Sarah Kaizar and A. Scott Meiser’s “Rare Air” focuses on endangered birds as well as bats, bees and butterflies.

Two Northwest publishers have each brought out a book about our feathered friends recently.

Portland-based Timber Press has published “Best Little Book of Birds: The Cascade Range and Columbia River Gorge.” This is a follow-up to author Sarah Swanson’s “Best Little Book of Birds: The Oregon Coast.”

A lifelong Oregonian and a Portland Audubon staff member, Swanson developed this reference for birding throughout the Cascade Mountains in both Oregon and Washington state, with a focus on the Columbia River Gorge.

She begins with a brief discussion of the difficulties birds are facing in the region. We’ve long known that logging and wildfire have threatened bird populations. Now climate change has intensified the latter danger and introduced other challenges.

“It may seem overwhelming, but there are many things we can do as birders to live our values while working on larger societal changes,” Swanson writes.

This guide contains descriptions of 141 birds, ranging from coots and loons to hawks and hummingbirds.

Each bird species is given a two-page spread. Full-color photos may display the difference in male and female plumage, or show in-flight characteristics that will help when trying to identify birds in the field.

Each entry also includes brief notes on the species’ habitat and behavior, sites where the bird is likely to be found, songs and calls the bird produces and more.

This guide is compact enough to tuck in your backpack the next time you hit the trail.

Seattle’s Skipstone Press also has published a book that emphasizes the need for increased conservation efforts for winged creatures of all sorts. In “Rare Air,” illustrator and author Sarah Kaizar has teamed up with writer A. Scott Meiser to focus not only on endangered birds but also on similarly imperiled bats, butterflies and bees.

The 50th anniversary of the enactment of the Endangered Species Act was celebrated just a few weeks ago, but this timely book reminds us that there is much work yet to be done. Kaizar notes that the Endangered Species Act listing is a long and arduous process, and many wildlife species remain unprotected and threatened to this day.

She provides biologically accurate pen and ink sketches of 66 winged creatures that are endangered — these are beautifully rendered, but perhaps less helpful than a photograph for field identification.

Each entry also includes a compelling natural history by Meiser that describes the particular challenges faced by the species.

Few of the creatures spotlighted in this book live in the Pacific Northwest — while we might like to persuade ourselves that fewer species are facing existential threats here, it’s more likely that Kaizar and Meiser, both based in Philadelphia, simply focused on other regions.

Both books urge readers to be proactive in ensuring that the dazzling array of life on our planet does not disappear. Among the options are bird counts, nurdle patrols and buying less plastic.

This week’s books

“Best Little Book of Birds: The Cascade Range and Columbia River Gorge” by Sarah Swanson

Timber Press — 338 pp — $18.99

“Rare Air” by Sarah Kaizar and A. Scott Meiser

Skipstone Books — 152 pp — $18