Category Archives: Review

Review – “The World’s Rarest Birds”

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Terry| Leave a comment

The World's Rarest BirdsThere are books that are a struggle to get through, books that are forgotten the moment the last page is read.  There are the rare books that you may read cover-to-cover multiple times.  There’s another class of books that to me truly fit under the category of “coffee table book”, books that you will occasionally pick up and casually browse through.

“The World’s Rarest Birds” by Erik Hirschfeld, Andy Swash, and Robert Still, squarely fits in the last category.  The World’s Rarest Birds is a follow on project to the “Rare Birds Yearbooks“, publications that highlighted the 190 most threatened birds in the world, those considered to be “critically endangered”.  The World’s Rarest Birds is an effort to expand on the idea of the Rare Birds Yearbooks. The book is based on the periodic assessments by BirdLife International and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), assessments that provide summaries of the world’s bird species and their conservation status.  This book highlights critically endangered and endangered species from the May 2012 assessment, as well as a number of species whose status is poorly known, for a total of just over 600 species.

The book’s format is very straightforward, with introductory segments that talk about the concept of the book and the specific threats faced by bird species.  The majority of the book, however, is devoted to “regional directories”, sections devoted to summaries of endangered bird species from each of the continents and Oceania. Each species has a paragraph that describes the species, its range, and conservation threats.  Distribution maps are included for each species, and most of the species have corresponding photographs.

And what photographs they are! As a bird photographer, I can certainly appreciate a good bird photograph, and understand the tremendous effort that must go into capturing high-quality photos of the world’s rarest bird species.  The book is a true delight to page through, with the small photos accompanying most of the species accounts interspersed with large, gorgeous, full- or partial-page photographs.

This isn’t a book that you’ll sit down with and read cover-to-cover.  While the regional presentation does attempt to help maintain a semblance of a “story” to the book, it does indeed fit the category of “coffee table book”, one that you’ll keep in a handy spot and reference from time to time, a book you can page through and enjoy with a cup of coffee or while you watch TV.  The World’s Rarest Birds is book you’ll be glad to own, particularly if you have an interest in bird conservation and enjoy high-quality nature photography.

Posted in Birds, Ecosystems at Risk, Review

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Review: “Rare Birds” by Elizabeth Gehrman

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Terry| Leave a comment
Rare Birds - By Elizabeth Gehrman

Rare birds indeed, with an incredible story of both the Bermuda Petrel, as well as the man who devoted his life to saving the species, David Wingate.

I’m, in many ways I guess, what people think of when they think of a “scientist”.  Socially awkward?  Check.  More at home with my work than with people?  Check.  More at home in the field and out with nature than with people?  Check.  Kind of like Sheldon from “The Big Bang Theory”?  Well no, not that bad, but you get the idea.  I’ve also never been a “hero worshipper” of any kind.  I just don’t care that much about reputation.  I don’t care that much about the scientist himself.  It is the science I’m interested in.  Because of my nature, I was a little surprised at how I reacted to a book I just completed.

The book is “Rare Birds: The extraordinary tale of the Bermuda Petrel and the man who brought it back from extinction”, by Elizabeth Gehrman.  A book about a rare bird? I knew I’d love that part of it. As an avid birder, I knew a bit about the Bermuda Petrel, so was looking forward to reading a detailed account of the species.  Given my personality, what I didn’t know is how much I would enjoy the story of the man who was instrumental in saving the species.

The Bermuda Petrel (also known as a Cahow) was a bird that likely numbered in the millions when explorers first came across Bermuda in the early 1600s.  Due to hunting pressures and introduction of predators on their nesting islands, the species quickly declined, and for a few hundred years (!!!), the species was thought to be extinct.  Many scientists even had begun to doubt that the Bermuda Petrel had ever existed, as a unique species.  In the early 1900s, there were hints that the species had survived, and by the middle of the century, an incredibly small relict population of breeding birds were found on a few tiny islands of Bermuda.  The book is the story of one man, David Wingate, and the plight of the Cahow.

