Why don’t baby pigeons waddle behind their parents like ducklings? What’s that business about storks delivering babies? And how do cactus wrens outfit their nests with air conditioning? BirdNote is a compilation of the odd but intriguing questions that anyone who shares space with our feathered counterparts has likely pondered. Adapted from a radio show that features two-minute stories on avian life, BirdNote pairs short anecdotes with Emily Poole’s imaginatively spunky full-color illustrations.
This is not your standard pocket birding book; it’s filled with rich connections revealing how birds fit into our culture. And it’s equally rich in often-humorous trivia: One Western raptor’s image, for example, appears to be etched onto Attila the Hun’s helmet. And we’d love to meet the fun-loving bird that so urgently demands, “Quick! Three Beers!” when it calls. In BirdNote, readers get an intimate glimpse into the interactions and relationships that birds have with their environment and each other.
BirdNote: Chirps, Quirks, and Stories of 100 Birds from the Popular Radio Show,
Edited by Ellen Blackstone
Hardcover, 224 pages; $22.95.
Sasquatch Books Seattle, 2018.
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This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The pocket birding book gets a makeover.
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