The Living Bird: 100 Years of Listening to Nature

To describe this lavishly illustrated volume as beautiful would be an injustice indeed, for the photography by Gerrit Vyn is without exception, simply stunning. This title was published last year to celebrate 100 years of The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, an organisation that has worked tirelessly to conserve birdlife in the United States through research and citizen science. Rather than focus on the organisation itself however, The Living Bird honours the birds themselves and does so very splendidly indeed.

From the lyrical introduction by the novelist Barbara Kingsolver, describing her rather reluctant yet inevitable journey to appreciating the wonder of birds, to the sober yet hopeful afterword by popular writer Jared Diamond, the text that accompanies the astounding images both introduces and reminds readers of the phenomenal wonder of the birds with which we share the Earth. The photos are almost entirely of species found in North America and Canada, but the three essays making up the bulk of the text together tell a story about the fascinating lives and behaviour of birds that is relevant anywhere on the planet.

Some readers may be disappointed that The Living Bird doesn’t detail more of the valuable work carried out by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology itself, but profiles of a sound recordist, a citizen scientist and a Cornell researcher shed some light on activities that are central to collecting and analysing the vast data sets that enable the Lab to inform effective conservation action.

The Living Bird is undoubtedly a coffee table book but one that can be dipped into over and over again. While large it isn't unwieldy and the landscape format allows the larger photos to completely captivate and draw the reader into the world that their avian subjects inhabit. I for one shall enjoy dipping into this book on dark winter nights when the summer visitors have left for warmer climes and the short icy days bring an early close to time spent in the field.

Book reviewed by Justin Walker

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