What kind of bird did that egg come from? Why am I hearing that call at dawn every day? And what’s up with that cedar waxwing who’s feeding a nestling that’s not her own?
of the Courting, Parenting and Family Lives of Familiar Birds” (Storey, 2015) reveals so much about what goes on with the winged species we take for granted that it should be on the coffee table of any birder, or any of the 85 million Americans the U.S. Forest Service says are fascinated by birds. It really ought to be subtitled, “What Birds Want.”
Take, for example, that cedar waxwing who’s instinctively raising an interloping cowbird. The latter species evolved following giant bison herds, laying its eggs in the nests of other species.
When settlement came, farms increased the number of host birds available — and those new host birds weren’t wise to the cowbird’s ways.
Full of detailed photos, the book puts all the facts you’re hungry for on a buffet. — Susan Clotfelter, The Denver Post
