Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere With Migratory Birds

by Scott Weidensaul

Living on the Wind is a magisterial work of nature writing from author Scott Weidensaul.

Bird migration is the world's only true unifying natural phenomenon, stitching the continents together in a way that even the great weather systems fail to do. Scott Weidensaul follows awesome kettles of hawks over the Mexican coastal plains, bar-tailed godwits that hitchhike on gale winds 7,000 miles nonstop across the Pacific from Alaska to New Zealand, and myriad songbirds whose numbers have dwindled so dramatically in recent decades. Migration paths form an elaborate global web that shows serious signs of fraying, and Weidensaul delves into the tragedies of habitat degradation and deforestation with an urgency that brings to life the vast problems these miraculous migrants now face.

Genres: Birds, Nature, Nonfiction, Science, Natural History, Animals, Biology

420 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Born in 1959, Scott Weidensaul (pronounced "Why-densaul") has lived almost all of his life among the long ridges and endless valleys of eastern Pennsylvania, in the heart of the central Appalachians, a landscape that has defined much of his work.

His writing career began in 1978 with a weekly natural history column in the local newspaper, the Pottsville Republican in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, where he grew up. The column soon led a fulltime reporting job, which he held until 1988, when he left to become a freelance writer specializing in nature and wildlife. (He continued to write about nature for newspapers, however, including long-running columns for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Harrisburg Patriot-News.)

Weidensaul has written more than two dozen books, including his widely acclaimed Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds (North Point 1999), which was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize.

Weidensaul's writing has appeared in dozens of publications, including Audubon (for which he is a contributing editor), Nature Conservancy and National Wildlife, among many others. He lectures widely on conservation and nature, and directs the ornithological programs for National Audubon's famed Hog Island Center on the coast of Maine.

In addition to writing about wildlife, Weidensaul is an active field researcher whose work focuses on bird migration. Besides banding hawks each fall (something he's done for nearly 25 years), he directs a major effort to study the movements of northern saw-whet owls, one of the smallest and least-understood raptors in North America. He is also part of a continental effort to understand the rapid evolution, by several species of western hummingbirds, of a new migratory route and wintering range in the East.

- excerpted from his website

Reviews

[Jonathon · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I picked up this book, I assumed that it would be interesting for somebody that has a pre-existing fascination with birds (that would be me), but I didn't really expect it to be an engaging read for a 'normal' person. I guess I expected to be enlightened, but not necessarily entertained. Fortunately, my expectations were far too low. Weidensaul's writing style is really enjoyable and he uses anecdotes and personal stories liberally throughout the book. It was a much quicker read than you might expect if you just looked at the book's title.

Because birds are so highly migratory, any adequate treatment of the topic must also include coverage of the far-flung places they live, and the people and cultures that they share those lands with. One of the images from this book that sticks in my head most clearly is also one of the most depressing -- the fascinating and horrifying tale of the Salton Sea in California. But there is lots of beauty in this book as well.

It's a bit hard for me to know exactly how this book would received by a person that isn't already fascinated with birds, but I think this is one of those rare books that really succeeds in bringing a relatively specialized subject to a broad audience in a way that is both informative and enjoyable. And like any good book, it significantly changed how I look at the world. Highly recommended.

[Carol Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you read just one book about bird migration, this is the book to read. It's beautifully written and packed with information about migrations all over the Western Hemisphere. Weidensaul has traveled widely, following many migrations. He tells of studying birds in Hudson Bay, Canada, the Aleutians off the coast of Alaska, the Delaware Bay, the mountains of Mexico, and the Pampas of Argentina, among other places.

I've read books about birds for decades, but I learned quite a bit that I didn't know. I didn't realize that North Americas have ignored migrations of tropical birds that move to different latitudes and altitudes. It never occurred to me that toucans and parrots might migrate.

I didn't know that some birds migrate on foot. Blue grouse walk from lower elevations to higher elevations in the winter so they can eat fir needles.

Arctic terns migrate from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Tiny blackpoll warblers migrate from Alaska to the Amazon.

Birds don't migrate because of cold weather: They migrate to get better, more accessible food. Some migration is west to east, not north to south.

We might think of birds that migrate from the US and Canada to Central and South America as our birds, but they actually spend more months there than here.

Of course Weidensaul discusses the problems that migrating birds face at both ends of their journey and along the way, especially as habitat is disappearing. He tells of efforts by conservation groups to preserve vital habitats.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sobering.

Birds fly south for the winter. We've all known that since we were kids.

With numerous examples, Weidensaul lets us know just how marvelous and complicated this seemingly simple act of bird behavior is to perform, season after season; a survival strategy that has evolved over thousands and thousands of years. His story of the red knot alone is mind-altering in its wonderment, a precisely timed journey from the southern tip of South America to the North American Arctic.

The author spends the first 95 percent of the book relating Herculean stories of avian migration, even tales of species that spend just about all of their lives moving place to place, always living on the wind. And then he drops the hammer, letting us know in the last few pages just how it might soon will all come to an end.

Weidensual, a great lover of birds, must have written the final pages with a heavy laden heart.

As I said, "sobering!"

[Alex]

Inevitably, and unsurprisingly, one of the more depressing books I’ve read. It’s essential writing, with heavy emphasis on the damage we have done to migration networks (often more on that than about migration itself). Not an easy one to get through. And still, I am struck by gratitude and wonder at what remains. Now off to Bear River!

[karina · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Its secrets are locked in that tiny packet of brain and muscle and instinct, a few feet away but separated from me by immense, uncrossable distance. It knows, and I do not. And there seems to be a proper symmetry in that,too.”

this book is genuinely i think the best nonfiction book i have ever read. i am so glad i was drawn to the cover in the basement of a used bookstore and bought it rather impulsively. the writing is beautiful and easy to understand despite the possibility for a book on the topic to get boring, overly scientific, and complex. the incredible care and passion that weidensaul has for these migratory birds is infectious. he has shown me an entire new world and the amount of respect and awe i have for birds has increased 1000x since reading this. this book has made me feel connected and a part of something so much bigger than myself. genuinely so sad to put it down, i recommend this to literally everyone and anyone.

[Cheryl]

Engaging, but easy to put down. Fascinating, but I've already forgotten most of what I've learned. Reading from my mom's library during a short visit, so had to stop at p. 148, may try again.

[Peter Corrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, after this tour-de-force you might be tempted to just stop and salute the next bird you see! Unless it happens to be brown-headed cowbird in which case you may want to employ a flamethrower instead. If a book is to be measured on how much you learn, then for me this was 5-star on that basis alone. Granted, I am assuredly NOT a 'birder', so perhaps much here that is well-known to your average enthusiast. But there there is a lot of information literally packed into these pages on the incredible world of birds and their migration patterns. It is more, a LOT more, than 'birds flying south'! This worldwide (although he concentrates almost solely on the western hemisphere, as the title states) epic cycle of breeding, migrating, feeding and returning is epic on every scale. These birds are simply amazing! Yet as fascinating and awe-inspiring as his description of these wonderful creatures and the natural cycles that drive them are, the threats to avian life that are elucidated are beyond horrifying and really depressing. It's as if you just started a great love affair and found out your inamorata was riddled with a dozen life-threatening illnesses. And that might be understating it. Climate change, habitat destruction, broadcast towers, lit-up buildings, wind turbines (not even mentioned in 1999, but sure to eclipse many forms of avian extermination), house cats, whitetail deer, the list goes on and on. It is a wonder there is a single bird left after he finishes cataloguing the litany of threats. As noted the book was written in 1999 but I found myself constantly looking up various birds--the way they look, sound and most importantly are they still around? Highly recommended to the neophyte birder or anyone interested in the fate of natural life on our planet and a clear 5-star book.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

content: 5
tone/style: 4
readability: 3
overall: 3.5

This took a long time for me to read since I only stayed with it for a few pages at a time. I suspect that I'm not the target audience. I don't know enough about birds, and probably the same can be said for geography.

I appreciated the big ideas and the anecdotes, but I often got bogged down in the details.

Preface, xi:
The biggest threats to migratory birds do not come from the barrel of a gun, nor are they easily cured by passing laws. They arise from habitat loss and the wholesale environmental changes we have imposed on the natural world.
That frames the message which SW then proceeds to take apart and support with lots of evidence.

p 6, basic fact that I didn't know (but it seemed obvious once I read the statement)
Migration is fundamentally, about food, not temperature; those birds that can continue to find enough to eat during the winter rarely migrate ...

p 26, a statement that frames much of the book
Migration depends upon links—food, safe havens, quiet roost sites, clean water, and a host of other resources, ... We are breaking those links with abandon.

p 29, more basic info that I really hadn't given much thought
The vast majority of migration goes on at night, out of sight ...

