The Wilson Journal of Ornithology 124 ( 3):644 648 , 2012 
Ornithological Literature 
Margaret A. Voss, Book Review Editor 
AVIAN ARCHITECTURE. HOW BIRDS 
DESIGN. ENGINEER, AND BUILD. By Peter 
Goodfellow. Princeton University Press. Prince¬ 
ton. New Jersey. USA. 2011: 160 pages. 300 full 
color photographs, 12 architectural blueprints, 
numerous color illustrations. ISBN: 978-0-691- 
14849-6. S27.95 (hardcover).—I have a passion 
lor animal architecture. Termite mounds, anthills, 
beaver lodges, and especially the Taj Mahals of 
the animal world—bird nests. Over the years 
many books have focused on different aspects of 
avian nest structure. At one end of the spectrum 
are field guides; some are bare bones, complete 
with questionable photography, while others arc 
richly detailed with elegant full color plates and 
illustrations. At the opposite end of the spectrum 
are books written from either the perspective of 
the behavioral ecologist attempting to understand 
why birds build complex structures, or from the 
viewpoint of the physiologist trying to understand 
how nest structures augment the process o| 
incubation. All ol these books, from field guides 
to studies of behavior and function, tend to be 
rather utilitarian. They are either useful in the 
field or are text heavy and extremely academic in 
nature. Some have become classics (Karl von 
Frisch's Animal Architecture comes to mind), 
while others are largely forgettable. Peter Good- 
fellow’s book is quite different from all that have 
come before it. It is a beautifully illustrated 
architectural digest of avian structure. 
The book begins with a Forward by Mike 
Hansell, who is probably the world’s leading 
authority on animal architecture. In just a few 
brief paragraphs. Professor Hansell succinctly 
places the subject of this book within its proper 
historical and biological framework. To some 
extent, this frees the author to focus on the 
intricacy and beauty of the structures he describes 
and the complexity of nest building behaviors. 
The book is organized thematically; each chapter 
explores variations on the theme of a particular 
nest structure (e.g., scrape nests, cup nests, 
bowers, etc.). The introduction familiarizes the 
reader with the book's organization, pointing out 
that beyond a common nest structure - many 
species share little in the way of breeding ecology. 
To illustrate this and to put the function of the 
structure into species-specific perspective, each 
chapter ends with a series of case studies illu¬ 
strating how common structure can be adapted for 
specific habitats and physiological requirements. 
The resulting layout is visually beautiful, highly 
functional, and easy to reference. 
A unique aspect of this book is the use of 
architectural blueprints' to describe general nest 
structures. In this case, a picture is quite literally 
worth a thousand words. The clean graphic 
presentation packs a lot of information into each 
description. One of my older books requires 11 
pages of text to describe the design of a generic 
bower. I he bower blueprint in this book covers 
the general structure and function of a bower, 
illustrates the three primary types, and includes 
representative physical dimensions and some 
species-specific information in two we 11-designed 
pages. In all chapters, the blueprints logically lead 
into the species-specific case studies. Each case 
study (35 in all) includes a brief species descrip¬ 
tion. a summary of its classification, details for the 
physical dimensions of the nest structure and nest 
materials, and descriptions and beautiful illustra¬ 
tions ol nesl building behavior. Most chapters 
include multiple examples of species from around 
the world, The Iasi chapter of the book covers 
edible nests and food stores—as in nests humans 
consume and the places birds store their own 
comestibles. This chapter is brief, but filled with 
interesting anecdotal and historical tidbits, and 
some beautiful photography. I found this to be the 
least detailed but most interesting chapter and 
would have liked to have seen a more in depth case 
history of one of the swiftlets that produce such 
amazing nests from salivary secretions. The book 
concludes with a glossary of terms and a 
reasonably well researched list of resources and 
web sites that would be useful to explore the study 
of avian nest structure in more detail. Although 
well done, these aspects of the book are probably 
most useful for the casual reader: both professional 
and experienced amateur ornithologists would 
likely find them too basic for their purposes. 
In the end, I found the book to be detailed, 
scientifically accurate, well written, and visually 
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