Join Eldon Spady and his family on seven birding trips around the United States and in Costa Rica. This is a humorous look at birding and birders as well as a family at play. Though some of their trips involved about as much luxury as any true birder can expect, some, in Spady’s words, involved “...places where we were afraid to use the washcloths, where you couldn’t walk on the floor of the dining room without your shoes sticking, where the sheets were adorned with cigarette burns and strange-looking stains, and where the only view was a swimming pool covered with bugs and algae.

“We often had to drive our own tour vehicle, schlep our own luggage, and eat things that looked like cheese-covered armadillos. One restaurant bathroom sported a sign that read Don’t Wash Your Hands, They’re Already Cleaner Than Anything Here!”

In spite of the challenges, at the heart of In Search of the Painted Bunting lies the revelation that family birding trips can be great fun (if you don’t embarrass easily), rewarding, and punctuated with more than enough laughter to last till the next time.