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The Book of Birds
From the best-selling authors of The Lost Words, a dazzling celebration of endangered birds.
The Book of Birds is a field guide with a difference: It shows readers not just how to identify birds, but also how to identify with them. Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris conjure the unique spirit of nearly fifty once-common species: avocet to yellowhammer, kestrel to kingfisher, skylark to nightingale. In lyrical and incantatory essays, Macfarlane describes each bird’s habits and habitats, their patterns of flight and patterns of song, how they hunt or fish or scavenge or gather, how they nest and raise their chicks, the myths that attend them, the threats that shadow them—and how their lives intersect with our own. On every page we encounter Morris’s exhilarating artwork, painted from life in watercolor and gold leaf, and animated with an extraordinary attention to detail. The Book of Birds is a love letter to the thrilling variety and mysteries of birdlife, and a clarion call to halt the rapid depletion of our skies.
The Book of Birds is a field guide with a difference: It shows readers not just how to identify birds, but also how to identify with them. Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris conjure the unique spirit of nearly fifty once-common species: avocet to yellowhammer, kestrel to kingfisher, skylark to nightingale. In lyrical and incantatory essays, Macfarlane describes each bird’s habits and habitats, their patterns of flight and patterns of song, how they hunt or fish or scavenge or gather, how they nest and raise their chicks, the myths that attend them, the threats that shadow them—and how their lives intersect with our own. On every page we encounter Morris’s exhilarating artwork, painted from life in watercolor and gold leaf, and animated with an extraordinary attention to detail. The Book of Birds is a love letter to the thrilling variety and mysteries of birdlife, and a clarion call to halt the rapid depletion of our skies.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published May 7, 2026
About the author
Robert Macfarlane
126 books4,992 followersRobert Macfarlane is a British nature writer and literary critic.
Educated at Nottingham High School, Pembroke College, Cambridge and Magdalen College, Oxford, he is currently a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and teaches in the Faculty of English at Cambridge.
Robert Macfarlane is the author of prize-winning and bestselling books about landscape, nature, people and place, including Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination (2003), The Wild Places (2007), The Old Ways (2012), Holloway (2013, with Stanley Donwood and Dan Richards), Landmarks (2015), The Lost Words: A Spell Book (with the artist Jackie Morris, 2017) and Underland: A Deep Time Journey (2019). His work has been translated into many languages, won prizes around the world, and his books have been widely adapted for film, television, stage and radio. He has collaborated with artists, film-makers, actors, photographers and musicians, including Hauschka, Willem Dafoe, Karine Polwart and Stanley Donwood. In 2017 he was awarded the EM Forster Prize for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Educated at Nottingham High School, Pembroke College, Cambridge and Magdalen College, Oxford, he is currently a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and teaches in the Faculty of English at Cambridge.
Robert Macfarlane is the author of prize-winning and bestselling books about landscape, nature, people and place, including Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination (2003), The Wild Places (2007), The Old Ways (2012), Holloway (2013, with Stanley Donwood and Dan Richards), Landmarks (2015), The Lost Words: A Spell Book (with the artist Jackie Morris, 2017) and Underland: A Deep Time Journey (2019). His work has been translated into many languages, won prizes around the world, and his books have been widely adapted for film, television, stage and radio. He has collaborated with artists, film-makers, actors, photographers and musicians, including Hauschka, Willem Dafoe, Karine Polwart and Stanley Donwood. In 2017 he was awarded the EM Forster Prize for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 158 reviews
September 13, 2026
This book, written by Robert Macfarlane and illustrated by Jackie Morris, can best be described in one word – magical. It’s a pleasure to read and to hold. It’s a sumptuous feast for the eyes. There are forty-nine bird species included. This is not, however, a basic field guide but rather an ode to birds. Macfarlane’s love for birds and nature in general sings from each essay. Nearly every page contains an exquisite watercolor by Morris. The essays are informative, yes, but they are also poetic. In fact, if you are looking for extensive knowledge about a particular bird, then you would want to pair this with an actual field guide. This book brings about an awareness of the decreasing numbers of birds as well as an even greater appreciation for the beauty of these winged creatures. The Book of Birds, A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss is one to be savored, gifted and owned by any bird lover. I’m going to have a difficult time giving this copy back to my library!
