[.ca] Birds (ISBN 0375422927)

Amazon.ca:
More personal reminiscence ("my life with birds") than scientific study à la Audubon or Roger Tory Peterson, Birds features the favourite artistic subject of internationally-renowned wildlife artist and naturalist Robert Bateman. Lavishly illustrated with over 200 colour plates--the two-page spread of a Lady Amherst Pheasant trailing its spectacular tail on delicately toned snow is typical--Birds holds considerable appeal for both serious and armchair ornithologists. Bateman's popularity is firmly rooted in his considerable artistic abilities, and the delicacy with which he renders the birds makes the artist's claim that birdwatching was his first love ring utterly true. No matter how exquisite the detail in the plumage of his Great Blue Heron or Hairy Woodpecker, however, it's the sketches that Bateman provides as visual asides that offer this book's finest moments. For instance, a dignified illustration of a sombre pair of Brown Pelicans is accompanied by a fascinating and playful series of studies, to which the author adds, "I watched this pelican in the Florida Keys waterproof himself by squeezing oil out of a preen gland at the base of his tail, then combing it through his feathers." Peter Matthiessen (At Play in the Fields of the Lord)--whose The Birds of Heaven: Travels with Cranes was illustrated by Bateman--provides a brief introduction, while the bulk of the book's text is penned by birder and award-winning editor Kathryn Dean. Bateman's first-person voice, however, dominates throughout. --Deirdre Hanna