The nature journaling books I return to most are the ones that make me want to look more closely at the world around me, not simply make prettier sketchbook pages. Some focus heavily on drawing, while others combine observation, writing, science, curiosity, and time outdoors.
I’ve collected a small shelf of these books over the years. I use some when I want help drawing a particular subject, such as birds, while others are better when I need a reason to slow down, go outside, and start noticing again.
If you’re new to nature journaling, you don’t need all of them. The guide below explains what I think each book is particularly useful for so you can choose one that matches the way you want to journal.
My Favorite Nature Journaling Books at a Glance
| Book | Best for |
|---|---|
| The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling | Best all-around guide to observation and drawing |
| The Curious Nature Guide | Curiosity and short observational exercises |
| Drawn to Nature | Reflective and personal nature journaling |
| A Field Guide to Nature Journaling | Building a regular field-journaling practice |
| The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds | Drawing and observing birds |
| How to Look at a Bird | Learning to notice behavior and details |
| Keeping a Nature Journal | Developing an ongoing journal habit |
| How to Teach Nature Journaling | Sharing nature observation with others |
| The Backyard Bird Chronicles | Bird observation close to home |
| The Nature Connection | Prompts and activities for connecting with nature |
1. The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling
Best for: learning to observe and draw nature.
The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling is the book I’d start with if you want nature journaling to involve serious observation and drawing rather than simply decorating pages.
What I appreciate most is the idea of drawing as a way of understanding something. Instead of treating the finished illustration as the only goal, the book encourages questions, comparison, observation, and drawing directly from what is in front of you.
That fits naturally with the way I like to draw. I start by looking for larger shapes created by light, shadow, and form, then work toward the smaller details I notice.
If I were choosing only one general book from this list, this would be one of my strongest starting points.
2. The Curious Nature Guide
Best for: getting outside and paying attention again.
The Curious Nature Guide feels different from a traditional drawing instruction book.
Its strength for me is the way it encourages small acts of observation. You can pick it up when you have a short amount of time, take an idea outside, and use it as a reason to look at something more carefully.
That makes it especially useful when nature journaling starts feeling like another project you need to complete. Not every session needs to produce a finished spread.
3. Drawn to Nature
Best for: a more personal and reflective journal.
Drawn to Nature reminds me that a nature journal doesn’t have to be a collection of scientific-looking field studies.
The page can also hold memories, written observations, moods, imperfect sketches, and reactions to a particular place.
I like that perspective because it gives the journal room to become personal. Sometimes drawing dominates a page. Sometimes writing does. Sometimes a quick mark or color is enough to preserve what I noticed.
4. A Field Guide to Nature Journaling
Best for: turning occasional nature sketches into a practice.
A Field Guide to Nature Journaling is useful when the challenge isn’t finding something interesting outdoors but figuring out what to do once the journal is open.
I like books that reduce the pressure to create a polished page every time. Nature journaling becomes much easier to maintain when notes, questions, quick sketches, shapes, color swatches, and more involved drawings can all belong in the same book.
5. The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds
Best for: anyone who wants to draw birds in a nature journal.
If birds are one of your main subjects, The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds goes much deeper into the subject than a general nature-journaling book can.
Birds are difficult because posture, proportions, feathers, and movement can change extremely quickly. A bird also rarely sits in the exact pose I would choose for a long drawing.
That’s what makes observation particularly important. I find it more useful to understand the major shapes, posture, and relationships within the bird than to chase every feather immediately.
6. How to Look at a Bird
Best for: becoming a better observer of birds.
How to Look at a Bird interests me because drawing well and looking carefully are closely connected.
The more time I spend watching birds, the more small differences start becoming obvious: posture, movement, proportions, behavior, and the shapes that distinguish one bird from another.
Even when I’m not actively drawing, that kind of observation feeds back into the sketches I make later.
7. Keeping a Nature Journal
Best for: making nature journaling a regular habit.
Keeping a Nature Journal reinforces something I think matters more than producing impressive individual pages: returning to the practice.
A nature journal becomes more interesting when it accumulates observations. The same trail, tree, backyard, beach, or patch of ground can look completely different depending on weather, light, season, and time of day.
I like the idea of the journal becoming a record of noticing those changes rather than a portfolio that needs every spread to be successful.
