My husband, Martin, is enthralled with the nonfiction book called
A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds by Scott Weidensaul.
If you've been fascinated by a flock of birds flying overhead and wondered where they're going, let me tell you: this is the book for you.
Or, as Martin says, “When I was a kid and saw birds flying South, I thought they were going to, say, the Caribbean, or Mexico. The biggest shock from this book is learning how far some migratory birds go: say, from as far away as the northern reaches of Canada to the furthest point of Australia or New Zealand, and then home again."
One of the longer routes mapped in the book is called the
East Asian-AustralAsian Flyway
The birds taking this route fly more than 10,000 miles.
Currently, tens of thousands of birds are being tracked. It certainly takes a village — or, in this case, a battalion of volunteer "birders," a.k.a. bird enthusiasts — to put these tiny bands on migrating fowl. The bands used for larger bird species are equipped with GPS tracking software.
"Before that, tracking a bird's true journey was just a dream," Martin points out.
Below are links to the book's reviews, and where you can purchase the book.