BIRDS BUILD NESTS

Oliver (Possum in the House, 1989) presents page-filling, finely detailed close-ups of 15 nests and their avian builders, from ruby-throated hummingbird to snowy owl, all in natural (or in the case of the white stork’s chimney-topper, unnatural) settings, each with a short rhymed caption from Winer (Butterflies Fly, 2001, etc.). The verse is sometimes more about sound than sense—“Birds build nests, / Eggs deep inside, / Secret spaces / Where fledgelings [sic] hide. / That’s how birds build their nests”—but the author goes on in a final spread to identify the birds and describe their behavior in a bit more detail. There’s a definite Down Under slant to this import, but at least one bird can be found on every continent (save Antarctica), and young birders ready for more will find healthy lists of print and online resources at the end. An eye-opening, as well as eye-filling, companion for Barbara Bash’s Urban Roosts (1990). (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)