A World on the Wing

Starred review from December 1, 2020

Award-winning author and natural historian Weidensaul (Living on the Wind) professes and demonstrates reverence for migratory birds in this book. Impelled by genetics and sent on by the changing seasons, migratory birds tenaciously endure migrations of thousands, even tens of thousands, of miles, the author explains. Weidensaul participated in some of the most advanced research and observation of species of these birds across the globe. He describes the incredible migrations and physiological changes of swifts, thrushes, warblers, whimbrels, owls, and other birds, many in obscure and unusual places. In the last two decades, technological advances in avian tracking equipment, Big Data, and the explosion of average citizens' observation/recording of bird movements have led to significant advances in our knowledge of bird migration. Based on recent scientific research and his own research and bird observations, Weidensaul vividly explains how humans, through destruction of habitat and global warming, are threatening many bird species populations. VERDICT Each chapter on the different bird species and migration experiences will vibrantly inform readers about the habits of migratory birds--or at least what we know about them so far. Besides appealing to birders, this book will also engage those interested in natural or environmental history.--Mark Jones, Mercantile Lib., Cincinnati

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2020
Naturalist Scott Weidensaul has written a number of titles, including The First Frontier (2012) and Living on the Wind (1999), one of several books about birds, which continue to fascinate him, particularly their migration. Beginning with a tale of tagging grey-cheeked thrushes in Alaska, and being charged by an angry mother grizzly, he brings us along as he discovers how much scientists have learned about avian migration in the last few decades. We have learned to look at migratory birds not as residents of one place, but as residents of their whole range, including stopover resting sites and their wintering grounds. To keep migratory bird populations healthy, the flocks and and the all the places they land must be protected. As Weidensaul travels the world, working with scientists as they study shorebirds in China's Yellow Sea and frigatebirds in the Galapagos, use a transcontinental array of radio receivers to track migrants carrying tiny radios, and band exhausted migrants in Alabama, he explains such discoveries as how birds navigate (using magnetism coupled with brain chemistry) and how they sleep on the wing (one half of the brain rests at a time). Many mysteries of bird life and migration are revealed in this compelling and illuminating in-the-field narrative complete with maps and photographs.

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January 18, 2021
“In the past two decades we’ve realized how badly we have underestimated the simple physical abilities of birds,” suggests naturalist Weidensaul (Living on the Wind) in this remarkable look at global bird migration. “The world is changing around us,” he writes, and migrating birds are “our best and most compelling window” into those changes. To understand the “complexity of migratory ecology,” Weidensaul takes readers to Alaska’s Denali National Park, where he catches and tags thrushes; coastal Jiangsu Province in China, a critical way station for migratory shorebirds; and Cyprus, an island in the eastern Mediterranean “at the nexus of great migratory flyways connecting central Europe to Africa and the Middle East” that’s notorious for illegal bird trapping. Along the way, Weidensaul describes tracking technology, such as outdated radiotelemetry, and geolocators that weigh “barely half a gram.” He notes with urgency the consequences of climate change and urban development on migration patterns (brightly lit skyscrapers disorient migrating birds) while maintaining a sense of wonder about the birds’ efforts and abilities: “a migratory bird’s ability to traverse thousands of miles is perhaps the greatest physiological feat of all.” Bird enthusiasts and fans of nature writing shouldn’t miss this. Photos.

Starred review from February 1, 2021
Bird researcher and writer Weidensaul unpacks the state of bird migration research and conservation efforts. Bird migration is a wonder, a natural force that pushes small, fragile creatures to fly immense distances with both speed and tenacity. In his latest contribution to the subject, the Pulitzer Prize finalist provides a wide-ranging investigation into migration, including the success stories as well as current problems and those on the horizon: climate change, which "is reshaping every single thing about migration"; habitat loss and forest fragmentation, "a serious danger to...migrant songbirds"; rat infestation; and hunting--especially after "wild meat became a status symbol rather than a mere source of protein." As in many of his previous books, Weidensaul is a peerless guide, sharing his intoxicating passion and decadeslong experience with countless bird species all over the world. Another pleasing aspect of the narrative is the author's fine-line descriptions of the often remote landscapes through which he has traveled and the vest-pocket character portraits of his birding comrades. Each of the chapters covers one or more species and locales--e.g., frigatebirds in the Gal�pagos, Amur falcons in China and Mongolia, whimbrels on Virginia's Eastern Shore, more than 160 species of birds in Denali National Park--but the author also ventures into other areas, such as a bird's "magnetic orientation" ability and the "genetic road map" that allows them to embark on a successful migration. Of course, significant problems abound: the disappearance of birds' habitat preferences and favored diets; the traditional trapping of songbirds in the Mediterranean for consumption (according to one estimate in 2016, "trappers were killing between 1.3 million and 3.2 million birds annually in Cyprus, making this small island one of the worst places...for this slaughter"); and the disorientation of urban lights. As the author notes, because of the variety and number of routes, habitats, and species, their protection will require a vigorous global approach. Another winner from Weidensaul that belongs in every birder's library.

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