Bird Day

• Bird Day by Mark E Hauber, illustrated by Tony Angell (University of Chicago Press, 2023).
• 168 pages, 24 halftones.
• ISBN: 9780226819402. Hbk, £15.

This very small and chunky book deals with 24 species in 24 hours, using each to explore a different aspect of bird biology (although there is a fair bit of overlap) in a short essay.

I increasingly find myself questioning standard explanations, from a position of ignorance usually, and find scientific papers increasingly unintelligible ... so, it is good to see a professor doing the same and explaining things in simple language. I still question some suggestions, even so, and some ideas remain inconclusive, leaving the reader wondering – which is a good thing, for we should wonder more often.

There is, too, a strange mistake as the 'Great Snipe' entry describes Common Snipe behaviour. Fine drawings by Tony Angell, with a grey background, have a quality recalling old woodcuts, adding a lot to the book.