Sibley drew the definitive field guides, and this is the opposite of a field guide: A big book of large paintings with the answers to the questions people actually ask. Why do birds stand on one leg. How they sleep with half a brain at a time. What a feather does mechanically. Why crows mob hawks. How a hummingbird’s tongue works, how far a chickadee has to eat every day in winter, why so many birds are eating grit. Ninety-six species get a spread each and the short essays run alongside. It’s a browsing book and the paintings are as good as anything he’s done.
What It’s Like to Be a Bird