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Birds in Winter: Surviving the Most Challenging Season
How birds have evolved and adapted to survive winter
Birds in Winter is the first book devoted to the ecology and behavior of birds during this most challenging season. Birds remaining in regions with cold weather must cope with much shorter days to find food and shelter even as they need to avoid predators and stay warm through the long nights, while migrants to the tropics must fit into very different ecosystems and communities of resident birds. Roger Pasquier explores how winter affects birds’ lives all through the year, starting in late summer, when some begin caching food to retrieve months later and others form social groups lasting into the next spring. During winter some birds are already pairing up for the following breeding season, so health through the winter contributes to nesting success.
Today, rapidly advancing technologies are enabling scientists to track individual birds through their daily and annual movements at home and across oceans and hemispheres, revealing new and unexpected information about their lives and interactions. But, as Birds in Winter shows, much is visible to any interested observer. Pasquier describes the season’s distinct conservation challenges for birds that winter where they have bred and for migrants to distant regions. Finally, global warming is altering the nature of winter itself. Whether birds that have evolved over millennia to survive this season can now adjust to a rapidly changing climate is a problem all people who enjoy watching them must consider.
Filled with elegant line drawings by artist and illustrator Margaret La Farge, Birds in Winter describes how winter influences the lives of birds from the poles to the equator.
Birds in Winter is the first book devoted to the ecology and behavior of birds during this most challenging season. Birds remaining in regions with cold weather must cope with much shorter days to find food and shelter even as they need to avoid predators and stay warm through the long nights, while migrants to the tropics must fit into very different ecosystems and communities of resident birds. Roger Pasquier explores how winter affects birds’ lives all through the year, starting in late summer, when some begin caching food to retrieve months later and others form social groups lasting into the next spring. During winter some birds are already pairing up for the following breeding season, so health through the winter contributes to nesting success.
Today, rapidly advancing technologies are enabling scientists to track individual birds through their daily and annual movements at home and across oceans and hemispheres, revealing new and unexpected information about their lives and interactions. But, as Birds in Winter shows, much is visible to any interested observer. Pasquier describes the season’s distinct conservation challenges for birds that winter where they have bred and for migrants to distant regions. Finally, global warming is altering the nature of winter itself. Whether birds that have evolved over millennia to survive this season can now adjust to a rapidly changing climate is a problem all people who enjoy watching them must consider.
Filled with elegant line drawings by artist and illustrator Margaret La Farge, Birds in Winter describes how winter influences the lives of birds from the poles to the equator.
304 pages, Hardcover
Published August 13, 2019
About the author
Roger F. Pasquier
8 books2 followersRoger Farrel Pasquier, ornithologist. Some bios/CVs appear online.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 15, 2020
Very intense look at how winter impacts birds across the planet. Great bibliography to check out primary sources.
March 18, 2020
Roger F. Pasquier has assembled a vast amount of research across decades in multiple scholarly ornithology magazines to bring us a deeper understanding of birds in winter. And this research shows Mr Pasquier has taken a great amount of time and effort to bring this book to life.
When I first got the book I assumed this would be solely about birds literally in winter, such as the chickadees in my yard during the coldest and darkest months of the year. Instead as he argues ‘winter is a global phenomenon’ and looks at birds throughout the world. But he does note that Asia is primarily absent since there is still very little research in this area of the globe. Seabirds are also discussed, going into detail about their seasonal movements in the oceans.
Each chapter gives a deeper look at something. How they react to the winter day, how they interact with their own species or other species and how mixed flocks are formed and the hierarchy that is formed. How they are affected by weather patterns is included too, including how that sometimes affects their departures for either their summer or winter grounds.
The last two chapters, conservation and climate change, take a look at how these affect birds. The conservation chapter looks at how conserving birds is needed globally, and how forest being cleared in tropical South America affects birds in North America. Climate change looks at birds that have managed to adjust their migration patterns and also birds that have not been able to adjust.
One thing that the author has skimmed over in detail is the migration. This he has chosen to do simply because as he states in the beginning of the book this has already been covered in some depth in other books. This allows him to go deeper into other aspects of the birds’ life during the winter. A very good choice that I find helps the book stay focused on the topic and not skim on other details.
One other topic the book addresses is the molting of feathers. What season they do this, how often and the complexity of it for some birds, such as ones that molt partially, migrate then finish after arriving in their winter grounds. Mate selection for birds in the winter months also has a good amount devoted to it.
Margaret La Farge’s line drawings throughout the book lend a very wonderful touch to the book. Her line drawings are very well done and help bring the text to life.
I strongly recommend this book to any one who wants to understand birds more. Someone looking for a light easy read might not want to pick this up. This is a seriously well researched book and not meant for a casual read. I would still recommend it if you want a deeper understanding of how birds get through the winter. A full four stars for me.
When I first got the book I assumed this would be solely about birds literally in winter, such as the chickadees in my yard during the coldest and darkest months of the year. Instead as he argues ‘winter is a global phenomenon’ and looks at birds throughout the world. But he does note that Asia is primarily absent since there is still very little research in this area of the globe. Seabirds are also discussed, going into detail about their seasonal movements in the oceans.
Each chapter gives a deeper look at something. How they react to the winter day, how they interact with their own species or other species and how mixed flocks are formed and the hierarchy that is formed. How they are affected by weather patterns is included too, including how that sometimes affects their departures for either their summer or winter grounds.
The last two chapters, conservation and climate change, take a look at how these affect birds. The conservation chapter looks at how conserving birds is needed globally, and how forest being cleared in tropical South America affects birds in North America. Climate change looks at birds that have managed to adjust their migration patterns and also birds that have not been able to adjust.
One thing that the author has skimmed over in detail is the migration. This he has chosen to do simply because as he states in the beginning of the book this has already been covered in some depth in other books. This allows him to go deeper into other aspects of the birds’ life during the winter. A very good choice that I find helps the book stay focused on the topic and not skim on other details.
One other topic the book addresses is the molting of feathers. What season they do this, how often and the complexity of it for some birds, such as ones that molt partially, migrate then finish after arriving in their winter grounds. Mate selection for birds in the winter months also has a good amount devoted to it.
Margaret La Farge’s line drawings throughout the book lend a very wonderful touch to the book. Her line drawings are very well done and help bring the text to life.
I strongly recommend this book to any one who wants to understand birds more. Someone looking for a light easy read might not want to pick this up. This is a seriously well researched book and not meant for a casual read. I would still recommend it if you want a deeper understanding of how birds get through the winter. A full four stars for me.
March 1, 2021
Read this one for the Environment of the Americas book club, an academic book that I'll keep for reference.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews