We tend to take birds for granted, in the landscape or in our  neighbourhoods. The presence of birds communicates the health of a place. When  they're gone, it's as though there's a hole in the sky, in the air, an absence  of beauty and grace, and vivid chatter or haunting cries are replaced with eerie  silence.
As an amateur naturalist and nature lover, Janine Burke, art  historian and author, has spent many years observing birds. Nest is the story of her passion, a personal, wide-ranging and intimate  book - part natural history, part folklore, part exploration of art and  aesthetics, part memoir - that will appeal to all those who love nature,  literature and art.
What are nests if not art created by nature? If a nest is  not art, how can we account for those exquisite, painstakingly constructed  creations that are decorated, or woven through with feathers, or studded with  objects of a particular colour or sheen? Nest reveals both the art and  mystery found in nature and celebrates them with lyricism, insight and great  affection.
In the tradition of Longitude, Cod or The Cello  Suites, Nest is a short education that encompasses  celebration and theory, investigation and memoir, the familiar and the  revelatory - as surprising and enticing as any beautiful, intricately  constructed nest.



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