So much work went into the bird watching to create this book and it shows in the information the author shares. The illustrations are terrific.

I'd give this a 2.5 if I could. I loved the illustrations and I valued the message of the book, but I found the book very, very difficult to get into as a lay person. It was like reading 100 orinthology journal articles in a row - I just don't have the background for it. I found Lyanda Lynn Haupt's Urban Bestiary to be a much more approachable and enjoyable read - giving me similar kinds of information, but in a simpler and more lay person friendly way.

This was an enjoyable read, and I appreciated the title pun! Marzluff argues that, far from being ecological deserts - I confess that was my impression - the suburbs are actually a haven for a diverse population of bird life. A population that is more diverse than that in city centres (unsurprising) and that in reserves (which did surprise me). Golf courses, too, believe it or not, are excellent for birds. Suburban life creates a patchwork of different habitats that can sustain more ecological niches, as do golf courses with their contrasting habitats of green and rough, and thereby can be populated by a greater variety of birds. It's not all good news - a lot of the rarer birds are pushed out of suburbia altogether due to more competitive generalists, necessitating reserves for those species, as well as birds which are human-avoidant, but it's an initially counter-intuitive outcome of ecology that I'd never considered.

Furthermore, because Marzluff is an ornithologist himself, many of the studies that back up his claims have either been performed by him, or in the case of his army of grad students, have been supervised by him. The experiments are explained and their results given context, and it's just a very interesting and thought-provoking collage of research.

Smart, lively, and eminently readable. Marzluff's explications of his research are rich and clear, and I especially appreciated his obvious affection and respect for his students and colleagues--this is a terrific illustration of the incremental, collaborative nature of science and also a good primer on basic ecological/evolutionary ideas.

Read in a tent, though the soundtrack was rainsong, not birdsong!