'Birdology': The life and times of birds and their devoted watchers

"Birdology: Adventures with a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur"

by Sy Montgomery

Free Press, 263 pp., $25

New Hampshire naturalist Sy Montgomery has written about snakes, tarantulas and other animals for children, as well as about great apes, tigers and other animals for adults. But she's wanted to write a bird book since 1984, she notes in the introduction to "Birdology," whose title concept she borrows from a word coined by a visiting pastor at a church where Montgomery and a friend were drawn one Sunday to hear this intriguing sermon topic.

A birdologist needn't be an ornithologist with university degrees, but rather anyone who appreciates birds, anyone whose soul is strengthened by watching them and who " 'experiences the divinity of creation revealed in the birds.' " Their flight, song and beauty "teach us reverence," Montgomery believes, and in these avian adventures, she shares knowledge and enthusiasm for seven species, some familiar, others exotic.

Repeatedly, she reminds readers, birds are individuals. For example, among her flock of chickens, some of "the Ladies" are bold, noisy and reckless while others are shy, quiet and cautious. One is sweet but a tad slow mentally, even for a hen. The birds recognize each other by facial features; they remember and anticipate. They can acquire language understanding — a human's call to eat, for instance — and share information by a wide variety of sounds.

In her chapter on pigeons, Montgomery focuses on the miraculous ability of these birds to find home. How? We know that keener senses enable their magic act. They see ultraviolet light and hear sounds below the register detectable by the human ear; they sense the Earth's magnetic fields and changes in barometric pressure. Among other skills, they recognize landmarks, use the sun as a sky compass or polarized light to fix directions, and familiarize themselves with particular areas' aromas.

One of the most engaging chapters focuses on Montgomery's friend Brenda Sherburn, who raises orphaned hummingbird chicks. These tiny gems hatch without feathers from eggs the size of navy beans yet, if well fed, can fledge in as little as two weeks.

Montgomery flies to the Bay Area when Sherburn takes on twin Allen's hummingbirds, which are known for their curiosity. The chicks must be fed a "fruit-fly-nectar cocktail" every 20 minutes. Too little and they die; too much, they explode.

At the other end of the spectrum are Australia's 6-foot-tall, 150-pound, flightless cassowaries, the living dinosaurs of Montgomery's title. They sport bald blue heads topped by a crest of bone and 5-inch, daggerlike spurs on each three-toed foot. They eat fruit and love meat — especially dead rats — but have become extremely secretive since humans hunt them for meat. Montgomery's search to catch sight of one provides ample opportunity to discuss birds' descent from dinosaurs.

It's easy to catch Montgomery's interest in and affection for everything from crows to hawks to parrots. She's an excellent birdologist, spinning a narrative that's part science and part personal anecdote.

Birds "bring us messages from the divine," she states. "They bring us news about ... a world that we, with our merely human senses, have barely begun to perceive."

Writer Irene Wanner, formerly of Seattle, now watches birds in New Mexico.