Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds

Birds are so all around us, it is not surprising that we might take them for granted, especially the songbirds that can be found in any backyard or feeder. Almost half the 10,000 species of birds on Earth are songbirds, the jays, larks, swallows, wrens, warblers, and others which have complex voiceboxes. They may be commonplace, but that does not mean that we know all there is about them. Many of them have complicated migration routes and behaviors that ornithologists have only in the past decades come to understand. The migratory songbirds of the Americas are covered in _Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds_ (Walker Books) by Miyoko Chu. Ornithologists say that most of the birds of North America evolved over many millennia in the tropics and gradually pushed their boundaries northwards. Some came and stayed, and others developed the pattern of coming north in the warmer months to take advantage of the food supply and to bring forth the next generation before returning to warmer climes for the winter. There are literally billions of birds involved in this passage, but capacity to track them has been technologically available only in recent years, and Chu, an ornithologist at the renowned Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, brings readers up to date with scientific news about a remarkable research frontier. As fascinated as humans have always been by birds, there were limits of perception in tracking the migrants. Chu gives a brief history of how hard it was to track these birds that do most of their travel at night before they could be seen on radar. Of course, tracking with radar required correlation with ground observations, and observers have a lot of work during the weeks that birds stream in to regions like our Gulf Coast. Chu describes the procedures for coastal Louisiana, where "mist nets" of a mesh so fine the birds cannot see them are set up to trap them. Among the surprising ways of tracking birds is though analyzing their blood for specific elemental isotopes; geographic areas differ in the levels of such isotopes, so a bird staying in a particular region picks up particular isotopes, which can be analyzed to see where the bird has been. A surprising new way to watch birds at night is to listen for their nocturnal calls. Determined (and sleep-deprived) observers eventually pinned down which calls went with which birds, allowing a technological breakthrough in nighttime birdwatching. Borrowing computer software used to pick out whale songs from other undersea noises, observers can point microphones at the sky and allow computers to monitor just what is passing overhead. And anyone who wants to can take part: thirty bucks will buy you a rooftop microphone to feed the sounds into a home computer, for the downloadable software to analyze. This illustrates one of the most attractive parts of Songbird Journeys. Throughout the book are not just reports of what we already know, but invitations to get

Very informative but written in a documentary style so don't think you'll be sitting down for a leisurely read. This is heavy stuff if you love songbirds. Fifty percent of all songbirds die each year, most during migration - the rest through habitat loss, predators, etc. That's the heavy stuff; but you'll learn so much about their songs, survival techniques, and so on. Extremely interesting but not an easy read.

This book was a pure delight to read. I feel confident in saying that this book would be an easy read for even someone who knows almost nothing about birds, due to its clear storytelling, examples and fascinating facts. Chu goes through the four seasons of the lives of a number of birds that spend at least some of their time in North America, telling us anecdotes about tracking and observing them, with doses of whimsy and child-like awe for good measure. She also tells of some of the more exciting places to go to see migrants for yourself. And while she writes about this to alert the general public about the dramatic declines of migrant songbird populations througout North America in recent decades, she does so by inspiring wonder and hope - a much better combination than fear and alarmism. Simply put, this book helped give my fascination for birds a newly informed perspective, helping me to care about birds and appreciate them all the more.

I'll keep this brief. This is a terrific book! It is very readable (on layman's level), and chock full of interesting facts, tidbits and research results. I found myself reading parts of it aloud to my partner. I am involved in songbird rehab, and was amazed to learn that "Woods", a brown thrasher and our latest release, would ultimately develop a song list numbering close to 2,000! (We "talked" in "Robin", since Woods was raised alongside a baby robin). I am recommending "Songbird Journeys" to all my friends who love wild birds and Nature in general.

If you don't want to plough through the latest research on birds to gain insights into what's being discovered about their habits, then SONGBIRD JOURNEYS: FOUR SEASONS IN THE LIVES OF MIGRATORY BIRDS is for you. It comes for a Cornell Lab ornithologist and science writer who surveys songbird migratory habits and winter locations, using the four seasons as a foundation for exploration. While much research is reflected in SONGBIRD JOURNEYS, the tone is easy for non-scientists to absorb, and any with a love of birds will find it most accessible. Diane C. Donovan, Editor California Bookwatch