And, as always when I read, I noted many other passages that were especially important (to me anyway), or were an interesting 'tidbit,' or simply put a smile on my face.

This will be a useful reference (I think), but I doubt that I'd read it again.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

When this book is good, it is really, really good, but . . . Well, first for the good: until picking up this book, I had never given a thought to the wondrous complexities of bird migration--the many and varied patterns birds follow on their annual journeys, the dangers they face along the way, their need to coexist with nonmigratory birds in the tropics during the winter. It had never occurred to me what an oblivious misnomer the phrase "birds of North America" is. And Weidensaul is a passionate and meticulous chronicler of his subject, nowhere better than in the chapter detailing the hundreds of hawks that flood the skies above Veracruz on their way south for the winter. But . . . but . . . there is just simply too much here, and after a while, it all starts to sound the same. Another category of birds, another perilous journey, another threatened habitat--none of them less important than those described in previous chapters, but all of them making the same basic points. I am a very patient reader, but after a while, I just started skimming. I suspect the author was reluctant to part with any of his hard-won material, but that material ultimately loses some of its power as a result.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written. Weidensaul has an uncanny ability to bring you along right there with him, whether at a banding station, a hike, or perusing and discussing the latest research on the state of our feathered friends.

But it is hard to come away with any real optimism, the last few paragraphs and Afterword notwithstanding. And, it’s hard to read this book, see a bird, and not feel deeply sad.

That thing you love? It’s collapsing. Also that one. And that one. Etc.

I am happy I read it, because brutal truths about the state of nature need to be said (and heard). But birding now is a little less joyful, and nature itself feels a little more ephemeral, and it isn’t at all clear what if anything can be done.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scott Weidensaul's writing is so beautiful that at times it is hard to remember you are not reading fiction. I gleaned a lot of knowledge from this book and I'm very glad to have read it. The seemingly insurmountable obstacles that face our avian friends left me feeling a bit overwhelmed but the fact that many DO overcome the impossible odds makes these creatures even more awesome to me.

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading Scott Weidensaul’s 2021 book A World on the Wing I was inspired to read his first book on bird migration. There were a few similar stories that were mentioned in each book, but overall the content was different and entertaining.

Something that really surprised me was the level of agricultural pollution, especially selenium, in the Salton Sea and the surrounding area and the horrific effect it has had on birds wintering and breeding in that area.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent storyteller! I learned so much about the birds we love and what we have to lose.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book – the subject matter has always fascinated me, and the writing was literary and in some places almost lyrical. And I learned a lot, because this book is about a lot more than just geese flying in the familiar “V” formation.

First things first: migration isn’t so much about bad weather as it is food. Given enough food, a bird can withstand extremely harsh winter conditions – most famously, Emperor penguins nest on ice during the Antarctic winter. Black-capped chickadees are non-migratory and spend their winters in Canada and northern New England, but their diet is seed-based and they can find enough to eat to sustain a blazing metabolic furnace – their average body temperature is 104 degrees Fahrenheit. On the other hand, some tropical bird species such as parrots will migrate within the tropics to follow the flowering or fruiting seasons of the plants they depend on for food. Second, migration is a lot more complicated than the north-to-south-and-back-again that we usually associate with birds. Some species migrate along an east-west axis – the harlequin duck nests in the Rockies but migrates west to the Pacific coast and common diving ducks nest in Utah but migrate east to the Atlantic coast. Other species migrate vertically, switching between lower altitudes in the winter and higher altitudes in the summer, and a few species counterintuitively reverse this pattern. Different subpopulations of the same species may also use dramatically different migration routes.

