Sharon Beals

Gorgeous photos of nests. The accompanying texts are interesting and informative, although they give a little stab in the heart since most of them end with a comment on the perilous loss of habitat due to human expansion. My favorite nests came from the Spotted Nightingale-Thrush, Anna's Hummingbird, Pine Siskin, and the Green Heron (whose pile of twigs made me smile as I recognized an all-thumbs/no thumbs kindred spirit).

The photos are stunning, if sterile. There were some puzzling errors in the text, including referring to egg laying as "hatching" in the African Palm Swift section and the misspelling of drey as dray. Lots of good information as well, but I always focus on the errors. Beals' writing style can be hard to follow, to wit: "Their feathers adorning the bonnets of the fashionable in the 1800s, it was this bird, not the egret, lamented in an editorial by George Bird Grinnell in an 1886 issue of show more Field and Stream, that led to the formation of the Audubon Society."

The photos are certainly interesting and detailed. What I thought I was getting, when I picked up the book, was a book of nests photographed in situ rather than collected nests with blown eggs. show less

a single verb recto ("smile", "dig", even "dissuade") with a black and white photograph verso exhibiting the behavior. cute.