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The Wind Masters: The Lives of North American Birds of Prey – A Brilliant Narrative Natural History, Illustrated by David Sibley
Even people with little interest in birds will stop in their tracks at the sight of a hawk soaring overhead or a falcon perched on a window ledge. Birds of prey have an aura that few other creatures have. In the acclaimed Hawks in Flight, Pete Dunne showed what birds of prey look like. In The Wind Masters, he shows what it is like to be a bird of prey. He takes us inside the lives and minds of all thirty-four species of diurnal raptors found in North America -- hawks, falcons, eagles, vultures, the osprey, and the harrier -- and shows us how each bird sees the world, hunts its prey, finds and courts its mate, rears its young, grows up, grows old, and dies.
Vividly written, and beautifully illustrated by David Sibley, The Wind Masters is a brilliant work of narrative natural history in the tradition of Peter Matthiessen's The Wind Birds and Barry Lopez's Of Wolves and Men.
Vividly written, and beautifully illustrated by David Sibley, The Wind Masters is a brilliant work of narrative natural history in the tradition of Peter Matthiessen's The Wind Birds and Barry Lopez's Of Wolves and Men.
288 pages, Paperback
First published October 23, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
July 21, 2019
Many touching accounts of specific raptors here— a blind Golden Eagle, a young Osprey in difficulty catching fish until she catches a Bluefish too heavy for her— but also of successful birds. Young osprey migrate thousands of miles, starting days before their parents do, those in Wales migrating to Africa, the males to the western continent, females more central or eastern. Literally inhuman, instinctual. Takes two years for them to return, if they do. Fairly high mortality of raptor young…Eagles among the highest, 90% of their young not surviving their first year.
Dunne’s intimate account of specific birds builds on his knowledge of plumage and molting. “The flight and tail feathers of young raptors…are commonly longer than those of adults, a structural advantage that partially compensates for a younger bird’s lack of aerial finesse”(31).
Thirty-three different species, each with its own chapter. I started with my most familiar: Osprey (81 nests on my Westport River, MA), Eagle (one nest for five years until the tree blew over a couple years ago), Cooper’s Hawk (nest next door), Sharp-Shinned Hawk (coursing below the treetops, dining on our feeder birds, sometimes), Red-Tailed Hawk (call commonly imitated by Blue Jays), and…oh, not in this book, but the little Screech Owl who loves the taste of Mourning Doves. Such an owl was living in a Wood Duck house one March when I imitated its call to two Mourning Doves on a wire. They flew off faster than I thought they could. Once at a talk on my book, Birdtalk, I said “Mourning Doves have the same misfortune pigs have, the misfortune of being delicious.”
These predator species are all reverse dimorphic, with the females larger than the males, often about a third, the Peregrines, but up to twice as large in Cooper’s Hawks. Not clear why females are larger, possibly to enable defense of their nest and nestlings agains raccoons and crows. Or even, Dunne suggests, the “infanticidal inclinations of males”(66).[I do recall at the Swanery in Abbotsbury, Dorset UK, where medieval monks raised Swans for meat, now the female Swans have to protect their young, in crowded yard and a half square nest and water, from their mates.]
Even in Dunne’s least enthused chapter, on Turkey Vultures, he rises to a well-phrased last passage—a relief, since I consider these birds arguably the most beautiful fliers, quartering and circling on updrafts. Dunne puts it this way, “On its perch, there is something humble [and shaggy] about a Turkey Vulture, but in the air, it is a thing transformed…it turned and pirouetted in the sky, its wings flashed silver”(26).
Dunne’s intimate account of specific birds builds on his knowledge of plumage and molting. “The flight and tail feathers of young raptors…are commonly longer than those of adults, a structural advantage that partially compensates for a younger bird’s lack of aerial finesse”(31).
Thirty-three different species, each with its own chapter. I started with my most familiar: Osprey (81 nests on my Westport River, MA), Eagle (one nest for five years until the tree blew over a couple years ago), Cooper’s Hawk (nest next door), Sharp-Shinned Hawk (coursing below the treetops, dining on our feeder birds, sometimes), Red-Tailed Hawk (call commonly imitated by Blue Jays), and…oh, not in this book, but the little Screech Owl who loves the taste of Mourning Doves. Such an owl was living in a Wood Duck house one March when I imitated its call to two Mourning Doves on a wire. They flew off faster than I thought they could. Once at a talk on my book, Birdtalk, I said “Mourning Doves have the same misfortune pigs have, the misfortune of being delicious.”
