Birds and People

NB. This is an expanded review:

This is an astonishing work. To find in one bird book weird food, tribal head-dresses, Puffin bills sewn into clothing, rock painting, poetry, banknotes, art, Guinness, jewellery, high fashion, an airline and a stained glass window (about which, more later) indicates the breadth of the material brought together. There are two ‘authors’: Mark Cocker whose knowledge and wisdom about birds and their cultural significance knows no bounds; and David Tipling whose images of people with birds, of artefacts and of the birds themselves, are simply beautiful. But my own copy of this book has four signatures in the front - this was a team effort, with research from Jonathan Elphick on an original idea from John Fanshawe of Birdlife International. Even then, they are not the only contributors, for the team has collected and presented 650 experiences from people in 81 countries around the world. Weaving these perspectives into a story is a work of art.

Many of us are used to seeing arresting images of beautiful birds. Red-crowned Cranes in the Hokkaido snow is familiar, but David Tipling’s interpretation, on an introductory page, of a crowd of fuzzy birds surrounding the crisp, focused image of the Japanese man with his crane-food bucket, tells us where this book will take us. In pulling together and illustrating the story, we will read as much about people as we will about birds - this is a book about our culture, and the place of birds within it. We will already know something of many of the accounts - edible nests of swiftlets from Asia, Cuckoos in verse and in The Times, domestic hens as food and as fighting cocks, Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows (or are they Rooks?) - but here the information seems broad and deep. Two stories I know well are here portrayed in every accurate detail. Bringing back New Zealand Storm-petrel from the dead, the true re-discoverers Sav Saville and Brent Stephenson of Wrybill Tours are correctly credited: on the other side of the extinction coin, the controversy around the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in North America is told with passion but not hyperbole, incorporating different views and beliefs. You know you are reading a special authority with the subject matter.

Of all the gorgeous pictures that illustrate this book, I have three favourites: a roost of White Wagtails in a neon lit city street; a traditionally dressed Kazakh family with their Saker Falcon; and, a displaying male Capercaillie, backlit at dawn in its pristine pine forest. But picking few from such riches seems churlish and, like Mark’s written authority, David’s power with the camera graces almost every page. However, I choose these not only for their beauty, but for how they help to tell the story. Birds are all around us, in cities as well as wilderness, in family life whether at your Western dinner table or on the open plains of Mongolia. And of that stained-glass window? I’m not sure I should admit to being in the picture amongst the crowd gathered to see Norfolk’s first White-crowned Sparrow.....

As we would expect, the knowledge imparted by this book - through words and pictures - carries a powerful message. The global effect birds have had on our lives is enriching. As Mark says, “We are indebted to birds for life-enhancing gifts”. But from the extinction of Elephant Birds, Moas, the Dodo and the Passenger Pigeon to song-bird trapping across the Mediterranean, we are reminded of the damaging impact we are having on birds. For me perhaps the most poignant image is of two European Turtle Doves taking flight - for how much longer will British birdwatchers experience such grace? “A world without birds would lay waste to the human heart”.

This is a book for everyone. There could be many like it, for there is just so much to tell about the cultural significance of birds, and the authors here admit a current, personal perspective of two people. For me it is the book I would take to a desert island - for a life defined by birds it is affirming and surprising. Lay your hands on a copy!

Book reviewed by Andy Clements