British author Cocker (Loneliness and Time) considers the eccentric clanlike world of bird-watchers in this endearing examination of an obsession and the people who share it. Cocker's own love of birds dates to an attic encounter with pigeons when he was eight; when he was an adolescent, he scoured Britain from East Anglia to the remote Hebrides in search of rare birds. As an adult, he continues his travels—his quests for glimpses of a certain tail feather or the elusive first sightings of stray avian species lead him all over the map—while developing as a storyteller. Like a tribal wise man, Cocker defines bird-watching jargon (twitchers, stringers, rarities) and relates stories of legendary figures in the world of birding to those outside the circle. Indeed, the reader comes to see that the oral tradition of expounding and elaborating upon one's bird-searching travails is half the wonder of birding. Between the layers of fascinating facts, the author weaves a narrative that moves from the comic to the poignant and the tragic. Stories about birding misfortunes around the world—birders who disappeared into the Himalayas, were mauled by tigers or murdered by terrorists—belie the stereotype of white-haired retirees taking a nature walk and cataloguing cardinals. Moments in which birdsong, like "one glorious anthem... rose upwards in great vaults to roof the heavens with an indeterminate architecture of sound" reveal the hobby's poetry. The book will delight birders, readers of natural history and anyone who knows and loves a bird-watcher. (May)
