

Part of the problem is that this little magazine seeks to cover both birds and blooms. By trying to pay attention to both subjects, Birds and Blooms pays respect to neither. If you are a bird lover, join the Audubon Society and get their magazine. If you love gardens, try one of the more meaty gardening magazines you'll find on most newsstands.

Fowl Photography

The photography in Birds and Blooms is acceptable, but not remarkable. Many photographs are sent in from readers, and that's cute, but I've got plenty of pictures like that in my own photo album, so I don't need to see them in a magazine. Perhaps part of the problem is inexpensive paper and ink.

As is the case with most gardening magazines, Birds and Blooms has too many pictures and not enough text. I can go look at beautiful gardens in person whenever I want to. What I seek when I pick up a magazine is information.

Before You Praise It, Compare It

Reading the reviews of this magazine, it occurs to me that most folks who read it just aren't all that experienced with gardening magazines. The fact is that Birds and Blooms is the white bread to the whole wheat loaves of magazines such as Organic Gardening, Garden Design and Horticulture. Heck, if you're a new gardener and you find reading to be a challenge, I'd even suggest Rebecca's Garden.

In Conclusion...

Birds and Blooms is a nice little magazine with very little substance. There's nothing really wrong with it except that there really isn't much to it. This publication would make great inexpensive reading material for children who are interested in gardening and birds, but adult gardeners just won't get that much out of it.


Recommended:
No