Migratory birds connect the world in a way very few other things do, and that applies both geographically and politically. The arctic tern may forge the most spectacular geographic link of all – every year they migrate from the North Pole to the South Pole and back again. When the Arctic summer days are long, the terns have plenty of light to hunt fish, but as the Arctic winter approaches and the days grow shorter, they embark on a journey to Antarctica, arriving just in time to take advantage of the long summer days there. During the Antarctic fall, they leave for the Arctic again and arrive in time for its long summer days. An average Arctic tern can easily clock 22,000 miles a year. Another example is the bar-tailed godwit, which nests in Alaska but winters in New Zealand. To prepare for its 6,800-mile nonstop flight, a bar-tailed godwit will boost its fat reserves to 55 percent of its body weight, and then its kidneys, liver, and gut will all shrink to a fraction of their normal size, with the combined effect of maximizing its fuel supply while minimizing its weight. A blackpoll warbler is five and a half inches long and weighs half an ounce, but small size is no obstacle – they nest in western Alaska and winter in the western Amazon, giving them the longest migration of any North American songbird. Most incredibly, they don’t even take the most direct route; instead, they travel east across Canada, and then go south. There are two different routes south, but the most remarkable involves flying over the open ocean to catch the northwesterly winds that will help propel them to Bermuda, and from Bermuda they can pick up the subtropical trades to reach South America. That overwater trip normally lasts from forty to fifty hours nonstop and covers two thousand miles. Like other migratory birds, it relies on its fat reserves for fuel, and gets the equivalent of 720,000 mpg.

Politically, one of the first federal environmental laws (enacted in 1918) was enacted specifically to protect migrating birds – the signatories to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act now include the United States, Canada, Mexico, Russia, and Japan. The desire to save as many migratory bird species as possible has also spawned unprecedented informal conservation efforts – virtually every country in North America, Central America, and South America has signed on to massive conservation efforts including research, education, and habitat protection. An example is the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network, which has identified and sometimes prompted the conservation of four million acres of wetlands between Argentina and Alaska which thirty million migratory shorebirds depend on for survival.

I found the writing style beautiful and the book just sang to me in general. Some parts read like they would be equally at home in a novel. The opening sentence for one chapter read, “In winter, the salt marsh hisses. The wind, which is rarely still on the wide, open flats along the Delmarva Peninsula, draws its fingers through the dried tips of the cordgrass, tall and thick enough to hide a man; the sound it makes is sibilant and empty, an endless sigh.” (page 222). Another part described the author’s experience during one birdwatching trip: “Over and over again, small explosions of birds would materialize out of the sky, whirring from on high, beyond the limit of vision and into the trees like bolts, until the woods were stuffed to overflowing with them.” (page 251). A paragraph describing man-made ecological havoc ended with, “This was habitat hell, an impoverished, completely alien ecosystem, imposed on the land like some organic form of demonic possession.” (page 154).

There was also a fabulous section that illustrated the ecological importance of cheniers by describing migration from the point of view of a small songbird:

“Let’s say you’re a bird, a little bitty Tennessee warbler that weighs as much as four pennies. You left Celestun, Yucatan, at dark the previous day, and ever since you’ve been flapping without rest, twenty beats a second for eighteen hours. At first you had a tailwind from the south, but in the middle of the night you encountered a squall line, with battering rain that forced you lower and lower toward the deadly sea. You pushed through that with scant feet to spare, salt spray from the whitecaps stinging your eyes, but when the rain ceased the wind did not, hammering you in the face, cold and gusty as you stubbornly regained altitude. The little deposits of fat beneath your skin – pale, yellowish mounds under your wings and in the hollow of your neck, which you accumulated by eating uncounted small tropical insects, are nearly gone. Soon your body will start catabolizing muscle tissue, a desperate act of self-cannibalism with only one purpose, to get you across the six hundred miles of fatal water.

Finally, from your vantage point at 4,000 feet, you can see a dark rim on the horizon, like a lid on the ocean. Land. Are you overjoyed, relieved, delighted? If you are, the celebration is premature; over the next half hour, as you draw closer and closer, you see nothing but flat, empty marsh beyond the breakers. That’s fine if you’re a grebe or gallinule, but you’re a forest bird and you need woods – trees for cover and tree-dwelling bugs for food. That’s where the cheniers come in.” (page 268).

This stuck with me long after I had turned the page (and even the chapter), and I kept turning back to it. It also made me think I might like to read a novel written from the point of view of a bird.
The book closed with a discussion of human attitudes toward nature and conservation, and this paragraph stood out:

“So tell me, what is a blackburnian warbler worth, orange and ebony like a jungle tiger? A pair of scissor-tailed flycatchers? A flock of orioles? I suppose that depends on how you measure such things. We can weigh the tangibles and the intangibles, retail sales and spiritual renewal, tourist dollars and checkmarks on a life list. But in the end such measures are pointless; we should probably just stand aside and watch with quiet humility as another generation of travelers flies north, compelled by a priceless bravery buried deep in their genes.” (pages 272-273).