“Absence is harder to track and feel than presence. The ghosts of gone birds fade quickly from memory. Shifting baseline syndrome habituates us to sparser skies. It does not have to be this way – but we will not save what we do not love, and we rarely love what we cannot name. Noticing is the first step to naming; naming the first step to knowing both things and the relations between things. Knowledge may lead to wonder, wonder to care, care to action, action to change. But this is a fragile chain, easily broken – its links must be reforged and rejoined, over and over again.”
“Absence is harder to track and feel than presence. The ghosts of gone birds fade quickly from memory. Shifting baseline syndrome habituates us to sparser skies. It does not have to be this way – but we will not save what we do not love, and we rarely love what we cannot name. Noticing is the first step to naming; naming the first step to knowing both things and the relations between things. Knowledge may lead to wonder, wonder to care, care to action, action to change. But this is a fragile chain, easily broken – its links must be reforged and rejoined, over and over again.”
August 19, 2026
5 🦅 🦅 🦅 🦅 🦅
What a stunning book! Heavy stock pages with attached ribbon to hold your place. Beautiful original watercolor art. Not one for the Kindle, oh no.
Divided into seven sections, the wonders of bird—nest, egg, beak, song, feather, flight, and migration, it was penned with imaginative, poetical prose. Turning the pages, reading the words was such a joy. This “field guide to wonder and loss” delivered what it promised.
What a stunning book! Heavy stock pages with attached ribbon to hold your place. Beautiful original watercolor art. Not one for the Kindle, oh no.
Divided into seven sections, the wonders of bird—nest, egg, beak, song, feather, flight, and migration, it was penned with imaginative, poetical prose. Turning the pages, reading the words was such a joy. This “field guide to wonder and loss” delivered what it promised.
August 26, 2026
What a great gift this would be for a bird lover. It's a strange and wonderful amalgamation of art, poetical prose, scientific fact and myth. Divided into 7 parts describing 7 birds each, we learn about egg, nest, beak, song, feather, flight and migration. From birds of prey to tiny little sparrows, it is filled with wonder.
For goodness sake, buy or borrow a hard copy of this one. An electronic version cannot do it justice.
For goodness sake, buy or borrow a hard copy of this one. An electronic version cannot do it justice.
June 20, 2026
Well, I must admit that with regard to Robert Macfarlane's text and Jackie Morris' artwork for their May 2026 The Book of Birds, I indeed am somewhat and in fact if truth be told more than somewhat conflicted, that I am therefore vacillating between intense reading joy and a frustration that is sometimes even bordering on massive annoyance (and that my average rating of three stars for The Book of Birds is as such and in my humble opinion thus also totally justified and is equally so rather generous on my part).
Yes, Jackie Morris’s meticulously detailed (but also not ever pedantic and visually overly tight) avian paintings for The Book of Birds are with regard to her artistry and her glowingly realistic yet also visually emotional expressiveness absolutely, totally aesthetically spectacular, and that how Morris uses watercolour and gold leaf to bring the featured birds of The Book of Birds gloriously to life, this really and truly does make ALL of the illustrations for The Book of Birds magical and delightful. However, and this having been said, even though I obviously totally visually speaking adore Jackie Morris' exquisite artwork in and for The Book of Birds, sorry, but I also do rather hugely miss there not being any photographs at all of the showcased birds (and that for me, for every species showcased in The Book of Birds, there should be both Morris' illustrations and also at least one accompanying photographic image featured as well, and that while the total absence of avian photographs in and throughout The Book of Birds is not in any way something major, something hugely, massively problematic, this still is at least in my humble opinion somewhat of a visual shortcoming for The Book of Birds).
Now with regard to Robert Macfarlane's text in The Book of Birds, both his writing style and his featured, his presented bird-themed contents are delightfully lyrical and how rather than just teaching avian facts Macfarlane throughout The Book of Birds wonderfully and feelingly asks his readers not just to physically identify forty-nine British birds (and just to point out that not all of these these species occur only in the UK either) but to also and emotionally speaking identify WITH birds, exploring their myths, habitats, nests, songs etc., and with The Book of Birds through this also carrying an important conservation message, mourning the loss (the horrible thinning out) of bird populations while the same time also encouraging readers to love nature enough to protect it. But yes, I do kind of wonder why Robert Macfarlane would in The Book of Birds consider both house sparrows and starlings as being possibly vulnerable, since they are so so numerous worldwide (although maybe Macfarlane is not barking up the wrong proverbial tree here either, since the passenger pigeon was actually in the 19th century considered one of the most abundant species of birds in North America and was sadly extinct by 1914).
