Birding promotes patience and compassion, plus you can watch all winter from your own warm nest. So how to hatch a birder of your own?

• Triumph’s sturdy 8x25 compact binoculars ($95, eagleoptics.ca) are the right magnification for beginners.
• With hand-carved bird calls from France (swallow and nightingale, $30 each, Kolkid), children can learn the language of birds.
• Flights of Fancy by Peter Tate (Random House, $26) and Winged Wonders by Peter Watkins and Jonathan Stockland (Bluebridge, $26) are two lovely troves of quirky facts.
• Sing, Nightingale, Sing! by Francoise de Guibert (Kane/Miller, $16) charmingly explains the behaviour of 61 birds, while the enclosed CD soars with 13 piano/bird duets.
• Bird Songs from Around the World by Les Beletsky (Chronicle, $50) trumpets 200 bird calls via built-in digital player.