And it ended on a note of hope: “So my optimism isn’t rooted in logic. It is a fragile emotion, much bruised by reality – a slender slip of a thing, but still standing. Besides, there’s no future in pessimism.” (page 370).

Highly recommended.

[Abigail Hartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I REALLY enjoyed the first part, like absolutely loved it; the second two parts weren't quite as compelling to me, but still had so much fascinating information and lovely accounts of Weidensaul's travels and encounters with migrating birds. The writing is fantastic. In the first few pages I was overwhelmed by the lists of birds-and-where-they-go and worried that that was going to be the style of the entire book, but it wasn't; I think the rapid-fire information was intended to immediately dispel the simplistic idea that birds just 'fly south for the winter'. After that, the book moves into explorations of particular species and places, first tracking movements south in the fall; then spending time on the 'wintering' grounds; then returning north in the spring.

The major thing that struck me from this book is the stunning complexity of birds and of nature in general. It's just incredible to me that one could spend a lifetime studying these things and still believe that the perfect interlocking puzzle that is bird migration came about because of blind evolutionary chance. At one point at the very end, in the Afterword, Weidensaul makes a comment about how the orange of a redstart's feathers perfectly matches the orange of a brook trout, of a monarch butterfly's wings, of wild turks'-cap lilies: "That symmetry feels proper, somehow, almost preordained." Yes! Exactly! Everything fits too "properly" to imagine a Creator isn't involved; it thus seems mind-blowing to stick to empty evolutionary platitudes about "genetic programming" and "instinct," as this book sadly but unsurprisingly does.

That is my biggest personal beef with the book, which I nevertheless greatly enjoyed. I will say the conservation aspect meant that some sections were really difficult/sobering/depressing to read, particularly in the latter two parts of the book. I hope the outlook for most species is not so gloomy.

[Chris Leuchtenburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extensive description of bird migration in the Americas. The three sections Southbound, Hiatus (winter habitats) and Northbound, are organized by geography and include lists of birds that use particular migratory strategies, wintering grounds, or flyways. The story moves along somewhat plodddingly by describing his experiences studying the birds in Alaska, the Argentine Pampas, the mountains of Jamaica, etc. Sometimes the lurid descriptions of habitat destruction overwhelm the migration story, but there are many interesting insights and questions posed about the needs and habits of migratory birds. For instance, birds that are territorial in the north but gregarious in the south, or birds with specific habitats in the north, but generalists in the south or visa versa. Altogether fascinating, but sometimes hard work to read. Highly recommended for the bird lover.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised by the beautiful writing, something I did not expect in what I thought was a popular scientific book about bird migration. Weidensaul seems to be telling us about his love for birds and his love of looking at birds and learning about birds; the scientific information is certainly presented and presented well, but may be of secondary importance. I also very much liked learning how much we do NOT know about birds and bird migration. The book was written in 1999, so we may have learned a bit more and there are new technologies in use that were not available in the 1990’s, but overall, I believe that we still know very little. I really loved his gentle reminders of the hubris of human scientific knowledge. I also liked that he was not a doomsayer. He gives a balanced view of the issues surrounding bird survival.
A lovely book.

[Sylvia Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so beautifully written, truly engaging, full of facts and stories and places I wish I could go...and places I'm very glad I've never went! It's heartbreaking and hopeful, both. Anyone with the slightest interest in birds, or just nature in general, will enjoy this book, and learn from it.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Great information about migatory birds-and the struggle that they have to face during the long ride up and down to winter/summer locations. Irruptions-birds that come to not usual spot-it could be due to that food is not available in their usual spots.

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book about bird migration, lots of interesting facts. Unfortunately a bit dated in some of the information presented.

[Max Tsudowood · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an incredible book on North American bird migration that covers a tremendous number of topics such as the biological mechanisms that drive migration, specific routes utilized by various species, stunning segments on natural events, such as funnelling of raptors through Veracruz, fall out in High Island, Texas, and massing of sandhill cranes in the Platte River basin, and state of the habitats used by birds for breeding and wintering. Since the book was published in 1999 here's my quickly done update on bird populations and habitats that were mentioned to be in dire conditions due to human activity in various chapters:

Ch. 8 - Swainson hawk numbers have stabilized after the massive drop due to the use of pesticides. Canada has about 50,000 to 500,000 adults. Although the cause is unclear, its numbers in California has grown significantly from 2005 to 2018 at a rate of ~14% such that there are over 18,000 pairs.

