The Birds At My Table

Darryl Jones is fascinated by bird feeders. Not the containers supplying food to our winged friends, but the people who fill the containers, scatter the crumbs or seeds, or leave the picnic scraps behind for the birds.

Here, Jones takes us on a wild flight through the history of bird feeding as he ponders this odd but seriously popular form of interaction between humans and wild animals. Jones digs at the deeper issues and questions of the practice of bird feeding, raising our awareness of the things we don't yet know and why we really should.

This beautifully written and engaging book reveals that what at first seems to be a niche topic—humans feeding wild birds—is in fact something a disproportionate number of us do. Half the citizens of Australia, the UK, and the US feed birds, whether it's by planting trees that attract them, putting food out on apartment balconies, setting up birdbaths and feeders, or by unwittingly leaving scraps behind in parks. The international bird seed industry is huge, with most of the seed grown in India or Africa. Another way of describing all this activity is as an unplanned ecological experiment on an unbelievably large scale.

In The Birds at My Table, Jones draws on an impressive knowledge of the latest scientific findings as well as his own personal knowledge to reflect and explain the modern practice of bird feeding.

'In this international exploration of what seems like a trivial topic, Darryl Jones offers big surprises.' - Tim Low

'This is a book for all of us to read and ponder the practice of feeding wild birds... Jones covers a vast amount of information in this book.' - Gil Porter, The Warbler