8. How to Teach Nature Journaling
Best for: parents, educators, or anyone sharing nature journaling with a group.
How to Teach Nature Journaling: Curiosity, Wonder, Attention approaches the subject through curiosity rather than making technical drawing skill the barrier to participation.
That’s an approach I find valuable even outside formal teaching. A prompt that gets someone asking questions about what they see can be more useful than telling them exactly what the finished drawing should look like.
If you’re choosing a book specifically because you want activities to use with children, students, family members, or a group, this is the most specialized choice on this list.
9. The Backyard Bird Chronicles
Best for: paying closer attention to birds where you already live.
The Backyard Bird Chronicles is a useful reminder that nature journaling doesn’t require an expedition somewhere dramatic.
Some of the most sustainable subjects are the ones I can return to repeatedly. Birds around a yard, neighborhood, local park, or walking route become more interesting as I start recognizing patterns and changes.
That repeat observation is one of the things I value most about keeping a nature journal.
10. The Nature Connection
Best for: prompts and activities built around interacting with nature.
The Nature Connection combines prompts, seasonal ideas, and activities that encourage more direct interaction with the outdoors.
I like that because a journal doesn’t have to begin with the instruction “draw something.” Sometimes walking, looking, collecting observations, comparing colors, or noticing changes is what eventually gives me something worth putting on the page.
Which Nature Journaling Book Should You Start With?
I would choose based on what is actually stopping you from nature journaling now.
| If you want to… | I’d look at… |
|---|---|
| Learn both drawing and observation | The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling |
| Get curious about ordinary surroundings again | The Curious Nature Guide |
| Make the journal more personal | Drawn to Nature |
| Build a regular journaling habit | A Field Guide to Nature Journaling or Keeping a Nature Journal |
| Concentrate on birds | The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds |
| Share nature journaling with children or groups | How to Teach Nature Journaling |
| Journal close to home | The Backyard Bird Chronicles |
What I Look for in a Nature Journaling Book
The books I find most useful tend to encourage observation rather than giving me a rigid formula for producing a finished drawing.
I especially value books that help with one or more of these things:
- Looking closely. They give me a reason to notice shape, light, behavior, texture, color, or change.
- Asking questions. The journal becomes a place to investigate rather than simply record.
- Drawing from observation. I prefer looking at the actual subject or a useful reference rather than relying on a memorized drawing formula.
- Keeping the barrier to entry low. A useful book should make me want to open my journal, not make the process feel more complicated.
- Connecting art and natural history. I like when drawing helps me understand what I’m seeing rather than existing separately from it.
Nature Journaling Books for Beginners
If you’re completely new to nature journaling, I wouldn’t begin by buying a shelf full of books.
Choose one general guide and use it while actually going outside.
For a drawing-focused start, I’d look first at The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling. If drawing feels secondary and you mainly want something that gets you noticing the outdoors, The Curious Nature Guide may be a more inviting entry point.
The important part is using the book as a reason to observe rather than waiting until you’ve read everything before making the first journal page.
Nature Journaling Is More Than Drawing
Drawing is central to the way I use a nature journal, but I don’t think every page needs to be dominated by a finished sketch.
A page can contain:
- Quick drawings
- Written observations
- Questions
- Color swatches
- Weather notes
- Behavior I noticed
- Comparisons between similar plants or animals
- Small details that caught my attention
That mix is part of what separates nature journaling from simply making finished nature illustrations.
Use Books to Get Outside, Not Stay Inside
The irony of collecting nature journaling books is that eventually I have to close the book and go look at something.
I get the most from these guides when I take one idea from them and use it immediately: study one bird, compare two leaves, make a few color notes, draw a shadow, or write down a question about something I don’t recognize.
That is when the books become useful rather than simply inspirational.
Build the Journal Around Observation
My own approach begins with looking.
I usually start a drawing by finding large shapes created by light, shadow, and form, then work toward the more specific information I notice. I don’t need every sketch to become polished or formulaic.
Nature journaling works particularly well with that mindset because the purpose of the page isn’t only the drawing. The act of observing is part of the result.
If you’re ready to start putting that into practice, continue with my main nature journaling guide. For more practical outdoor drawing, see sketching nature.