The Book of Birds; A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss
Title of the book: The Book of Birds; A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss Author: Robert MaFarlane, Jackie Morris
Publisher: W.W. Norton
Publishing Date: 2026
ISBN: 978-1-324-00684-8
Summary:
From the best-selling authors of The Lost Words, a dazzling celebration of endangered birds.
The Book of Birds is a field guide with a difference: It shows readers not just how to identify birds, but also how to identify with them. Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris conjure the unique spirit of nearly fifty once-common species: avocet to yellowhammer, kestrel to kingfisher, skylark to nightingale. In lyrical and incantatory essays, Macfarlane describes each bird’s habits and habitats, their patterns of flight and patterns of song, how they hunt or fish or scavenge or gather, how they nest and raise their chicks, the myths that attend them, the threats that shadow them—and how their lives intersect with our own. On every page we encounter Morris’s exhilarating artwork, painted from life in watercolor and gold leaf, and animated with an extraordinary attention to detail. The Book of Birds is a love letter to the thrilling variety and mysteries of birdlife, and a clarion call to halt the rapid depletion of our skies.
(From goodreads)
Robert Macfarlane is a British nature writer and literary critic.
Educated at Nottingham High School, Pembroke College, Cambridge and Magdalen College, Oxford, he is currently a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and teaches in the Faculty of English at Cambridge.
Robert Macfarlane is the author of prize-winning and bestselling books about landscape, nature, people and place, including Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination (2003), The Wild Places (2007), The Old Ways (2012), Holloway (2013, with Stanley Donwood and Dan Richards), Landmarks (2015), The Lost Words: A Spell Book (with the artist Jackie Morris, 2017) and Underland: A Deep Time Journey (2019). His work has been translated into many languages, won prizes around the world, and his books have been widely adapted for film, television, stage and radio. He has collaborated with artists, film-makers, actors, photographers and musicians, including Hauschka, Willem Dafoe, Karine Polwart and Stanley Donwood. In 2017 he was awarded the EM Forster Prize for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
This is my first introduction to Robert MacFarlane, and having read his latest book, I can definitely understand the hype behind IS A RIVER ALIVE? I really loved the book, although I live in USA Texas instead of UK and unfortunately I am not very familiar with the birds pictured in there. Having said that, I loved the descriptions and pictures as well as the presentation of what makes a bird a bird. I got introduced to a lot of birds that I never knew existed and definitely felt heart break for the birds that are destined to disappear. In addition to the pictures of birds, there are also pictures of eggs they lay as well as how to identify them. (Any chancce the author can do birds of Texas so I can learn more about birds in my neighborhood? Just thought I'd ask) Anyways, an excellent and memorable guide to birds as well as their fascinating deeds and personalities, a worthwhile read.
This was given for review
5 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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