The Nesting Season: Cuckoos, Cuckolds, and the Invention of Monogamy - Hardcover

Heinrich, Bernd

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674048776 ISBN 13: 9780674048775

Publisher: Belknap Press, 2010

Synopsis

Why are the eggs of the marsh wren deep brown, the winter wren's nearly white, and the gray catbird's a brilliant blue? And what in the DNA of a penduline tit makes the male weave a domed nest of fibers and the female line it with feathers, while the bird-of-paradise male builds no nest at all, and his bower-bird counterpart constructs an elaborate dwelling?

These are typical questions that Bernd Heinrich pursues in the engaging style we've come to expect from him—supplemented here with his own stunning photographs and original watercolors. One of the world's great naturalists and nature writers, Heinrich shows us how the sensual beauty of birds can open our eyes to a hidden evolutionary process. Nesting, as Heinrich explores it here, encompasses what fascinates us most about birds—from their delightful songs and spectacular displays to their varied eggs and colorful plumage; from their sex roles and mating rituals to nest parasitism, infanticide, and predation.

What moves birds to mate and parent their young in so many different ways is what interests Heinrich—and his insights into the nesting behavior of birds has more than a little to say about our own.

About this title

About the Author:

Bernd Heinrich is Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University of Vermont. He has written several memoirs of his life in science and nature, including One Man’s Owl, and Ravens in Winter. Bumblebee Economics was twice a nominee for the American Book Award in Science, and A Year in the Maine Woods won the 1995 Rutstrum Authors’ Award for Literary Excellence.

Review:

A truly excellent and delightful book. Heinrich uses his own observations to teach us what a curious biologist finds intriguing about bird behavior. (John Alcock)

Heinrich studies birds in the great tradition of Audubon, and with equal perception. Beautifully illustrated by the author, The Nesting Season illuminates courtship, reproduction, and chick rearing. Heinrich's insights into egg colors and patterns alone make the book invaluable. (Richard Rhodes)

The intimate life of birds is revealed here by a brilliant naturalist. (Scott Forbes)

Blending scientific research with memoir, Heinrich reveals the complex courtship and mating rituals of birds--along with the startling commonalities between certain human and avian domestic arrangements...Skillfully narrated and illustrated by the author's own photographs and watercolor sketches, this book offers a range of intellectual and aesthetic pleasures. (Publishers Weekly 2010-03-15)

Bernd Heinrich, a renowned naturalist and emeritus professor of biology at the University of Vermont, argues in his eye-opening new book, The Nesting Season: Cuckoos, Cuckolds, and the Invention of Monogamy, there's little reason to suspect birds don't fall in love just like we do. Love, Heinrich writes, is an adaptive feeling that many animals share, one that causes them to act irrationally for the sake of reproduction. He suggests monogamy among birds evolved in a similar way, as a sexual strategy for rearing young in demanding environments. Drawing heavily on personal observations and evolutionary biology, Heinrich... sheds light on a wide array of subjects, from the prevalence of lesbian albatross in Hawaii to the peculiar dynamics of bird sex. And though he admits birds may love one another, we shouldn't necessarily look to them for ideal "family values." Australian malleefowl, he writes, bury their children in mounds of rotting vegetation and leave them for dead. (Jed Lipinski Salon 2010-05-16)

In his new book, The Nesting Season: Cuckoos, Cuckolds, and the Invention of Monogamy, Heinrich returns to his first love, and throws himself into an in-depth study of the mating lives of birds. The result is a fascinating exploration of the biological origins of bonding and emotional attachment. (Bruce Barcott Outside online 2010-06-02)

A flight through the beauty and brutality of bird life. From songs and displays, plumage, sex roles and mating rituals to nest parasitism, infanticide and predation. (The Times 2010-06-03)

A ramble through the home life of birds during the breeding season: a mixture of Heinrich's thoughts and experiences and the scientific literature...The stories he tells are charming and intriguing, and his intimate connection with the birds in the woods and bogs surrounding his home brings it all to life. The text is further enlivened by a large number of superb colour photographs, mainly of nests, eggs and chicks, and by some of Heinrich's own watercolours. (Tim Birkhead Times Higher Education 2010-08-19)

Heinrich fans and anyone interested in birds will find his latest book thoroughly rewarding; a volume to turn to again and again. (Lynn Harnett seacoastonline.com 2010-08-29)

As Marcel Proust illuminated our understanding of the brain, memory, and the self through artfully obsessive attention to detail, Bernd Heinrich, in The Nesting Season, illuminates our understanding of mating behavior through a similar focus on those details of life which most of us never notice...Like his previous books, The Nesting Season is illustrated with the author's own drawings, watercolors, and photographs. Like his previous books, The Nesting Season is one to read and read again. (Wayne Mones Audubon Magazine blog 2010-10-14)

About this edition

• Publisher: Belknap Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0674048776
• ISBN 13: 9780674048775
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352