Ch. 10 - The enormous snow goose population continues to degrade fragile habitats in the continent such as marshes that are important for other vulnerable birds. This has come about due to increase in agricultural environments, such as rice fields, hayfields, and cornfields, that are easily exploited by the species for food. Hunting remains as the most effective control measure.

Ch. 10 - Salton Sea is still an ecological mess but projects have been implemented to create dust reducing wetlands. While proposals to increase waterflow to the lake have been rejected, the depletion of the Colorado River and its consequences may force experts to devise a holistic solution to address the areas man-made drought conditions.

Ch. 12 - Running from 2007 to 2032, the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program aims to increase stream flows into the river, and restore and protect habitats for target bird species.

Ch. 13 - There's a decline in abundance of horseshoe crab eggs, which are eaten by migrating shorebirds, and therefore results in the largest concentrations of the birds in the world, from the peak in the 1980s. Although, horseshoe crab harvest management has stabilized the population, progress toward population recovery has been slow.

Ch. 14 - The chapter on probable declining migratory songbirds turns out to be true from a recent data that shows that nearly 3 billion birds (not just songbirds) have disappeared since 1970.

4.5/5

[Tim Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

_Living on the Wind_ by Scott Weidensaul is a very ambitious book, one in which the author tried to convey both the science and the drama of bird migration in the Western Hemisphere, traveling for six years from Alaska to Argentina and speaking to experts as well as viewing close up an amazing variety of birds from the Arctic tundra to Central American rain forests.

The book is divided into three sections. "Southbound" focused on the fall migration as well as topics on migration in general.

Weidensaul stressed that one shouldn't view migration as moving away from something unpleasant, such as the cold, but rather as moving towards something beneficial, mainly an area where food is plentiful. Viewing migration as a simply north-south issue clearly shows a North American bias; birds in southern South America fly north to their wintering grounds, tropical birds fly relatively short distances but on migrations nonetheless in response to among other things the ripening of fruits or the blossoming of flowers, and many ocean birds undergo complex and intricate perambulations of entire oceans on an annual basis (the greater shearwater breeds in the South Atlantic but covers a 13,000 mile route every nine months, a route that includes going up past South America to Canada, then over to Europe in autumn, and then returning down the coast of Africa). Not all North American birds winter in the Americas; the bristle-thighed curlew nests in western Alaska but winters as much as 5,000 miles away in such Pacific islands as Tahiti, while the bar-tailed godwit winters 6,800 miles away from its Alaskan home in New Zealand (flying nonstop for up to five days).

The reader learns some birds are "complete migrants" (they entirely vacate their breeding grounds at the end of nesting season) and some are "partial migrants" (a portion of the population remains year-round). Most birds other than hawks migrate at night, partially to avoid predators (like hawks), to free up daytime hours for finding food, because the atmosphere is less turbulent at night, and because the chillier and damper night air can help cool overheated migrating birds and work to stem moisture loss. Thanks to human activity, many birds winter farther north than they once did, whether due to backyard birdfeeders in the case of finches or specially maintained refuges for waterfowl; this phenomenon is known as "shortstopping."

The author spent a good deal of time discussing how birds find their way on migrations. A fascinating discussion, migration involves a genetic program, a time of migratory restlessness when the daylight diminishes to a certain point and the urge to fly in a certain direction sets in, coupled in some species with a innate time-distance or time-and-direction (or vector navigation) program, a set of genetic instructions that instruct the bird to fly a certain direction for a specific length of time, change heading, and then precede on another for a preset period of time. Those directions are determined mainly by celestial and magnetic orientation but research has shown that infrasound (extremely low-frequency waves of the sort generated by ocean surf, which can travel for thousands of miles) may play a role as well.

Modifying this program though are a "hierarchy of orientation clues," which serve to refine a bird's navigation on subsequent flights, often enabling a bird to find specific breeding and wintering grounds with stunning accuracy. Clues such as learning geographic landmarks, olfactory, infrasound, and local magnetic clues help the migrating bird.

