Overview

Biologist Bridget Stutchbury takes readers along on her escapades as a bird detective, stalking subjects through the woods for hours, taking blood samples from nestlings for DNA analysis, and mounting miniature tracking devices on tiny backs. She captures several young white-and-brown male purple martins and paints them the darker color of mature males to see if the painted youngsters are more successful than their unaltered peers in wresting away nest sites from older males. They are! The Private Lives of Birds is a treasure trove of fascinating insights into bird behavior. But understanding the social lives of birds does much more than slake our curiosity. Aware that many birds will not occupy an area unless other birds are already there, biologists used mirrors and two-dimensional cutouts to lure Atlantic puffins to establish colonies off the coast of Maine, getting curious puffins to visit the site and linger long enough to encounter a live bird. As Stutchbury says, Trying to save birds without understanding what makes them tick is a shot in the dark birds are highly social, and their social needs are at least as important as their physical needs.

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This is an excellent overview of wild birdbehavior, social relationships, courtship, and breeding, which are surprisingly structured and complex. Well researched, this is highly recommended for academic and large public libraries, natural history and psychology collections, and readers with more than a superficial attraction to nature. -- Library Journal Be warned: reading The Private Lives of Birds is likely to make you chuck in your present job to become a bird biologist. Who would have known that our beloved wild birds would turn out to be liars, cheats, and bullies? In elegant and lucid prose, Stutchbury explains why birds act the way they do. --Glen Chilton, author of The Curse of the Labrador Duck <p> The bird detective delivers in many ways, packaging facts and insights, science and adventure with a folksy delivery that never undermines the seriousness of her research. -- The Olympian (Olympia, WA)<p> Stutchbury's new, informal work on bird behavior just begs to be rea

&#8220;This is an excellent overview of wild bird behavior, social relationships, courtship, and breeding, which are surprisingly structured and complex. Well researched, this is highly recommended for academic and large public libraries, natural history and psychology collections, and readers with more than a superficial attraction to nature.&#8221;&#8212; Library Journal &#160;&#8220;Be warned: reading The Private Lives of Birds is likely to make you chuck in your present job to become a bird biologist. Who would have known that our beloved wild birds would turn out to be liars, cheats, and bullies? In elegant and lucid prose, Stutchbury explains why birds act the way they do.&#8221;&#8212;Glen Chilton, author of The Curse of the Labrador Duck <p>&#8220;The bird detective delivers in many ways, packaging facts and insights, science and adventure with a folksy delivery that never undermines the seriousness of her research.&#8221; &#8212; The Olympian (Olympia, WA)<p>&#8220;Stutc

Author Information

Bridget Stutchbury completed her Ph.D. at Yale, was a fellow and research associate at the Smithsonian Institute, and is now professor of biology at York University. She is affiliated with more than a dozen organizations that seek to preserve bird habitats. Her book, The Silence of the Songbirds, was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for Non-fiction.

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