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(Photo credit: Nests / Sharon Beals. Chronicle Books, c2012)

As spring nears in the UK, we can look forward to watching the annual spectacle of birds pairing up and creating nests in which to raise their young. With so many nests built out of our sight, it is a rare treat to be able to see, close up, these intricate structures for ourselves. In ‘Nests : fifty nests and the birds that built them’, Sharon Beals allows us to do just this and gives us a fascinating insight into the lives of the birds who created them.

Beals has drawn on the collections of the California Academy of Sciences, the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California and the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology. Her work allows us to look in detail at 50 nests from around the world. These vary from the silky plant fibres and spider-webs of the Cuban Emerald Hummingbird to the sticks and leaves of the Greater Roadrunner.  Information on the creator of the nest and a detailed illustration accompanies each photograph.

As well as allowing us an insight into the variety of nests and the skills involved in making them – the work comes with a serious warning. As a result of environmental change, the birds responsible for building these nests are, in many cases, in decline. Beals warns us, changes in the way we live are required urgently, if we are to continue to enjoy the beauty of nests and their builders.

You can find further details of Nests : fifty nests and the birds that built them on our catalogue.

(Photo credit: Per H. Olsen. Not featured in text. See licensing notice relating to image below.)

At this time of year, with birds nesting and chicks fledging all around us, and Springwatch (UK nature programme) back on television, you might be interested to find out more about why birds nest and rear their young in so many contrasting ways.

Look no further than “The nesting season : cuckoos, cuckolds, and the invention of monogamy” by the naturalist and biologist Bernd Heinrich, which gives a real insight into this spring time spectacle.

The book examines courtship, selection of nesting sites, how different species construct their nests and the parenting methods of birds. Issues covered range from how eggs get their colour to the evolution of the Cuckoo which specialises in choosing the best host species for its young.

Stunning water colours and a number of photographs by the author help to illustrate the variety, beauty and colour of the breeding season.

Comparing human relationships and monogamy with that of birds, Heinrich even gives us his thoughts on how our methods of bringing up children are changing in the twenty-first century.

You can find details of Nesting season on our catalogue.

Photo credit: Per H. Olsen. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. Subject to disclaimers.