The Homing Instinct: the Story and Science of Migration

Although these two books look at the same broad topic – animal migration and movements around and between home ranges – and although both are enriched by the breadth of taxonomic groups they cover (i.e. by no means just birds, although of course they appear prominently in both), they are very different books.
Readers familiar with Bernd Heinrich’s writing will not be disappointed in the lucid, easy text in ‘The Homing Instinct’. The book is subtitled ‘The Story and Science of Migration’ but this doesn’t truly reflect the scope of the book, as much of it is devoted to considering what a ‘home’ is and what it means for various animals, rather than simply how and why they swap home for home across the globe each year: the first section considers ‘Homing’ itself, the second ‘Home-making and Maintaining’ and the third ‘Homing Implications’. The result is a wide-ranging and thought-provoking book that is a really good read. Scientific anecdotes and studies are recounted alongside the author’s personal experience in a typically reflective, almost philosophical but warm and, dare I say it, ‘homely’ style.
Readers wishing for an up-to-date overview on the science of animal movement, however, will be much better served by ‘Animal Movement across Spatial Scales’. This collection of multi-authored chapters has been curated and lead by scientists from the Centre for Animal Movement Research at Lund University, a world-renowned centre of research on migration and related topics.  The 14 chapters are distributed across three sections, namely: Large-Scale Patterns of Movement; Movement Strategies and Adaptations; and The Mechanisms and Codes of Navigation and Movement. They cover fascinating topics ranging from global patterns of migration across taxa and dispersal in agricultural landscapes, through the role of individual personality and flexibility of behaviour in movement strategies to more mechanistic topics such as the sensory cues used in animal navigation, the genetics of migration and the physics of animal locomotion. Although a science text, the book is written in an accessible style and laid out suitably so that any scientifically literate reader interested in the subject should be able to share in the excitement of this rapidly developing field without undue effort.

Both books are thoroughly recommended, depending upon what you want from them. 

Book reviewed by Chris Hewson