Nests, Eggs, and Incubation: New Ideas about Avian Reproduction

This is a really interesting book – and what’s more it’s really readable – once I picked it up, I found it hard to put down!  The editors are world authorities in this field and they have created a book which looks not only at the expected angles of the subject but is also full of surprises.  They have persuaded a whole host of top experts to write chapters, including the BTO’s own Dave Leech (on citizen science as a valuable and unique source of information). 

The book starts with a chapter on what you can find out from the fossil record (a lot, as I found out!), then moves onto various aspects about nests – how they are built and the choices birds make when deciding where to build them.  I didn’t know that migratory passerines will avoid habitat sprayed with water containing mink urine and that Siberian Jays build their nests in safer sites if they are exposed to taped calls of other corvids. Birds will modify their nests to take account of prevailing conditions – thus Long-tailed Tits decrease the amount of feather in their nests as the season get warmer.

There are fascinating chapters on how climatic change might affect bird nests and incubation, how birds control all the parasites and other hangers-on in nests; the signalling of eggs (not just colour, but also from the chicks inside and their smell!) and a whole lot of interesting chapters about incubation.  One chapter that might be of particular interest to BTO members is one on advances in the techniques available to study nests and their contents – with a lot of detail on iButtons® - small little data loggers that can be used to gather loads of info on the behaviour of incubating birds and their chicks.

All in all, this was a joy to read, very nicely produced by OUP, and well worth the investment as it is absolutely bulging with new facts and ideas.  It will certainly stimulate a whole lot of new studies – which must surely be the definition of a great book!

Book reviewed by Humphrey Crick