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The Book of Birds

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the creators of the internationally bestselling, award-winning, multi-adapted phenomenon The Lost Words: a dazzling celebration of birdlife in Britain, re-imagining the classic field guide for a new generation of nature lovers
A great thinning of the skies is underway. Around 50% of bird species are in decline worldwide. Our dawns and springs are quieter each year than the last. An almost unimaginable abundance has been lost. It does not have to be this way –– but we will not save what we do not love.

The Book of Birds is a compendium of forty-nine bird species, from Avocet to Yellowhammer, all of which are declining or endangered in Britain. Inspired by the classic bird-books with which the authors grew up, this is a field guide with a difference. It asks not ‘What is that bird?’, but ‘Who is that bird?’ It shows its readers how to identify birds, but also how to identify with them.

With lyrical precision and playfulness, Robert Macfarlane evokes each bird’s habits and habitats –– their patterns of flight and of song, how they hunt and gather, how they nest and raise their young, the stories and myths which attend them, the threats which shadow them, and how their wild lives intersect with our own. Set among this dazzling flock of species are seven sections celebrating the 'Seven Wonders' that together make up the everyday miracle of 'Bird': Nest, Egg, Beak, Song, Feather, Flight and Migration.

Seven years in the making, The Book of Birds is a love letter to the splendours and mysteries of birdlife, and a clarion call to halt the loss of birds from land, sea and sky. From Dipper to Dunnock and Kestrel to Kingfisher, from mountain to ocean and city to river, Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane conjure the unique spirit and lifeway of each species. This is a book to be treasured by bird-lovers of all ages, and a future classic work of reference.

© Jackie Morris 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Critics Review

Full of gorgeous illustrations and inimitable prose . . . The Book of Birds asks us to think of birds in radically new ways: not simply as separate components of Nature that we should learn about and identify, but as co-creators of our world that we can identify with
Country Life
From flight patterns to song, myth and mating rituals, each bird is celebrated in Morris’s vibrant paintings and Macfarlane’s lyrical accompanying notes
National Geographic
Spellbinding and lyrical . . . A companion, helping you to discover wonder in the everyday . . . The significance of this beautiful book cannot be underestimated . . . Rooted in wonder, The Book of Birds has the power to persuade - to be the catalyst that reminds us all of what we stand to lose, and to spur us on to help our precious birdlife thrive once more
RSPB
A delight. Macfarlane's love of language and different cultural traditions make it a trove of avian lore and history . . . The book is illustrated by one of our most distinctive and prolific painters, Jackie Morris. She sees the dinosaur in the bird. Her portraits have a savagery about them, as if she is captured by the creatures' appetites, their thrust and strut and will to life. It is as though she is painting their souls as she conceives them . . . The book flaps and yells and squawks with life, its pages bursting with a ferocious, combative kind of beauty
The Spectator
Morris and Macfarlane’s poetic prose, which often evokes the sparse work of poet laureate Simon Armitage, brings the birds to life
Telegraph, 'The 16 best audiobooks to listen to right now'
A vivid lexical treasury . . . dramatic, playful and designed to be read aloud . . . Macfarlane's words have a tumbling, delirious, somersaulting quality . . . Morris's watercolours, meanwhile, have a luminous shiver about them, not stiff and scientific, but seemingly reconjured from a first childhood sighting
Irish Independent
A passionate and lyrical rallying cry to both revel in the beauty of the natural world and to stop its wanton destruction . . . [Morris and Macfarlane's] avowed intent is to make us fall in love with birds. And it works brilliantly . . . Pleasing to hold, beautiful to look at, The Book of Birds marks the moment poetry and art took their rightful places alongside science in a coalition to save our birds – and ourselves
The Tablet
These two celebrated collaborators took seven years to produce this poetic tribute to 49 species of birds. Hundreds of Morris’s watercolour illustrations enliven the book’s pages. But the underlying message is stark: a great thinning of the skies is under way as bird species decline across the world
Financial Times – Best summer books of 2026: Environment, Science and Technology
A love letter to our feathered friends . . . The audio edition features terrific sound design courtesy of field recordist Chris Watson, known for his work with David Attenborough. Watson has meticulously recorded the call of each bird and incorporated them into each chapter. This blend of lyrical prose and birdsong make for moving love letter to our feathered friends
Observer
A dazzling compendium of 49 bird species inspired by classic bird guides with which the authors grew up
iNews
Author Robert Macfarlane & Jackie Morris
Narrator Jackie Morris, Robert Macfarlane
Duration 3 hours and 38 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781405985338
Format Audiobook
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Genre Endangered species and extinction of species, Nature in art, Social impact of environmental issues, Wildlife: birds and birdwatching: general interest
Availability AU, GB, IE

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