Book Review - Bird Love - Princeton University Press

     It seems to me that in these troubled times, with mind-numbing conflicts around the world, and our heads filled with threats from pandemics, tainted water, and other horrors, any book with the word "love" in the title is worthy of our attention!

    Avian love is not restrained by concepts of morality, changeable it must be admitted, that humans hew to, but follows a genetic path evolved over geologic time to reproductive success . We too are animals, with similar, often hard to control hormonal impulses, and some of the behaviours between our two species hold up to comparison - even those we are reluctant to admit to! 
     Wenfei Tong has done an admirable job of navigating us through the vagaries of avian reproductive strategies, with biological facts where necessary. The text flows from chapter to chapter like a well-organized essay. There is no one who will find this work difficult reading yet the information is precise and succinct, without the encumbrance of arcane terminology.
     I must confess that I was surprised that she used lower case throughout for the names of the birds, rather than the generally accepted practice of capitalizing common names for clarity, e.g. Little Egret, not little egret, Great Blue Heron not great blue heron. Initially I thought this might reflect an editorial decision by Princeton University Press, but I checked other works published by Princeton and the capitalizing convention is followed (see, for example, Birds of Prey, Wheeler; Gulls of the World, Olsen).
     Furthermore, scientific names are not given at all, the ultimate safeguard of accuracy it seems to me, when different common names are used in different regions of the world. Tong goes to pains to point out that sand martin is known as bank swallow in North America, whereas had she simply pointed out that it is Riparia riparia it would have been instantly clear. On page 77, due to sloppy editing I assume, sandmartin is run together as one word, so now one has the disconcerting practice of not capitalizing common names, no scientific name and the name presented as both sand martin and sandmartin.
     On page 79, the section entitled "Nests as Signals" begins. The text covering Black Kites is accompanied by a wonderful image of a well-bedecked nest; the narrative about White Storks is complemented by a gorgeous photograph of a pair nesting in Morocco. Text and picture align for Black-billed Magpie, but the description of the nesting practices of Marsh Wrens is illustrated by a picture of a Black Wheatear! Clearly the editing rigour in this book leaves a little to be desired.
     Despite these gaffes, the book has much to offer, especially for those unfamiliar with avian mating systems and the role that different reproductive strategies play in the perpetuation of species. It covers all the permutations that occur. The text is easy to read and the illustrations are superb. I thought that the bibliography was a little sparse (only nine books with just six lead authors), other than for journal articles which are often not readily accessible to the general reader. I have several volumes on my shelf that I would have included as highly desirable reading on the topic. 
     The book left me with the feeling I have when finding a hair in a bowl of delicious French onion soup - suddenly it doesn't taste quite as good any more.

Bird Love: The Family Life of Birds
Wenfei Tong
Hardcover - US$29.95 - 9780691188843 - 192 pages - 220+ colour photographs, 7 black-and-white illustrations, 2 maps - 8 in. x 10 in.
Publication date: 10 March 2020