A World on the Wing

At 400 pages, packed full of migratory bird facts, new research and stories about the scientists who study them, this book is an epic read. And it takes us on an epic journey across the world exploring some of the world’s most fascinating and, frankly, epic birds.

At times it can be a challenging read, some pages are dense with numbers; miles travelled and bird populations counted. And, as ever, with books about nature there are sad stories of extinctions, impacts of climate change, habitat destruction and battles with poaching.

I promise you, the challenge is worth it, this book revealed so many fascinating and mind-boggling nuggets of information. I’d love to share all I learnt from this book but I wouldn’t want to spoil it. There were countless times when I dropped my jaw in amazement whilst reading this book. My ebook copy is covered in highlights!

There are also positive conservation stories where migratory bird species have been brought back from the brink, where education and ecotourism changed everything. This book is both an all-you-need-to-know on migratory birds and a spotlight on those trying to make a difference for some of the world’s most vulnerable and wondrous species.

If you are a bird nerd, then I recommend you read this book!

“Most of what we know about migrants comes through limited snapshots, the few places and times where their travels intersect with humans who take the time to notice, leaving us to try to imagine the wide landscape of their lives by peering through tiny, scattered peepholes.”

A main theme of this book is the use of GPS tracking and other methods to fill in the gaps between those peepholes. The bird is humanely trapped, fitted with the tracking device, and freed, then when it returns from its migration it’s trapped again and the data on the device downloaded. Researchers can then see all the places it has been over the past year, and how long it stayed. Data like this helps conservationists to find out previously unknown locations that are important for migrants, and helps to explain why some species are in decline despite having apparently good conditions in their breeding and winter territory. The book also includes a lot of fascinating information about how birds migrate, such as the methods they use and what happens to their bodies before, during and after migration.

I really enjoyed how the author interspersed the scientific information with accounts of birding trips, his own fieldwork, and research journeys he made in the course of writing the book. I like his relaxed style and the way he draws you in with a story. The book is also heavily scientific with plenty of statistics and technical terms, which I appreciated. This does make it less of a pop-science book, but great for enthusiasts. If you enjoy books about science, birds, technology or conservation then I highly recommend you try it.

I’d like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for kindly providing me with an advance review copy. All opinions are my own.