Bookmonger: Birds – a celebration and a caution

“The Living Bird: 100 Years of Listening to Nature” with photos by Gerrit Vyn

I am captivated by the feisty little Anna’s hummingbird that comes out even on these frostiest of mornings to visit the autumnalis cherry in our garden. But I find birds of any species to be enthralling, so I had to get my hands on the new book celebrating the centennial of The Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Although the lab is based in Ithaca, New York, and both its academic and citizen-science projects have global impact, I am pleased to note the enormous contributions of Puget Sound folk to “The Living Bird: 100 Years of Listening to Nature.”

For starters, the book is published by Seattle-based Mountaineers Books, and it features the photography of Seattle-based photographer Gerrit Vyn.

While Vyn’s address may be local, his work takes him worldwide, and this book allows us to travel vicariously with him as he slithers through estuarine muck to reach a blind overlooking the famous flamingo colony in Mexico’s Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve, or when he hikes across the Russian tundra to document the Spoon-billed Sandpiper, which tops the list of the world’s most critically endangered birds.

Vyn’s images capture the showy mating rituals of the Greater Prairie-Chicken, the Greater Sage-Grouse and the Ruddy Duck. His photos include an array of nests – from the bushtit’s fantastic hanging pouch constructed of grasses, moss and spider webs, to the nest hole of the Burrowing Owl. There are clutches of eggs – speckled green of the Bar-Tailed Godwit, deep blue of the Red-winged Blackbird. And there are the gaping maws of hungry chicks – Common Ravens, Black Skimmers, Savannah Sparrows, Ferruginous Hawks, Clark’s Nutcrackers, Great Egrets – all pointedly expressing one sentiment: feed me! feed me! feed me!

The book includes some glorious full-page photos of thousands of birds in flight – Red-winged Blackbirds, Red-legged Kittwakes, Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes. And there are some terrific panoramas of wild habitat: sagebrush steppe, tundra, island cliffs, and more.

But there are also images that provide a sobering counterpoint – birds in compromised habitat, being encroached upon by industry, pollution, and other human-induced disruption.

The photographs are compelling, but don’t overlook the essays and profiles from the likes of author Barbara Kingsolver, Seattle naturalist Lyanda Lynn Haupt, Seattle science writer Sandi Doughton, and other researchers.

Particularly strong is the piece by John W. Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, who provides a thought-provoking assessment that connects the wellbeing of birds with the overall health of our planet. He points out that the conservation movement, now a century old, has led to better science and legislative protections that have allowed bird species such as Wood Ducks and Bald Eagles to make a comeback from the brink of extinction. But there are still many other species in peril, due to climate change, habitat loss, pollution, and other factors.

“The Living Bird” makes the case that, as humans, we will make an impact one way or another. Individually and collectively, let’s work to help birds thrive.

This story was originally published December 24, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Bookmonger: Birds – a celebration and a caution."