These predator species are all reverse dimorphic, with the females larger than the males, often about a third, the Peregrines, but up to twice as large in Cooper’s Hawks. Not clear why females are larger, possibly to enable defense of their nest and nestlings agains raccoons and crows. Or even, Dunne suggests, the “infanticidal inclinations of males”(66).[I do recall at the Swanery in Abbotsbury, Dorset UK, where medieval monks raised Swans for meat, now the female Swans have to protect their young, in crowded yard and a half square nest and water, from their mates.]
Even in Dunne’s least enthused chapter, on Turkey Vultures, he rises to a well-phrased last passage—a relief, since I consider these birds arguably the most beautiful fliers, quartering and circling on updrafts. Dunne puts it this way, “On its perch, there is something humble [and shaggy] about a Turkey Vulture, but in the air, it is a thing transformed…it turned and pirouetted in the sky, its wings flashed silver”(26).
January 28, 2013
An unusual Dunne Grand Slam hit out of the park. In this work the noted birder takes on 33 species of birds of prey which (per carefully delineated criteria) nest in North America. Rather than roll through the list and attempt the sort of dry detail commonly found in field guides, Dunne sets the profiles up almost as fantasy, with birds thinking and speaking in ways understandable by human beings. The birds come alive, and we meet all manner of personalities from quirky, to cynical old timer, to awkward lover, to delirious and dying. Among the most bittersweet chapters was that assigned to the Red Shouldered Hawk, a beautiful parallel of widowers - bird and human. Nothing in the book will help improve identification skills, but the advanced student can come away with a better understanding of behavior. A definite recommend for the birder library.
March 20, 2021
Interesting concept for a book. Some stories were great some were not so great. Was a struggle to finish this one, but the last two stories were really good.
November 26, 2007
This book is about raptors- one of my passions as many of you know. This book mixes fact and fiction in short stories about the diurnal raptors of North America. Good for someone that doesn't know much about the birds- made for general readers. Though it anthropomorphizes the animals, it is an excellent read.
Now that I am finished, I would say that I liked the book, but it wasn't the greatest. It does have a lot of info, but the stories are somewhat cliche.
Now that I am finished, I would say that I liked the book, but it wasn't the greatest. It does have a lot of info, but the stories are somewhat cliche.
August 2, 2025
Love the way you get to meet each bird (most of which people see daily without even batting an eye). Great way for birders and non birders alike to get a unique view of this captivating group of birds.
June 2, 2019
An unconventional approach toward understanding the lives and actions of fierce hunters
July 11, 2021
An excellent read combining actual information with wonderful story-telling style. I loved it (which, considering the author, is no surprise at all).
January 22, 2023
Beautifully written. A short story about each of 33 raptors that breed in North America that explains their lives and challenges.
May 2, 2023
I was enjoying this book. A little turned off by the anthropomorphism of what these magnificent raptors were feeling.
Then the author included religious views. Will not finish!
Then the author included religious views. Will not finish!
July 23, 2024
What an interesting and unique way to write a bird book. The Osprey facts floored me.
September 17, 2019
What a wonderful informative read! The author is an authority who writes about birds often but this book is dedicated to raptors. So much information is given in a readable style that I loved perusing his words about North American birds of prey. I would read about three or four and set the book aside to think about the information and meld it with my experience and observations. We have coopers hawks, ospreys and kestrals flying through our yards often. However, I'd like to share one particular incident from the discussion about American eagles which nest in our area.
A golden eagle and a raven were dining on a dead deer but the eagle was obviously ill. "The eagle, who was indeed blind (or nearly so) heard the taunts ((of the raven) but was past caring. Once, the bird's awareness had extended as far as an eagle's eyes can see and as far as her seven-f00t wingspan could bear her. But the death that was in her had constricted the borders of her world.
"Five days agos, the planted death had robbed her of the skies. Three days ago it had reduced the world to the floor of the arroyo. Then it had taken the light out of the world, binding her to the place where for two days she had stood.
