Birds at Rest –
The Behaviour and Ecology of Avian Sleep
| Roger F Pasquier | PUP | 2025 | Hardback | eBook available | 549 Pages | ISBN: 9780691259963 |
The Publisher’s View:
Birds at Rest is the first book to give a full picture of how birds rest, roost, and sleep, a vital part of their lives. It features new science that can measure what is happening in a bird’s brain over the course of a night or when it has flown to another hemisphere, as well as still-valuable observations by legendary naturalists such as John James Audubon, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Theodore Roosevelt. Much of what they saw and what ornithologists are studying today can be observed and enjoyed by any birder.
From the poles to the tropics, how, when, and where birds sleep reflect the ecology and behaviour of each species, as well as their evolution from dinosaur ancestors. Some sleep briefly, their brain half awake, others spend long cold nights in torpor, a few can sleep while flying. Their roosting habits are also varied. Most birds sleep alone, some in pairs or families, while others in flocks of millions. Birds at Rest explains how each strategy works over the course of a season, a year, or a lifetime by providing protection, mating opportunities, information about food, and other survival benefits.
With evocative drawings by artist and illustrator Margaret La Farge, Birds at Rest discusses how environmental challenges such as artificial lights and noise, invasive species, and climate change are disrupting avian sleep and proposes solutions to ensure that birds get the rest they need.
The Author: Roger F. Pasquier, a lifelong birder, has had a career with BirdLife International, the World Wildlife Fund, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the National Audubon Society. He is currently an associate in the Department of Ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History. His books include Birds in Winter: Surviving the Most Challenging Season (Princeton).
Fatbirder View:
It’s obvious that the author is both ornithologist and birder… this is really a bringing together of all existing knowledge on roosting birds, but moulded by the birders love of birds and personal observations.
The insights are varied and many and certainly get you to think about an aspect of bird life one rarely considers, most importantly the impact we humans are having.
Among the most awe-inspiring sights in the avian world are the swirling masses of starlings going to roost in the reeds, millions of flamingos tucked up in shallow water or parrots dropping into a communal roost. For me, perhaps the most beautiful was watching Scarlet Ibis come to roost in a Trinidad swamp, along with Tri-coloured Herons and Snow Egrets, making then mangroves look like decorated Christmas trees. As such my experience, like most birders is of the human experience… the beauty of the starlings’ aerial kaleidoscope, the happy chance of seeing a couple of hundred Pied Wagtails roosting in a city tree to take advantage of the extra heat, or those stunning Ibis adorning swamp bushes away from predators.
This book gives you the science behind choices and the ‘why’ of it all – migrants sheltering from an Africa sun, massed gatherings to avoid predators, hidden caves and salt lakes. It’s all there for absorbing.
As an added bonus the work is sprinkled with fine drawings and iconic species. There is much to learn and enjoy.
Fatbirder