Bird Day: A Story of 24 Hours and 24 Avian Lives

City University of New York neurobiologist Hauber (The Book of Eggs) brings together meager sketches of 24 birds, with each entry pegged to what the species might be doing at a given hour of the day. He begins at midnight with barn owls, discussing how their nighttime hunts for rodents are assisted by their asymmetrical ears, which are located at different heights on their head and allow them to “perceive subtle changes in the direction and strength” of noises. Progressing through the day, Hauber notes that male silvereyes sing loudly in the early morning to boast about their fitness, and that female common cuckoos will sneak into other birds’ nests to lay eggs while the parents are away in the afternoon. Other bird/hour combinations appear largely arbitrary, as when Hauber dedicates his 11 a.m. slot to discussing how common pochards “have developed a special type of slumber called ‘unihemispheric sleep’ ” in which one half of the brain is always awake to scan for predators. Unfortunately, each selection offers only a superficial overview of a single piece of trivia about the given bird, and the environmental asides are shallow: “As we consider places to build, we ought to look and assess what other life is already using the territory around us.” Slight and insubstantial, this doesn’t get off the ground. (Sept.)