"Now death was sending her spirit into retreat...
"The sad saga began on the prairies of Colorado, where several friends decided to kill a Saturday afternoon by popping the residents of a prairie dog town. They used .22 caliber rifles, equipped with 4X telescopic sights and hollow point ammunition designed to shatter on impact.
"They didn't want the carcasses, of course. They were just shooting 'varments.' They also didn't trouble to police the town by throwing the carcasses down the burrows. 'Let the scavengers have them,' they reasoned....
"The young eagle, migration taxed and hungry, had joined the host of magpies feeding on the carcasses. In the process, she ingested several small bullet fragments - most of which did not remain with the bird for long. Along with the fur and bone she ingested, they were cast up as a pellet.
"But for the twenty-four hours that the fragments remained in the bird's digestive system, they released lead, which was absorbed into the bird's system. When the bird contued her migration, she carried the incipient seed of her death inside her.
"Lead poisoning is a progressive degenerative disorder that kills birds directly or weakens them to the point that they succumb to other complications....
"It takes only one ingested fragment the size of the letter o on this page to kill an eagle. The fragments in the bird's stomach were smaller than this. Alone, it would not have brought lead levels in the bird to fatal levels. But the poisoned splinter was not so insignificant that the bird did not experience some debilitating effects.
"Bathed by gastric acids, the lead leached into her system and began accumulating in the liver, the kidneys, the heart, the spleen and the brain. Hemoglogin levels began to fall. The bird's gall bladder became swollen, bile clogged, and her droppings turned a ghastly green.
..."Very early in the toxic process the lead began to affect the bird's nervous system. ...she found herself tiring easily and perches her feet should have found easily were missed!
"So was prey. Her coordination impaired, opportunities that should have resulted in kills had she been a healthy eagle were muffed. ...fat deposits disappeared...and she began to starve."
By the time she found the deer carcass she was so hungry that she gorged herself. The deer, like the prairie dogs, had been shot with lead bullets, too. She consumed more lead fragments increasing the toxicity in her system and her starvation level rose. There was no hope for the lead poisoned bird to survive. The author gives more detail than I have included here but it impressed upon me how we humans inadvertantly bring about the death of such beautiful parts of our environment. Yes, this is an outstanding read in many ways. Bird lovers of all levels will cherish Dunne's words.
A golden eagle and a raven were dining on a dead deer but the eagle was obviously ill. "The eagle, who was indeed blind (or nearly so) heard the taunts ((of the raven) but was past caring. Once, the bird's awareness had extended as far as an eagle's eyes can see and as far as her seven-f00t wingspan could bear her. But the death that was in her had constricted the borders of her world.
"Five days agos, the planted death had robbed her of the skies. Three days ago it had reduced the world to the floor of the arroyo. Then it had taken the light out of the world, binding her to the place where for two days she had stood.
"Now death was sending her spirit into retreat...
"The sad saga began on the prairies of Colorado, where several friends decided to kill a Saturday afternoon by popping the residents of a prairie dog town. They used .22 caliber rifles, equipped with 4X telescopic sights and hollow point ammunition designed to shatter on impact.
"They didn't want the carcasses, of course. They were just shooting 'varments.' They also didn't trouble to police the town by throwing the carcasses down the burrows. 'Let the scavengers have them,' they reasoned....
"The young eagle, migration taxed and hungry, had joined the host of magpies feeding on the carcasses. In the process, she ingested several small bullet fragments - most of which did not remain with the bird for long. Along with the fur and bone she ingested, they were cast up as a pellet.
"But for the twenty-four hours that the fragments remained in the bird's digestive system, they released lead, which was absorbed into the bird's system. When the bird contued her migration, she carried the incipient seed of her death inside her.
"Lead poisoning is a progressive degenerative disorder that kills birds directly or weakens them to the point that they succumb to other complications....
"It takes only one ingested fragment the size of the letter o on this page to kill an eagle. The fragments in the bird's stomach were smaller than this. Alone, it would not have brought lead levels in the bird to fatal levels. But the poisoned splinter was not so insignificant that the bird did not experience some debilitating effects.
