The Social Lives of Birds

An exploration of all the ways in which birds are social creatures—from breeding to nesting to babysitting
In The Social Lives of Birds, evolutionary biologist and author of Slow Birding Joan Strassmann examines what it means for birds of a feather to flock together. Some birds sleep together. Some join the foraging groups of other species. Some are only social during breeding season, forming nesting colonies in trees, cliffs, and sandbanks. Some are altruistic, helping to rear young that are not their own. Some males perform mating dances together.
Strassmann explains how flocks provide safety in numbers, roosts offer warmth and shelter, and colonies allow for protected breeding. But group behavior is not without its costs—including increased competition, tick infestations, and more. Strassmann exposes the conflicts birds face and the many ways in which they resolve these conflicts.
With stories of birds from around the world—from broad-winged hawks that migrate south together in the fall, tree swallows that roost together in the thousands, and guira cuckoos that nest in communes—The Social Lives of Birds explores the different kinds of bird groups and what to look for when watching them. Above all, it reveals this fact: solitary life, it seems, is not for the birds.

Joan Strassmann is an award-winning teacher of animal behavior, first at Rice University in Houston and then at Washington University in St. Louis, where she is Charles Rebstock professor of biology. She has written more than two hundred scientific articles on behavior, ecology, and evolution of social organisms. She is a member of the
National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the Animal Behavior Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has held a Guggenheim Fellowship. She lives with her husband in St. Louis, Missouri and Leland, Michigan.