From April to early May, the "Bird Love Week" was launched across the country. On this occasion, the "Skyline" of the New Knowledge Science Book Series of Yilin Publishing House launched a new book "Birdsong Season: The Year of the British Birds". The book is arranged in order of 12 months of the year, and introduces 247 species of birds that are closely related to the four seasons with elegant and flexible brushstrokes, interspersed with folklore, poetry, and art, showing the important role that birds play in human culture. It encourages us to listen to the songs of the four seasons in our busy lives and rebuild our connection to nature.
The authors of the book, Brett Westwood and Stephen Moss, are well-known British natural history writers, BBC natural history program producers and veteran birdwatchers who wrote scripts for the BBC's excellent radio program "Tweet of the Day", which is carefully written on the framework of the show. The author arranges May at the beginning and ends with April of the following year, and devotes a brief introduction to about 20 species of birds in each month. The reason why the whole book is laid out in this way is because May is the season for birds in the northern hemisphere to courtship and brooding, while April is the month when winter migratory birds migrate north and summer migratory birds return, thus forming a complete cycle, reflecting the flow of seasons and the cycle of life.
The UK is the birthplace of bird watching, and two-thirds of the population feeds birds in their gardens, and people have a close connection with birds. Adhering to this profound natural history practice and bird observation tradition, "Birdsong Season" describes the shape, song and life history of each bird in a beautiful and popular scientific language, records the changes in urban and rural environments with poetic words, and is more precious about the origin of bird names and related historical stories, and each chapter is condensed and beautiful prose.
Although this book is a description of Britain's representative birds, about 200 species of birds in the book are also distributed in China, so it is also of great reference value for domestic readers. The first bird introduced in the book is the "cuckoo" we are familiar with- the big cuckoo, and the house swallows, sparrows, and egrets mentioned in the book are common birds in the streets and alleys. In addition, the book also introduces birds such as nightingales (i.e., Xinjiang songbirds), robins (i.e., Eurasian plovers), and larks, which often appear in literary works, and cites related poems, which can be called the "home-based bird watching guide" for nature lovers and literature lovers.
In addition to the soothing poetic text, Season of Birdsong also contains a large number of thought-provoking conservation cases. The author combs through some classic cases of bird conservation in the UK, through the changes in the fate of birds such as peregrine falcons, swallow falcons, red kites, red-backed burrows, and anti-billed sandpipers, pointing out the profound impact of factors such as climate change, habitat loss and poaching on bird survival, thus prompting us to rethink the relationship between people and land. The book ends with the extinction of the great auk, reminding us that humans on this planet should take responsibility for the survival of other species. The conservation concept conveyed in the book is of great reference significance for ecological protection in contemporary China.
Season of Birdsong contains 274 frames of beautiful illustrations. Carry Akroyd, a well-known British painter and printmaker, has created 258 black-and-white illustrations and 16 color illustrations for this book. Although these pictures are in a freehand style, they vividly and accurately depict the shape and posture of birds, so that bird watchers can know the specific bird species painted by the painter at a glance. The colorful scene paintings showing the habitat of birds in the book also have elegant color matching and a long artistic conception. Interspersed between the words, these vintage-inspired drawings greatly enhance the artistry and playfulness of Birdsong Season, as the BBC Country Archives magazine commented, "the beautiful writing and illustrations by Cary Akroyd make it a rare treasure".
It is worth mentioning that in order to enhance the understanding of domestic readers about each type of bird, the translated forest version of "Bird Song Season" has specially prepared a pleasing supporting audio-visual material. At the beginning of each chapter, a QR code is printed, and readers can scan the code to view the scientific names, photos, and distribution of birds in China in the month, and listen to representative birdsong and even related musical works.
The book "Birdsong Season" was co-translated by Dr. Zhu Lei, Wang Qi and Wang Hui, who, as naturalists and senior birdwatchers, ensured the scientificity and accuracy of the translation, and the beautiful and vivid translation also restored the author's style.
The publication of Chinese edition of this book has been highly praised by renowned ornithologists. British biologist John Mackinnon, author of the Chinese Bird Field Manual, an enlightenment tool for Chinese bird watchers, was invited by the Translation Forest Society to recommend the preface to "Bird Song Season". He pointed out: "'Seasons of Birdsong' is a wonderful book... Although the number of breeding bird species in China is about three times that of the United Kingdom, almost all of the 247 species described in this book are distributed in China or are closely related to Chinese birds. Liu Yang, professor at the School of Ecology of Sun Yat-sen University and editor-in-chief of the Handbook of Chinese Bird Observation, believes that this book has special significance for transmitting the concept of bird protection and nature education: "The Season of Birdsong tells us in popular and beautiful language that birds are a unique animal group evolved from the earth, and it is also an important emotional link between humans and nature, so we need to spare no effort to study and protect." ”
In order to meet the reading needs of nature lovers, "Birdsong Season" has made special considerations in the binding design. The text and color illustrations in this book are printed on imported Nordic Monken paper, with soft colors and light textures, making it easy for readers to flip through the scrolls outdoors or on the go, bringing birds and their singing into their lives in a quick glance.
The "Skyline" series of books belonging to "Birdsong Season: The Year of the Birds in Britain" also includes "Handbook of Cloud Collectors", "Looking into the Depths of the Starry Sky", "The Talent of Birds", "The Code of Water" and other popular science works that have been well received by readers and experts, and will soon launch "The Journey to Find Bees".
Title: Birdsong Seasons: An Chronology of the Birds in England
Series Title: Skyline
Publisher: Yilin Publishing House
Publication date:May 2021
Price: 78.00 RMB
Binding: Paperback with sheath
Page number: 488