"Bathed by gastric acids, the lead leached into her system and began accumulating in the liver, the kidneys, the heart, the spleen and the brain. Hemoglogin levels began to fall. The bird's gall bladder became swollen, bile clogged, and her droppings turned a ghastly green.
..."Very early in the toxic process the lead began to affect the bird's nervous system. ...she found herself tiring easily and perches her feet should have found easily were missed!
"So was prey. Her coordination impaired, opportunities that should have resulted in kills had she been a healthy eagle were muffed. ...fat deposits disappeared...and she began to starve."
By the time she found the deer carcass she was so hungry that she gorged herself. The deer, like the prairie dogs, had been shot with lead bullets, too. She consumed more lead fragments increasing the toxicity in her system and her starvation level rose. There was no hope for the lead poisoned bird to survive. The author gives more detail than I have included here but it impressed upon me how we humans inadvertantly bring about the death of such beautiful parts of our environment. Yes, this is an outstanding read in many ways. Bird lovers of all levels will cherish Dunne's words.
January 29, 2013
A surprisingly poetic, moving, instructive, and, yes, bittersweet collection of short stories capturing moments in the life-cycle, and seasons of North America's raptors, "The Wind Masters" is one of the most enjoyable (and unusual) reads I've had in a long time.
Dunne's prose is poetic and casts the various species' vignettes in an almost Animist light that is, at times, deeply moving.
My one quibble with the book is that occasionally, Dunne breaks from his beautiful narrative style to somewhat awkwardly interject species facts, which, while a bit instructive, are often better left to field guides. Nevertheless, this is a five-star book without a doubt.
"The Wind Masters" is a really beautiful and moving work that has changed the way I think about all species (birds and far beyond), the balance of nature, and the infinite cycles of life and death common to all living creatures' worlds.
Dunne's prose is poetic and casts the various species' vignettes in an almost Animist light that is, at times, deeply moving.
My one quibble with the book is that occasionally, Dunne breaks from his beautiful narrative style to somewhat awkwardly interject species facts, which, while a bit instructive, are often better left to field guides. Nevertheless, this is a five-star book without a doubt.
"The Wind Masters" is a really beautiful and moving work that has changed the way I think about all species (birds and far beyond), the balance of nature, and the infinite cycles of life and death common to all living creatures' worlds.
April 17, 2016
With all the lovely books on my to-read list, I had to go pull a random library book off the shelves. And I got what I deserved. It was a lovely little volume of highly anthropomorphized scenes of most of the raptors in North America, going about their daily lives or participating in the singular rituals of courtship, brooding, or raising young. It excluded owls for some reason--possibly the author wasn't so much an expert on owls as he was on hawks and vultures.
It was lovely, yes, and the writing very good. But it left me cold and I had to struggle to finish it. There just wasn't enough substance mixed in with the speculation. For me. I think a lot people would love this. The California Condor story is great.
It was lovely, yes, and the writing very good. But it left me cold and I had to struggle to finish it. There just wasn't enough substance mixed in with the speculation. For me. I think a lot people would love this. The California Condor story is great.
July 26, 2009
This book gives the reader an excellent glimpse into the lives of Raptors with lots of natural history weaved into a short story. Like another reviewer, I was a little put off by the anthropomorphic qualities the author assumes for each species. But as someone who works with birds of prey daily, its hard not to see that each bird has a personality all its own. A great read for someone who wants to learn about birds of prey, but not get overwhelmed with too many facts.
August 4, 2013
I thoroughly enjoyed Dunne exploration of the wide range of raptors that nest north of the Rio Grande. I learned something new about each species. Dunne uses capsule biographies to cover matters such as diet, hunting techniques, mating and nesting patterns unique to each species—area neglected by standard guides. While the biographies are fictional, the information Dunne shares is not. Fine nature writing worth returning to again and again.
August 6, 2015
over 30 short stories, one each for each bird of prey specie that lives in North America - give loving access to an imaginative recreation of bird life. From carrion eater to proud eagle, I found the writing a bit dense. The author provides quite a bit of data on each birds looks and habits, etc. A very good read
March 30, 2015
For me, this was a very hard book to read. I love bird watcher and thought this would give me insight to their world. I just had a very hard time with this book. Struggled through it though.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews