The Courage of Birds: A Book Review

Britannica defines winter as the coldest season of the year, extending from the winter solstice, December 21 or 22, to the vernal equinox, March 20 or 21 in the Northern Hemisphere, and from June 21 or 22 to September 22 or 23 in the Southern Hemisphere (it does note that it’s only the middle and high latitudes that experience cold weather, it’s always warm around the equator!).* It’s not yet officially winter here in the United States, but those of us in the northeast can feel the signs–temperatures in the 30’s (Fahrenheit), the ceremonial searching of the closets for puff jackets and wool scarves, and the appearances of Black-capped Chickadees and Tufted Titmice in parks and at bird feeders. Waterfowl–Brant, Eiders, Bufflehead, Scaup, amongst others–have been flying in from the north and more are on their way, hopefully in time for the Christmas Bird Count. Birders are on the alert for loons, shrikes, alcids, and nomadic boreal visitors. It’s an exciting time, and though the thought process is usually, “Where are the good birds?” and “How many layers should I wear to see the good birds without freezing off my extremities?” some people may take a moment to wonder, “How do birds get through winter? How do they survive the freezing temperatures, snowy landscapes, and icy waters?”

These are the questions Pete Dunne asks in his latest book, The Courage of Birds: And the Often Surprising Ways They Survive Winter. Written in Dunne’s emblematic charming, informative style, illustrated by David Sibley with black-and-white drawings very different from his field guide artwork, the slim book focuses on the seasonal behavior of birds in the United States and Canada. There are three main parts: (1) “Birds in Winter,” an overall science-based description of bird behavior in winter enriched with personal observations; (2) “Selected Species Profiles of North American Winter Birds,” in which 27 species are their winter behavior are described in depth (this doesn’t include owls, which are covered in the first section); (3) “An Imbolc Big Day,” an account of an informal big day conducted by Dunne and several friends  on Feb. 2nd. There is also an Epilog, a brief bibliography (but no index), and an appendix titled “Where The Birds Are.”

@ 2024 David Sibley

“Birds in Winter” is the core of the book, 91 pages in which Dunne holds forth on the many aspects of winter bird behavior, mixing biology, history, case studies, and human interaction (aka, bird feeding). Comprised of 32 brief chapters which quickly follow one another with no page breaks, the text starts with a historical view of how birds developed the anatomical features and migratory behavior that enabled them to survive catastrophic events like the ice age.  These early pages are fact-filled and also lay out the goal of the book: “Different birds meet winter’s challenges in different ways, and in sum, these adaptations tell an astonishing tale of evolutionary advancement and fortitude that pushes life to the planet’s habitable rim. This book showcases and celebrates the lives of birds as they struggle to see another spring, winter’s finish line.” (p. 6). Dunne’s personal approach kicks in slowly as he talks about the numbers and distributions of birds in winter and where to find them (a subtheme of the book); first a mention of an American Robin’s nest found in a sod outhouse near a whaling station (in summer, not winter), then evocations of the bird sounds of winter–gulls keening, Blue Jays squawking, Chickadees dee dee deeing, Great Horned Owls duetting. It’s Dunne’s genius that he doesn’t just state a behavioral fact, he paints the experience of hearing or seeing or even being a part of that experience.

This is one of the main features that differentiates The Courage of Birds from an earlier excellent book on the subject, Birds in Winter: Surviving the Most Challenging Season by Roger F. Pasquier (PUP, 2019). Dunne presents his information selectively within the framework of an informed expert telling stories, often dramatic stories, that often include anecdotes and memories, sometimes connect unexpectedly from one species to another, and which often offer guidelines and advice to the wintering birder. Birds in Winter is much more comprehensive and scholarly, covering the world, not only North America, and heavily footnoted with citations to research studies. The chapters titles in The Courage of Birds reflect both its informative content and anecdotal perspective, how it veers from an anatomical explanation of the warming properties of feathers (Feathers: The Evolutionary Edge) to descriptions of long-distant migrants (Bar-tailed Godwit Migration: How Far Is Far Enough?) to a Snowy Owl profile (Snowy Invaders) to roosting and flocking strategies (Where The Food Is; Strength in Numbers) to childhood memories (The Great Blizzard of 1956) to tips for backyard bird feeding (Bird Feeding: A National Pastime) to advice for birders looking for owls in winter (Owls and Winter Owling). My favorite chapter is The Miracle That is a Seed, which brilliantly encapsulates a history of how seeds became bird food, the evolution of bird beaks to eat different types of seeds, and the hunger-prevention tactics of seed and nut caching practiced by chickadees, jays, and one of my favorite birds, the Acorn Woodpecker, with the evolutionary aid of an enlarged hippocampus. The latter was one of the information nuggets I learned from Birds in Winter (see my review), and frankly it didn’t hurt to read it again, the brain can only hold so much.

The second section on individual bird species goes into more detail about common and uncommon winter birds, those that deserve more attention because of their extraordinary migration reach or winter survival fortitude. The profiles sometimes include more than the title bird. The chapter on Black-capped Chickadee, for example, also covers Carolina, Mountain, Chestnut-back, and Boreal Chickadees. I enjoyed these chapters very much for the insights they provide on my neighborhood winter birds (again, information I knew but now understand better) and notable birds I may never see in winter but like learning about (Arctic Tern, McKay’s Bunting). Dunne is careful to include a range of bird types as well as geographic diversity. There are profiles on raptors (Rough-legged Hawk, American Goshawk), waterfowl (American Black Duck, Harlequin Duck), shorebirds (Bar-tailed Godwit, Purple Sandpiper), rails (Virginia Rail), and even a nightjar (Common Poorwill). Dunne has written about these birds in earlier books, notably the encyclopedic Dunne’s Essential Field Companion (2006); this material is to my eyes fresh and new.

The third section, the “Imbolc Big Day,” is much more personal and idiosyncratic than the preceding sections, a chapter that could only appear in a Pete Dunne book. Imobolc is an ancient Celtic festival celebrated from February 1 through sundown February 2, marking the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. In other words, Groundhog’s Day. Dunne selects this day, “the absolute end of winter” (p. 153), as a time to document the numbers and diversity of birds across the United States (Christmas Bird Counts, we must remember, take place at the beginning of winter). Dunne asked friends and colleagues (some notable birders and authors themselves) to do 2-hour surveys in Alaska, Ohio, Michigan, Arizona, Colorado, Egg Harbor Township and Cape May, New Jersey, while he spent the day birding near his winter residence in northern California. Not really a big day, more of a sampling, as Dunne himself admits, but a delightfully personal way to demonstrate how many different species live in the U.S. during our coldest month. A chart or graph would not be the same.

Like his illustrations for Dunne’s The Wind Masters: The Lives of North American Birds of Prey (1995), David Sibley’s full-page drawings complement the text, showing birds in their winter habitats: an uncharacteristically quiet Blue Jay on a snow-drenched Spruce, sweet Tufted Titmice at a cylindrical feeder, a lyrical depiction of Rock Ptarmigan camouflaged in a snowy Arctic landscape, an almost comical portrait of a Virginia Rail peering into a hole in the ice surrounding its marsh. These are black-and-white-and-gray drawings, different from Sibley’s more scientific illustrations for his eponymous bird guides, and they are lovely. I only wish that the drawings were captioned. Beginning birders especially may need a little help; I am guessing at the identity of the curled-up little bird on page 66–Dark-eyed Junco? And that there were more of them (by my count there are 13 drawings, including the cover Blue Jay).

This is the second book I’ve reviewed this year by Pete Dunne (the first was the co-authored The Shorebirds of North America), and I love that he is continuing to write and publish in partnership with old friends like Kevin Karlson and David Sibley. Dunne is one of the most well-known bird writers in North America. His many books, in addition to those previously mentioned, include The Feather Quest: A North American Birder’s Year (1999), Hawks in Flight: A Guide to Identification of Migrant Raptors (with David Sibley & Clay Sutton, 1988; 2nd edition, 2012), Bayshore Summer: Finding Eden in a Most Unlikely Place (2010), The Art of Pishing, (2006), and, co-authored with Karlson, Gulls Simplified: A Comparative Approach to Identification (2018), and Bird Families of North America (2021). He writes the column “Birder at Large” for BirdWatching magazine and has written many other articles and essays. He was director of the Cape May Bird Observatory and vice-president of the New Jersey Audubon Society for many years, till 2014. He has counted hawks, led tours, taught workshops (I attended one by him on how to choose a scope back in around 2006), and founded the World Series of Birding.

The Courage of Birds: And the Often Surprising Ways They Survive Winter is a delightful addition to Pete Dunne’s oeuvre, and I think will also delight and educate many birders, especially beginning and intermediate birders. Experienced birders might also be intrigued by the Appendix on winter bird distribution, in which Dunne sorts North American breeding birds into four categories based on migratory strategy and winter range. Like recent books on bird behavior, notably Sibley’s own What It’s Like to Be a Bird (2020), reading it is an excellent and effective way of enhancing one’s birding experience, especially when we ourselves are often challenged by our wintry environment. Yesterday I walked 2 miles on soft sand to see a young Snowy Owl, newly arrived from the Arctic. Snowy Owls are magic to see. Does it make a difference to know that this Owl is probably here on Long Island (New York State) because it’s been a productive breeding year in the Arctic and juveniles must disperse south, that its “mass-to-surface ratio is ideally tailored to conserve body heat” (p. 32), and that its placid, sitting-in-dunes-turning-head demeanor, so frustrating to photographer-me, is how it conserves heat? Yes, it does. The Snowy Owl would still be magic, but yesterday it was magic-plus, making even my frustration an ode to centuries (and hopefully, centuries to come) of avian winter survival.

* https://www.britannica.com/science/winter

The Courage of Birds: And the Often Surprising Ways They Survive Winter
By Pete Dunne; Illustrated by David Allen Sibley
Chelsea Green Publishing, Oct. 2024
192 pages; 12 black-and-white illustrations
ISBN-10 : 1645022579ISBN-13 : 978-1645022572