A review by landrum
White Feathers: The Nesting Lives of Tree Swallows by Bernd Heinrich

3.0

This book was essentially a play-by-play of what went down at the author’s bird boxes over several years. The titular question of why tree swallows put white feathers in their nests was only hypothesized about in the epilogue, and the actual content of the book doesn’t do anything to support or refute his theory that the feathers are meant to indicate to other birds that a nesting cavity is occupied.

I suppose the target audience is people who enjoy being cornered at parties by the most obsessive kind of birder, or are jealous of those who have unbelievable amounts of time to sit outside interacting with birds and taking notes on their behavior.

This would be a 2 star review, but the author mentions that his birthday is April 19th, which also happens to be my birthday.

Only recommended if you’re obsessed with bird behavior.