FEATURE


feathers and their skins, their meat and their eggs. Birds’ nest soup retailing at over £1000 a kilo is one of the costliest foods in the world.


The Niah caves in Sarawak ... once held as many as 4.5 million swiftlets of various species. (Alas, deforestation and the overharvesting of nests has seen the vast swiftlet flocks fall to 150,000 birds...)


Birds and People contains a timely reminder from John Fanshawe of Birdlife International that the involvement of local communities in conservation and our constant vigilance is necessary to preserve the diversity and wonder of birds. Reading the testimonies of such a diverse range of informants as well as the author’s quoting from relevant books, Birds & People makes me feel as though I ‘ve joined a worldwide association of people who appreciate birds. IF you are (I know that I am) the sort of reader who like


comprehensive indexes and glossaries and bibliographies, Birds & People wont disappoint; there are 62 pages of them. Let me end with a parrot anecdote. .... perhaps the most moving of all the vocabularies spoken by a bird was the one encountered by Alexander von Humboldt during his early nineteenth century journeys in modern-day Venezuela. [He} came across a parrot on the Orinoco which was the last living keeper of a language spoken by the Atures people, a race which, in the manner of so many Amerindians (and American parrots) under European influences, had become extinct. Birds and People \by Mark Cocker and David Tipling with specialist research by and the support of Jonathan Elphick and John Fanshawe. Published by Joanathan Cape, 2013 Price UKP £40 Can $65 (On Amazon you can find it at £19.84}


DONATE TO OUR CONSERVATION FUND…


CLICK THE LINK BELOW: http://www.theparrotsocietyuk.org/donations.php


BIRD SCENE 39


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