But as much as I have massively enjoyed the lyricism of The Book of Birds and equally so hugely appreciate (as well absolutely agree with) the strong conservation message Robert Macfarlane textually shows, there are also some parts of The Book of Birds that tend to make me rather internally growl with frustration and even some minor but still important and necessary anger (not all-encompassingly so, but still, I am most definitely rather annoyed and do stand by my above mentioned three star rating). For one, The Book of Birds is in my opinion rather misleading as a title, since it kind of (and wrongly) assumes that considerably more than forty-nine bird species will be textually covered by Macfarlane and visually accompanied by Jackie Morris (and that I ordered the book because The Book of Birds to me seemed to claim and to indicate a much broader avian scope). For two, The Book of Birds is such a large and such a heavy tome that due to its massive size and lack of portability (and actually also because of its poetic style) The Book of Birds is for me and in my humble opinion not really a bona fide field guide and is of course thus also not really all that useful for actual birdwatching either (for going out into nature book in hand and observing, recoding birds) and that since in The Book of Birds Robert Macfarlane also replaces traditional photographic or rigidly diagrammed identification charts with metaphor, poetry, and with Jackie Morris/ watercolours, this for and to me also makes The Book of Birds pretty much impractical for actual bird identification (and this both while out and about and also at home, inside so to speak, not something massively problematic to be sure, but I do find this quite bothersome since The Book of Birds is also labelled as being a field guide by Macfarlane even though it clearly is not a field guide). And finally, for three (and probably also the main reason why my rating for The Book of Birds is not four but only three stars) sorry, but I absolutely and totally, I massively (and all-encompassingly) despise how majorly unorganised and therefore equally so how ridiculously and horridly user-unfriendly Robert Macfarlane's bibliography for The Book of Birds is and that I for one consider how he is showing his primary and his secondary sources as completely eliminating and destroying any and all supplemental research value of and for The Book of Birds.
Yes, Jackie Morris’s meticulously detailed (but also not ever pedantic and visually overly tight) avian paintings for The Book of Birds are with regard to her artistry and her glowingly realistic yet also visually emotional expressiveness absolutely, totally aesthetically spectacular, and that how Morris uses watercolour and gold leaf to bring the featured birds of The Book of Birds gloriously to life, this really and truly does make ALL of the illustrations for The Book of Birds magical and delightful. However, and this having been said, even though I obviously totally visually speaking adore Jackie Morris' exquisite artwork in and for The Book of Birds, sorry, but I also do rather hugely miss there not being any photographs at all of the showcased birds (and that for me, for every species showcased in The Book of Birds, there should be both Morris' illustrations and also at least one accompanying photographic image featured as well, and that while the total absence of avian photographs in and throughout The Book of Birds is not in any way something major, something hugely, massively problematic, this still is at least in my humble opinion somewhat of a visual shortcoming for The Book of Birds).
Now with regard to Robert Macfarlane's text in The Book of Birds, both his writing style and his featured, his presented bird-themed contents are delightfully lyrical and how rather than just teaching avian facts Macfarlane throughout The Book of Birds wonderfully and feelingly asks his readers not just to physically identify forty-nine British birds (and just to point out that not all of these these species occur only in the UK either) but to also and emotionally speaking identify WITH birds, exploring their myths, habitats, nests, songs etc., and with The Book of Birds through this also carrying an important conservation message, mourning the loss (the horrible thinning out) of bird populations while the same time also encouraging readers to love nature enough to protect it. But yes, I do kind of wonder why Robert Macfarlane would in The Book of Birds consider both house sparrows and starlings as being possibly vulnerable, since they are so so numerous worldwide (although maybe Macfarlane is not barking up the wrong proverbial tree here either, since the passenger pigeon was actually in the 19th century considered one of the most abundant species of birds in North America and was sadly extinct by 1914).
