A Sparrowhawk’s Lament: How British Breeding Birds of Prey Are Faring– book review

By Gabriel Thoumi

Cover art. Courtesy of Princeton University Press.

Great Britain is known as a nation of birdwatchers – or twitchers – who will travel to great lengths to conserve bird habitat and to observe birds in the wild. Yet in certain circumstances, Great Britain’s birds of prey are persecuted. This cultural dichotomy is explored in wonderful detail in A Sparrowhawk’s Lament: How British Breeding Birds of Prey Are Faring.

Great Britain has 15 species of birds of prey, five of which were previously extinct and now have been successfully reintroduced with self-sustaining populations. Nonetheless, while Great Britain has a deep cultural reverence for their birds of prey, some species are still persecuted as they are seen as agricultural pests.

In A Sparrowhawk’s Lament: How British Breeding Birds of Prey Are Faring, author David Cobham and illustrator Bruce Pearson describe in great detail this dichotomy of Great Britain. Scientists, communities, writers, poets, and artists have worked diligently to improve public perception of birds of prey while at the same time some of these same birds of prey are threatened by British perception as pests.

Rich in cultural detail, descriptive illustrations, and personal recollections, A Sparrowhawk’s Lament: How British Breeding Birds of Prey Are Faring paints a canvas demonstrating how cultural perceptions can be changed to improve conservation outcomes.

How to order:
A Sparrowhawk’s Lament: How British Breeding Birds of Prey Are Faring
Publisher:            Princeton University Press
ISBN:                        9780691157641
Authors:                David Cobham with Bruce Pearson with a foreword by Chris Packham

Gabriel Thoumi, CFA, Certified Ecologist, is a frequent contributor to Mongabay.com. 

Author: mongabay

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