The Book of Birds : A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss

This is a field guide reimagined for a new generation of nature lovers—one that asks not "What is that bird?" but "Who is that bird?" A great thinning of the skies is underway. Around 50% of bird species are in decline worldwide, and our dawns and springs grow quieter each year. An almost unimaginable abundance has been lost. But we will not save what we do not love. The Book of Birds is a compendium of forty-nine declining or endangered species found in Britain, from Avocet to Yellowhammer. With lyrical precision and playfulness, Robert Macfarlane evokes each bird's habits and habitats—their patterns of flight and song, how they hunt and nest, the stories and myths that attend them, and how their wild lives intersect with our own. On every page, Jackie Morris's exhilarating watercolour and gold artwork brings these birds to life with extraordinary attention to detail. The book is organized around seven sections celebrating the 'Seven Wonders' of Bird: Nest, Egg, Beak, Song, Feather, Flight and Migration. Seven years in the making, The Book of Birds is a love letter to the splendours and mysteries of birdlife, and a clarion call to halt the loss of birds from land, sea and sky. This is a book to be treasured by bird-lovers of all ages, and a future classic work of reference.