But as much as I have massively enjoyed the lyricism of The Book of Birds and equally so hugely appreciate (as well absolutely agree with) the strong conservation message Robert Macfarlane textually shows, there are also some parts of The Book of Birds that tend to make me rather internally growl with frustration and even some minor but still important and necessary anger (not all-encompassingly so, but still, I am most definitely rather annoyed and do stand by my above mentioned three star rating). For one, The Book of Birds is in my opinion rather misleading as a title, since it kind of (and wrongly) assumes that considerably more than forty-nine bird species will be textually covered by Macfarlane and visually accompanied by Jackie Morris (and that I ordered the book because The Book of Birds to me seemed to claim and to indicate a much broader avian scope). For two, The Book of Birds is such a large and such a heavy tome that due to its massive size and lack of portability (and actually also because of its poetic style) The Book of Birds is for me and in my humble opinion not really a bona fide field guide and is of course thus also not really all that useful for actual birdwatching either (for going out into nature book in hand and observing, recoding birds) and that since in The Book of Birds Robert Macfarlane also replaces traditional photographic or rigidly diagrammed identification charts with metaphor, poetry, and with Jackie Morris/ watercolours, this for and to me also makes The Book of Birds pretty much impractical for actual bird identification (and this both while out and about and also at home, inside so to speak, not something massively problematic to be sure, but I do find this quite bothersome since The Book of Birds is also labelled as being a field guide by Macfarlane even though it clearly is not a field guide). And finally, for three (and probably also the main reason why my rating for The Book of Birds is not four but only three stars) sorry, but I absolutely and totally, I massively (and all-encompassingly) despise how majorly unorganised and therefore equally so how ridiculously and horridly user-unfriendly Robert Macfarlane's bibliography for The Book of Birds is and that I for one consider how he is showing his primary and his secondary sources as completely eliminating and destroying any and all supplemental research value of and for The Book of Birds.
May 11, 2026
If The Lost Words was the size of a processional gospel and The Lost Spells reminded me of a pocket psalter, The Book of Birds has the heft of a study Bible, complete with charts in the back. The sheer yet costly abundance of the project seems to be a tribute of love to the abundance of bird life, an abundance which feels taken for granted as it fades. Macfarlane’s writing is terrific throughout, a prose which is filled with internal rhymes. He said that he tried to match the rhythm of each entry with the bird itself, and that verbal dexterity pays off. This is a book which teaches us to contemplate.
July 13, 2026
While I enjoyed the two Lost Words books, this edges from whimsical into twee (especially when addressing birds directly). It's as if Macfarlane wasn't sure what he wanted to do with it - inform with scientific detail, record personal sightings, charm with poetic engagement, or fire up with environmentalist fervor - so jumbled all the strategies together. This means there are several different books' worth of material, but he doesn't lean into any one element. It makes for an odd mishmash that comes together well in some chapters, notably Osprey, but often doesn't gel. The divisions feel arbitrary, too (Nest, Flight, Song, etc. - most birds exemplify them all). I liked the Moorhen chapter, written as a dating ad, for trying something novel. The volume of Jackie Morris's paintings is impressive more than the detail in some of them: weird proportions, off colours, unusual positioning (rather like Audubon in that way, but she claims to have drawn from life). But you can't argue with their stated aim to give readers intimate introductions to threatened birds.
A favourite passage:
"We call you 'common', Tern - but common things are often the easiest to lose. Lulled by the name, we cease to look, we cease to care, we do not spot the slow decay, we fail to stop the common becoming rare."
A favourite passage:
"We call you 'common', Tern - but common things are often the easiest to lose. Lulled by the name, we cease to look, we cease to care, we do not spot the slow decay, we fail to stop the common becoming rare."
June 9, 2026
If I have never gifted you a Robert Macfarlane book, do I really love you or have you never invited me to your birthday party? Another gem from Macfarlane and Jackie Morris, the team who previously gave us The Lost Words and The Lost Spells, two books I devoured physically because those illustrations are truly emotive, and audibly because all three books have impeccable production. You truly, truly need both physical and audio copies. The Book of Birds gives us actual bird songs. And again, the illustrations are fantastic. These books are deeply spiritual in a way I don't know how to explain. It is the way nature feels truly seen. The noticing feels deep and a bit witchy - in the best way possible. A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss is such a great and telling subtitle. There is awe and grief and hope. If you are following along on my solarpunk reading journey this summer, this is a must read. And for everyone else, it is a gift you give yourself. Thank you to everyone involved and NetGalley for the audioARC. Will I be adding this to my Macfarlane library? Absolutely.
June 10, 2026
The Book of Birds is everything that we bird-y folk love: Information. Illustrations. Beauty. Cleverness. Wonder. And, of course, birds.
It's a book of birds, told in magnificent poetry-prose, depicted with magnificent illustrations.
It's a field guide organized by the most amazing wonders of birds: their nests, their eggs, their beaks, their songs, their feathers, their flights, and their migrations. The book highlights fifty bird species that were once common and are now less so.
If you are already in love with birds, you will come away from this book feeling obsessed with birds.
