BIRDS

A chirpy overview of bird behaviors, from morning until night.

A dawn chorus gets this hour-by-hour review underway, and Bond—after introducing himself as principal curator of birds at London’s Natural History Museum—goes on to describe broadly and briefly how select birds wake up, make nests or bowers, lay and tend eggs, fly, chow down, and end the day with a final twilight snack before night leaves only the “silent assassin” barn owl on the hunt for mice. Whether depicting a pair of flame bowerbirds on a “fancy first date,” a double chorus line of Andean flamingos, or swirls of European starlings in a spiraling “murmuration,” Rancourt’s artwork, which resembles cut-paper collages, focuses attention more on brightly contrasting hues than finely detailed individual feathers or other features. The avian cast isn’t very large, but common, rare, and exotic tropical rainforest species are all at least represented, and the habitats and behaviors are generalized enough to be applicable to most birds in most settings. Aside from a Roman skyline in one scene, there are no human figures or works in view. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A bright, brisk addition to the murmuration of bird books.