The second section, "Hiatus," focused on birds and their wintering grounds, from stay-at-home year-round resident birds alongside frozen Hudson Bay to birds of steamy rainforests and the Argentine pampas. Many birds like warblers and tanagers really are tropical birds to begin with; an oriole might spend four months in its temperate breeding range but seven months in the tropics, while some Canadian warblers spend less than three months there. Some birds migrate only as far south as southern Canada or the northern U.S. to winter. Others, such as the northern finches, follow an erratic and very unpredictable pattern of migration known as an irruption, a pattern tied to seed production in their normal range that in bad years may send birds as far south as the Gulf Coast.

The author discussed research on how faithful birds are to their wintering sites, debates over whether or not they are benefited by disturbed habitat, how flexible they are on their wintering grounds with regards to food and habitat, and how some species have completely different diets and habits on their wintering grounds (in some species the males and females will winter in different areas).

Threats to wintering birds were well discussed, covering such topics as the use of pesticides in Latin American countries (tens of thousands of Swainson's hawks have died from pesticides in Argentina), habitat destruction, changes in coffee-growing practices (shade-grown coffee plantations still have a great deal of habitat for birds but sun-coffee or technified farms are "biological deserts"), and disease (wetland destruction has forced waterfowl and shorebirds into overloaded federal and state refuges, what one researcher called "bird ghettos").

The third section, "Northbound," tracked the surge of migrants through the American Southwest, Great Plains, and the Gulf Coast. Topics of discussion often center on threats to migrating birds, including loss of hardwood forests along the Gulf Coast, a vital source of nutrients for migrating birds (increasingly usurped by industrialized pine plantations and beach homes), the loss of native grassland (a trend that is "nearly apocalyptic;" Iowa only has one-tenth of one percent left, while Minnesota has one percent left) which has caused grassland birds to decline faster, longer, and over a wider area than any other type, and the tremendous threats to breeding woodland birds due to forest fragmentation, opening up formerly deep woods to predators such as cats and also cowbirds, which are rapidly expanding their ranges and numbers and are a huge threat to eastern birds with no experience with brood parasites.

[Juliet Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Living on the Wind is a comprehensive overview of bird migration in the Western hemisphere. It delves into the evolution and mechanics of migration, looking at the journeys of some individual species and using these to investigate more overall patterns of migration.

The book looks at the history of the science around migration, the reasons behind migration and the perils faced by many migratory species. Of course long distance migration has always held perils but these have increased hugely as people have decimated habitats in the breeding and wintering zones and the stop-overs of many species. This means that many migratory birds are under a huge amount of pressure and the book (which is already 20 years out of date) contains some sobering examples.

This is a fascinating book, full of amazing facts and insights and written in an engaging and accessible style. It's a must read for anyone interested in bird migration and conservation and underlines just how interconnected the world's ecosystems are.

As a UK birder, I would love to read the same type of investigation into the migration of birds between Europe and Africa!

[Any Direction · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good-I think. Certainly, I have come out of knowing a little more and armed with additional facts to make me insufferable at parties. There are two problems, 1) this book is too long and dense. 370 pages sounds like a feasible amount but the text is small, and some editor should have cut this down. It felt like any one of these chapters could have been a book by itself and every tangent that could be taken was. 2) While I did learn from this, I am an ornithologist and someone who’s in the know is not the audience for this book. So a lot of the description was familiar, but I think someone less familiar would appreciate it.

This book was fine but now I want some fiction as a palette cleanser.

[Bill Leach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weidensaul writes of various aspects of bird migration. His many examples are often surprising and show that migration is a complex process. In each case, he shows how disruption of the environment in the key areas used by the migrating birds threatens them.

Migration is initiated when the change in day length causes a restlessness, or Zugunruhe, in the birds. Birds can sense major storms approaching, and will often set of ahead of them in good weather. Changes in migratory routes have been seen in some species, giving hints as to how migration evolves.

Most migratory birds are born with a sequence of heading versus time vectors that are used during the first migration. As their experience accumulates, they add navigational clues such as landmarks, magnetic bearings and orientation with respect to the sky. Abnormal winds can cause first year birds end up off the normal migration route.

The author does pelagic bird tours on both the east and west coasts, which typically see many species of seabird. "No wonder pelagic birding is considered one of the last frontier of ornithology."

Veracruz sees huge migrations of hawks and other birds. Hawks migrate in kettles as a group approach to identifying the thermals.

Mexico is prime for northern birds wintering. Most migrate only far enough to get winter food. There is speculation that some trees time their fruiting for northern migrants. Migrants commonly join foraging groups and even anting groups. Many tropical birds migrate locally between regions to benefit from seasonal opportunities.