I lingered over this book for three months. I did not want to get to the end.
It's a book of birds, told in magnificent poetry-prose, depicted with magnificent illustrations.
It's a field guide organized by the most amazing wonders of birds: their nests, their eggs, their beaks, their songs, their feathers, their flights, and their migrations. The book highlights fifty bird species that were once common and are now less so.
If you are already in love with birds, you will come away from this book feeling obsessed with birds.
I lingered over this book for three months. I did not want to get to the end.
June 5, 2026
I'm overwhelmed with the beauty of this book. The perfect combination of words and art bringing to life some of the birds we have nearly lost. A book to return to again and again.
September 28, 2026
Recommended review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Maybe its twee-ity is a bird pun. Twee. Twee! TWEE!!
[here the reviewer turned vulture, and vomited]
Maybe its twee-ity is a bird pun. Twee. Twee! TWEE!!
[here the reviewer turned vulture, and vomited]
August 21, 2026
I don't think this is meant to be read in one sitting, but I couldn't experience this any other way. I was absolutely pulled into this experience. I enjoyed every piece, captivated by the poetic writing and gorgeous art. I hope to read this again some day.
July 3, 2026
What an amazing book! This book is meant to be read out loud. Het language is beautiful and the illustrations are gorgeous.
Want to Read
October 1, 2026Note to self 1 Oct 2026 - I tried the audiobook and loved the intro and initial chapter on Nests, however, from then on in the narrative is accompanied by sounds of birds and other extraneous sounds and it was overload for me. Simon came into the room while I was listening and said that it sounded distorted. So, I stopped listening and plan to switch to the actual book when it becomes available via my library.
July 5, 2026
An intensely gorgeous and enjoyable book. If you are ornithologically-inclined or maybe just bird curious, read it now as this fabulous volume aims to motivate a kinship with birds, not just a knowledge of them. Gorgeous watercolors that capture the spirit of each bird from Jackie Morris. Macfarlane never fails to engender a playful amusement or earnest compassion towards his subjects. Loved it.
August 16, 2026
“We will not save what we do not love, and we rarely love what we cannot name.”
October 6, 2026
By the far the twins' favorite book. I cannot overemphasize their sheer excitement when I pull this book out, or when I open to each full-page spread. Absolutely splendid.
xx-dnf-skim-reference
July 10, 2026A very pretty book.
I admire the goal of raising awareness. They credit Mary Oliver, one of my favorite poets, with "Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." But will anybody who really needs this book see it?
There is some science, but it's buried in very fancy poetic language. Even more 'extra' than Ray Bradbury's metaphors, embellishments, etc.
It's not necessarily about endangered species, unless starlings are in more trouble in Europe than in the US? All birds, all wilderness, needs more respect than it's getting now, but starlings!?
Anyway, too much for me. I wanted something a bit more straightforward & science-heavy. So I won't rate. I hope, if you choose to read it, that you are astonished, and that you share the beauty with those you know who need to learn of and to see it.
July 2026
I admire the goal of raising awareness. They credit Mary Oliver, one of my favorite poets, with "Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." But will anybody who really needs this book see it?
There is some science, but it's buried in very fancy poetic language. Even more 'extra' than Ray Bradbury's metaphors, embellishments, etc.
It's not necessarily about endangered species, unless starlings are in more trouble in Europe than in the US? All birds, all wilderness, needs more respect than it's getting now, but starlings!?
Anyway, too much for me. I wanted something a bit more straightforward & science-heavy. So I won't rate. I hope, if you choose to read it, that you are astonished, and that you share the beauty with those you know who need to learn of and to see it.
July 2026
June 9, 2026
“We will not save what we do not love, and we rarely love what we cannot name.” This is gorgeously written and illustrated field guide of sorts that not only gives information about birds but tells the story, but gives a deeper awareness of the birds that are slowly slipping towards extinction. This helps us name, love and hopefully save these birds. Flip this book open and be pulled into the poetry and magic flying all around us.
decided-against
August 23, 2026Lovely illustrations, but I have a true loathing of poetic-science writing.
August 6, 2026
Poetic, lovingly observed, delightfully painted and full of the anxiety of loss and the hope of survival.
June 30, 2026
I think this book is best appreciated in a multimodal format. First, the illustrations in this book are stunning. The watercolor images on each page demonstrate birds in various ways, and the two page spreads directly following each bird are begging to be made into posters that I can hang in my house. The audiobook features the calls of each bird, along with sounds from their natural environment, including, oceans and forests, which I loved as a production choice.
