The Profit of Birding

The bulk of this book is a series of extracts from reports of trips led by Bryan for Sunbird, especially his pioneering ‘Birds and Music’ tours to various parts of Europe.  These extracts are accompanied by some context and anecdotes (heavy duty birding to amusing personal!), including a description of Bryan’s run across 50 miles of landslides in the Himalayas to ensure he met his group on time in Delhi!  It is also remarkable how much co-operation he gets from the musicians on the Birds and Music tours – private performances from top players abound for example – and the trips usually have a good bird list as well.

Overall I found the extracts in some chapters somewhat repetitive and therefore the whole was rather too long.  However the anecdotes make for good and amusing reading and the price will certainly not break the bank.

Book reviewed by Peter Lack