The author describes birding in Jamaica, where deforestation has resulted in the loss of habitat for many birds including Bichnell's Thrush.

In 1973, the American Ornithologists Union released a new supplement that lumped many species, such as Bullock's Oriole, the Baltimore Oriole and the black-backed oriole of Mexico. Within a decade, splitting became the norm as more information on reproductive isolation, songs, behaviour and DNA content became available. The phylogenetic species concept (PSC) sees a species as any genetically, physically or geographically distinct population.

The migration destination of Swainson's hawks was not known until recently. It turned out to be the pampas of Argentina. The area has moved from raising cattle to growing sunflowers. The pesticide monocrotophos was used to control insects, but turned out to be deadly to birds, killing large numbers of the Swainson's hawks.

Irruptions, where birds move out of their normal area, are caused by changes in food supply. The lemmings in the north have a three to four year cycle which drives snowy owls and rough-legged hawks south. Some birds do not migrate - in the north the ravens have evolved to find a wide variety of foods and to live in the cold.

Both the greater and lesser snow geese have been increasing in population as they have adapted to feeding in agricultural fields, gaining a larger wintering area than they had historically. Their large numbers has caused habitat destruction both in the north and in the south, the greater snow geese creating huge "eatouts" in the coastal salt marshes. No methods for effective control have been found, hunting being surprisingly ineffective.

The northern migration in North America includes the movement of many birds across the Gulf of Mexico. When the birds encounter fronts featuring strong north winds they are forced down into the forests in the southern U.S. These "fallouts" feature birds in unusually high diversity and concentration. Before crossing the Gulf, warblers typically gain weight at about a gram a day, each gram being good for 125 miles of flight. A warbler crossing the Gulf will use four to five grams on its eighteen hour flight, arriving 35 percent lighter than when it took off.

The potholes provide resources for the many birds using the Central Flyway. The adjacent grasslands are crucial for the sparrows and other seed-eaters.

"No other group of birds illustrates the dependence of migrants upon small, widely spaced islands of habitat and resources as vividly as do shorebirds." The shorebirds depend on a few key locations that provide huge supplies of food. Examples include the Bay of Fundy, the Copper River delta, and Delaware Bay with its supply of Horseshoe Crab eggs.

Spring migration is spread over 3 to 4 months, with many species following the leafing out of the trees as that is also when caterpillars hatch out, such as those of the inchworm. Migrating birds have declined hugely, due to tropical deforestation and loss of habit in the temperate zones. High buildings and communications towers are significant hazards, killing millions of birds each year.

Nature produces more birds than territories in a given area, the excess being floaters that will take over if a territorial bird is killed. For this reason, a reduction in songbird population may not be noticed until this threshold is reached. The effect of island size on diversity was first proposed by A. O. Wilson and Robert MacArthur. It has been shown to apply to forested areas where fragmentation has opened the access to migrating bird nests for predators including small mammals and cowbirds.

Weidensaul's descriptions of some of the major locations to view migrating birds are great. I like the author's detailed descriptions of various birds reminding one that, more than just looking at a bird, there is much in observing the details of plumage and behaviour.

[Christy Esmahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could, I would give this book 10 stars! I can see why it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize--no, I take that back! I think it should have won the Pulitzer Prize. If you are interested in biology, ecology, the environment, birds or bird migration, or just curious about this planet we live on, read it!

[Nancy Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want clear-cut problems and neat solutions, try geometry. This is ecology, and it doesn't get any more complex and messier than this. But we're learning.

For more on fragmented habitats, read about Brazil's fragmented forests in the July 24, 2017 issue of Current Biology.

[Kathryn Maloney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written book. Weidensaul is such a lyrical and descriptive writer, I could see the birds and hear their song. While the information is dated (he wrote the book in 2000, it gives me an accurate picture of what was known of bird migration at that point. Now I plan to read "A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds" - his update, written in 2021.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written. Heartbreaking. Thrilling. About the wonders of bird migration- you'll never look at a bird in the same way again-ecology, the environment and the changes to bird migration being brought about by climate change.

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only reading bits and pieces on hawks and raptors in this extraordinary, elegantly written tome on migratory birds. The depth and density of research and information is astounding, as attested by the 23 pages of notes and Bibliographic sources. Dense but ever so readable.