The writing itself was poetic, mixing biological descriptions with personal stories, prose, and poetry. Some of the poetic and experimental elements didn’t hit for me, but I appreciated the effort nonetheless.
The writing itself was poetic, mixing biological descriptions with personal stories, prose, and poetry. Some of the poetic and experimental elements didn’t hit for me, but I appreciated the effort nonetheless.
September 23, 2026
a lovely ode to birds.
July 29, 2026
Lovely bird paintings, but I couldn’t stand the poetry
July 8, 2026
The fleurons at the top of each chapter feature the egg of the bird being discussed -- beautiful!
July 15, 2026
I loved this book and when I reread my first draft of my review I had to stop because I realized that what I wrote would had me conclude that at best it wasn’t for me and at worst I truly would have hated it.
Let me try again with the facts. The bird population is declining at a truly alarming rate with a 50% decrease in the last several decades. It’s awful and non controversial.
But then the goal of the book is not only to be able to identify birds but to identify WITH them. The authors identify the seven wonders of birds: nests, eggs, beaks, songs, feathers, flight and migration. In doing so, he states his goal: people will not save what we do not love, and we rarely love what we cannot name.
This is where you need to trust me: he utilizes bird sounds, science, anecdotes, and poetry to bring them to life. It really works; it’s a magical book. I listened to the audiobook, and you wouldn’t want to miss that, but I will read it again to get the drawings I missed. I’m not sure I have ever read a book through print and audio before, but I don’t want to miss any of the wonder of this book.
We have a large bird feeder and bird bath in our backyard which I enjoy looking at, but there are there because my wife loves birds. I’m not sure I love them yet, but I’m intrigued and for the first time I want to learn more.
I’m afraid I’m not doing it justice and shame on me because it is an enormously entertaining and important book. Give it a shot; I’m pretty sure you will love it also.
Let me try again with the facts. The bird population is declining at a truly alarming rate with a 50% decrease in the last several decades. It’s awful and non controversial.
But then the goal of the book is not only to be able to identify birds but to identify WITH them. The authors identify the seven wonders of birds: nests, eggs, beaks, songs, feathers, flight and migration. In doing so, he states his goal: people will not save what we do not love, and we rarely love what we cannot name.
This is where you need to trust me: he utilizes bird sounds, science, anecdotes, and poetry to bring them to life. It really works; it’s a magical book. I listened to the audiobook, and you wouldn’t want to miss that, but I will read it again to get the drawings I missed. I’m not sure I have ever read a book through print and audio before, but I don’t want to miss any of the wonder of this book.
We have a large bird feeder and bird bath in our backyard which I enjoy looking at, but there are there because my wife loves birds. I’m not sure I love them yet, but I’m intrigued and for the first time I want to learn more.
I’m afraid I’m not doing it justice and shame on me because it is an enormously entertaining and important book. Give it a shot; I’m pretty sure you will love it also.
September 27, 2026
While I enjoyed this beautifully illustrated and poetically descriptive compendium, I grew a bit weary of Macfarlane's purple prose so many birds in. While I appreciative his inventiveness, there is truly only so much you can actually uniquely say about birds over so many pages, and with the author having mostly no personal experience with most of these birds (due to their rarity), some of his writing felt unmoored. But hey, birds are cool.
July 6, 2026
Geweldig boek voor vogelliefhebbers die al wat vogelkennis hebben. Een heel andere invalshoek dan andere vogelboeken. Interessante informatie op vaal verrassend gebied in lyrische taal. De illustraties zijn ook prachtig! Ik heb er van genoten.
September 22, 2026
I highly recommend reading this book outside in your garden or in a park. I also had the Merlin app running to catch all the songs that I was hearing, and it was delightful.
The artwork is gorgeous. It took me a couple of pages to get used to the writing style but then it was so engrossing. I feel I have learnt so much about these birds and their characters. It makes me appreciate the dunnocks and sparrows in my garden even more.
The artwork is gorgeous. It took me a couple of pages to get used to the writing style but then it was so engrossing. I feel I have learnt so much about these birds and their characters. It makes me appreciate the dunnocks and sparrows in my garden even more.
September 22, 2026
An exquisite book of poetry, prose and stunning original artwork. A love letter to the birds written about in the book. While many of the birds are not native to where I live, this book provided a wonderful journey of discovery.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 158 reviews