Oh, how I really wanted to love love this book, laugh, snort, and guffaw at birds doing silly things through humanizing projection, but sadly, the book just felt a bit overdone after a while. There are 118 photos in the book, and as a bonus, the author and photographer provides a quick snippet on the featured bird(s), such as location, backstory to what was happening when photo was snapped. For example, once you read that the photo of the two eagles (page 103) depicts siblings, the caption is much funnier (“[…] Mr. Pants on Fire!”).
[alert variation=”alert-info”]Publisher: Mountain Press Publishing Company
Formats: Paperback
Purchase: Powell’s | Amazon | IndieBound[/alert]
Yes I laughed at the birds’ antics throughout, but I would have preferred a few less pages, a little more about the bird on the same page as photo and/or maybe some photo pages that let you fill in your own caption. Now, in NO WAY does this reflect on Kate Davis’s expertise and career. I love her TEDx talk on bird communication, which is quite funny, entertaining, and informative. It is possible that I missed some humor because of my own ignorance about all the species of birds featured in the book.
All told, bird lovers should absolutely buy a copy, support Raptors of the Rockies, and read this book, but maybe at the same time, be bold and write with a permanent pen some of your own captions. Everyone should learn more about Kate Davis’s work with Raptors of the Rockies and support her in her (and the organization’s) continued endeavors to ensure raptor and resource conservation in Montana. I look forward to more books, teaching aids, and funny stories from her, hopefully some zoology flavored children’s books and activities!
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