When a twist of fate brought Wingate face-to-face with the first confirmed, live Bermuda Petrel recorded in centuries, he made it his life’s mission to bring the bird back from the brink of extinction.  An exhaustive search of the tiny islands around Bermuda led to the discovery of a mere 7 surviving breeding pairs.  With very little in financial support, the book details Wingate’s tireless efforts to restore Cahow populations.

As expected, I greatly enjoyed the detailed story of restoration efforts.  The book provides a remarkable demonstration of the interconnected nature of ecosystems, and the chain of dependent plant and animal species that contributed to the demise, and to the ultimate restoration, of Cahow populations.  Who would have thought that the reintroduction of Yellow-crowned Night-herons would be necessary to control native land crabs, to control crab foraging on native sedges, to restore better ground habitat on “Nonsuch Island”, the focus of much of the restoration efforts?  The book is a fascinating look at not only the life history of the Cahow, but of the entire ecosystem on which the Cahow depends.

While my appreciation and enjoyment of the natural story of the Cahow was expected, what I didn’t expect was how much I enjoyed the personal story of Wingate himself.  As I said, I’m not a hero worshipper, I’m into the science more than I am into the scientist.  However, I found the presentation of Wingate in the book to be equally as fascinating as the story of the Cahow itself.  The book intersperses narrative accounts of Wingate’s history with quotations from Wingate himself, and quoatations from those around him during this lifelong journey to save the Cahow.  SPOILER ALERT…don’t read the rest of this paragraph if you want to save the story for when you read the book…but the point where I knew I was “falling” for not only the Cahow story, but the story of Wingate himself, was when his beloved wife “Anita” was tragically burned in an accident on the island, and died several days later.  Wingate was obviously every bit the “quirky” scientist, but the book portrays the wonderful relationship with the love of his life, Anita.  As a fellow “quirky scientist” who has always been a bit awkward around people but who (shockingly!!) has my own ‘love-of-my-life’, I more than sympathized with Wingate upon reading the story of Anita’s death.   Given the wonderful writing style of the book, I could almost FEEL Wingate’s pain.

In short, if you’re a naturalist, if you’re a lover of wildlife, if you’re a birder, you’ll love the book for the story of the Cahow.  Even if you don’t traditionally fit into one of these categories, you’ll love the book for not only the story of the Cahow, but for the story of one man’s perseverance and dedication, in the face of incredible personal, social, and political odds.

This book arrived at my house on a Monday, and less than 24 hours after hitting my doorstep, I had completed it.  I strongly recommend picking up a copy.  I can almost guarantee that you too will have a hard time putting it down.

Posted in Birding, Birds, Ecosystems at Risk, Environmental Awareness, Review

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Review: Birds of Hawaii, New Zealand, and the Central and West Pacific

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Terry| Leave a comment
Birds of Hawaii, New Zealand, and the Central and West Pacific

Birds of Hawaii, New Zealand, and the Central and West Pacific, by Ber van Perlo.

I’ve really come to appreciate the breadth and depth of field guides printed through Princeton University Press.  It seems that whenever I have interest in a field guide for a certain area, it’s available.   I have a family vacation coming up to Hawaii, and while I’ve been there once before, it was before I became a birder and photographer.   I should have a little time to bird while we’re there, and was looking to pick up a concise, readily portable guide that I could carry with me while “in the field”.   It wasn’t much of a surprise to find such a guide available through Princeton University Press…”Birds of Hawaii, New Zealand, and the Central and West Pacific” by Ber van Perlo.

If you’re looking for an in-depth tome that provides large illustrations and comprehensive species accounts, this isn’t it.  The book falls under the category of Princeton’s “Illustrated Checklists”, true field guides that provide brief overviews of birds you may encounter, while remaining small and light enough to easily carry in the field.  For my “at home” birding, a more comprehensive (and less portable!) field guide like a Sibley’s or Crossley’s is more to my taste, as they provide a greater number of illustrations and more comprehensive identification keys.  However, I find the Princeton Illustrated Checklists to be a perfect traveling companion when birding far from home, when size and portability are important, and when I’m visiting an area I’m not likely to revisit frequently. 

