Exploring Nature in Your Backyard

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Recommendations

Are you interested in our recommendations for books, equipment, and other resources that can help you continue learning about the nature around you, native plants, pollinators, and wildlife? If so, you aren’t alone. This is a topic that we are frequently asked about.

We created this page of recommendations because we wanted to make it easy for you to find those resources. (Just click on the image and it’ll take you to where you can purchase the item.) We’ll be continually adding to our recommendations list, so check back often. Also, if you have a favorite resource that isn’t on this list, please tell us about it so we can check it out too.

Note: Some of the links below are Amazon links and those are affiliate links. Amazon pays us a small commission for purchases made through these links, but it comes at no extra cost to you. All commissions that we receive through these links goes toward producing Backyard Ecology content. We appreciate your support.

Clouded sulphur butterfly drinking nectar from ironweed flowers.

Quick links

App Recommendations

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FloraQuest Northern Tier
By: Alan S. Weakley (🎙️) and the Southeastern Flora Team

FloraQuest Carolinas & Georgia
By: Alan S. Weakley (🎙️) and the Southeastern Flora Team

Merlin
By: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Book Recommendations

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Quick links

Use the quick links below to jump to a specific category of books.

Children’s Books

Creating Pollinator and Wildlife Habitat

Animals

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Bees: An Identification and Native Plant Forage Guide
By: Heather N. Holm (🎙️)

The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North America’s Bees
By: Joseph S. Wilson and Olivia Messinger Carril

Caterpillars of Eastern North America: A Guide to Identification and Natural History
By: David Wagner

Common Bees of Eastern North America
By: Olivia Messinger Carril and Joseph S. Wilson

Field Guide to the Flower Flies of Northeastern North America
By: Jeffrey H Skevington (🎙️), Michelle M. Locke (🎙️), Andrew D. Young, Kevin Moran, William J Crins, and Stephen A. Marshall

Fireflies, Glow-worms, and Lightning Bugs: Identification and Natural History of the Fireflies of the Eastern and Central United States and Canada
By: Lynn Frierson Faust (🎙️)

Kaufman Field Guide to Butterflies of North America
By: Jim P. Brock and Kenn Kaufman

Land Snails of West Virginia
By: Daniel C. Dourson (🎙️)

Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America, 7th Edition
By: Roger Tory Peterson

Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America
By: David Beadle and Seabrooke Leckie

Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians Eastern and Central North America
By: Robert Powell, Roger Conant, and Joseph T. Collins

National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 7th Edition
By: Jonathan Alderfer

A Swift Guide to Butterflies of North America: Second Edition
By: Jeffrey Glassberg

A Tale of Two Broods: The 2024 Emergence of Periodical Cicada Broods XIII and XIX
By: Gene Kritsky (🎙️)

The Warbler Guide
By: Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle

Wasps: Their Biology, Diversity, and Role as Beneficial Insects and Pollinators of Native Plants
By: Heather N. Holm (🎙️)

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Lichens

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Field Guide to the Lichens of Great Smoky Mountains National Park
By: Erin Tripp and James Lendemer (🎙️)

Urban Lichens: A Field Guide for Northeastern North America
By: Jessica L. Allen and James C. Lendemer (🎙️)

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Native Plants

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100 Plants to Feed the Monarch: Create a Healthy Habitat to Sustain North America’s Most Beloved Butterfly
By: The Xerces Society

Flora of the Southeastern U.S.
Alan S. Weakley (🎙️) and the Southeastern Flora Team

Forest Plants of the Southeast and Their Wildlife Uses
By: James H. Miller and Karl V. Miller

Gardening With the Native Plants of Tennessee: The Spirit of Place
By: Margie Hunter

The Gardener’s Guide to Prairie Plants
By: Neil Diboll (🎙️) and Hilary Cox (🎙️)

The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees
By: Douglas W. Tallamy

Trees of Eastern North America
By: Gil Nelson, Christopher J. Earle, and Richard Spellenberg

Wildflowers and Ferns of Kentucky
By: Thomas G. Barnes and S. Wilson Francis

Wildflowers of Mammoth Cave National Park
By: Randy Seymour

Wildflowers of the Atlantic Southeast
By: Laura Cotterman, Damon Waitt, and Alan Weakley (🎙️)

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Creating Pollinator and Wildlife Habitat

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Attract Pollinators and Wildlife to Your Yard: 15 Free and Easy Ways
By: Shannon Trimboli

Attracting Native Pollinators: The Xerces Society Guide, Protecting North America’s Bees and Butterflies
By: The Xerces Society

Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants
By: Douglas W. Tallamy

Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change
By: Larry Weaner (🎙️) and Thomas Christopher

The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden
By: Rick Darke and Douglas W. Tallamy

Native Plants for the Small Yard: Easy, Beautiful Home Gardens that Support Local Ecology
By: Kate Brandes (🎙️) and Lehigh Gap Nature Center

Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard
By: Douglas W. Tallamy

Nature at Your Door, Connecting with the Wild and Green in the Urban and Suburban Landscape
By: Sarah Gagné (🎙️)

Pollinators of Native Plants: Attract, Observe and Identify Pollinators and Beneficial Insects with Native Plants
By: Heather N. Holm (🎙️)

Wetland Drainage, Restoration, and Repair
By: Thomas R. Biebighauser (🎙️)

Wetland Restoration and Construction A Technical Guide
By: Thomas R. Biebighauser (🎙️)

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Children’s Books

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Bugs Don’t Hug: Six-Legged Parents and Their Kids
By: Heather L. Montgomery (🎙️)

Something Rotten: A Fresh Look at Roadkill
By: Heather L. Montgomery (🎙️)

What’s in Your Pocket?: Collecting Nature’s Treasures
By: Heather L. Montgomery (🎙️)

Who Gives a Poop?: Surprising Science from One End to the Other
By: Heather L. Montgomery (🎙️)

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Miscellaneous

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Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
By Robin Wall Kimmerer

Forgotten Grasslands of the South: Natural History and Conservation
By: Reed F. Noss

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
By: Richard Louv

Plants Honey Bees Use in the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys
By: Shannon Trimboli

A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There
By: Aldo Leopold

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Equipment Recommendations

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Rite In The Rain Journal

Vortex Optics Diamondback HD 8×42 Binoculars