The Birds of Hawaii, New Zealand, and the Central and West Pacific is indeed a true “field” guide, coming in at around 250 pages, and only 5 x 7 1/2 inches.     For such a compact guide, the amount of information is surprising, as it does cover over 750 species, and provides color illustrations for each.  For a book of this size, the illustrations are necessarily small, but yet van Perlo has managed to provide male, female, and juvenile plumages for nearly all of the covered species.  Accompanying text is also necessarily sparse, but key identifying features are described, as are short summaries of primary habitat.  Range maps are provided for each species, and again, are quite small.  If you’re not familiar with the geography of the islands of the Pacific, the maps can be a bit confusing, but for a birder such as myself who is focused on one specific region, at a glance the guide let me know whether a species was found in the Hawaiian islands. 

As with any compact field guide, shortcuts are necessary for summarizing geographic range, seasonality, and identification keys.   I did find the codes and symbols on the maps and descriptive text a bit confusing at times.  The map symbols in particular are unique and a bit confusing.   In the short species’ specific text, it also seemed like the very short abbreviations for specific geographic regions were unnecessary, given the text and maps pages typically had ample blank space that would have allowed for a richer description.   However, these are very minor nits for a wonderful field guide that any birder should feel comfortable carrying when visiting the islands of the Pacific.

Birds of Hawaii, New Zealand, and the Central and West Pacific is widely available, with a listed price at $29.95.  I thank Princeton University Press for providing a review copy of this guide.

Posted in Birds, Review

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Book Review – “Avian Architecture”

Posted on November 27, 2011 by Terry| Leave a comment

Avian Architecture by Peter GoodfellowI love to pick up bird and birding books for my collection.  When I started birding in 2000, I started with one field guide.  You soon realize that any one field guide has limitations, and so…you pick up another.  When shopping for field guides, other books on birds and birding often catch your eye, and you might pick one up.  It didn’t take long for a small collection of field guides to grow into a more extensive collection of books covering a variety of topics related to birds and birding.  My most recent addition is “Avian Architecture – How Birds Design, Engineer, and Build”, by Peter Goodfellow.

The book primarily covers nest-building, and has a very straightforward and effective structure.  After a very brief forward and introduction, the remainder of the book is simply divided into sections which discuss different nest structures, such as Scrape Nests, Aquatic Nests, Cup-shaped Nests, Mud Nests, etc.  Each chapter also has a simple structure, with an introductory section followed by a “Blueprint” section which provides illustrations on basic nest characteristics.  This is followed by “Materials and Features” section which selects one species, and provides a summary of nesting materials, structural elements, and other features typical for the chapter’s nest category.  This is followed by a short series of individual “Case Studies”, which provide 2-page synopses of nest construction and nest characteristics for several species.

It’s a very simple book structure from which the author doesn’t deviate, but it’s very effective.  By far the most interesting sections of the book for me are the individual case studies.  Have you ever wondered how an Australian Brush Turkey builds a nest and incubates its eggs?  Neither have I!  But the case studies are wonderfully interesting!  Who knew that birds such as this build what amounts to giant compost piles?  Multiple female birds will lay eggs in one giant pile of decomposing plant material, with the heat of the decomposition used to incubate the eggs.  Males will probe the nesting mound to check for temperature, and will rearrange material to ensure a relatively toasty incubation temperature.  Once the young finally hatch 7 weeks later, the young are left completely untended by the parents. 

It is fascinating to read about individual species, how nests are constructed, the functional characteristics of those nests, and how the nests are used to incubate eggs and raise young.  The array of nesting techniques used by birds is simply amazing, from the simple scrape nest of a Killdeer, to the gigantic platform nest of a White Stork, to the intricately woven nest of a Baltimore Oriole.  The book comes in a hardback cover, has a simple structure, a very effective mix of illustrations and photographs, and an appropriate proportion of text vs. graphics.   If I were to provide any significant critique for the book, it is that I found myself wishing for more!   The book is about 150 pages, but I think it would have been just as effective at twice the length, with even more of the fascinating case studies! 

“Avian Architecture” has a cover price of $27.95, and is published by Princeton University Press.  It’s a unique book that I think would be a welcome present for any bird nut on your Christmas list.

Posted in Birds, Review

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