White Feathers: The Nesting Lives of Tree Swallows

by Berndt Heinrich

The surprising, rich life of tree swallows in nesting season–with Heinrich’s beautiful illustrations and photographs–by the acclaimed naturalist.Heinrich is sparked one early spring day by a question: Why does a pair of swallows in a nest-box close to his Maine cabin show an unvarying preference for white feathers–not easily available nearby–as nest lining? He notices, too, the extreme aggressiveness of “his” swallows toward some other swallows of their own kind. And he wonders, given swallows’ reputation for feistiness, at the extraordinary tameness and close contact he experiences with his nesting birds.

Hardcover, 256 pages. /// Randy’s Price on Bookshop $24.84

Herbarium: The Quest to Preserve and Classify the World’s Plants

by Barbara M. Thiers

Since the 1500s, scientists have documented the plants and fungi that grew around them, organizing the specimens into collections. Known as herbaria, these archives helped give rise to botany as its own scientific endeavor.

Herbarium is a fascinating enquiry into this unique field of plant biology, exploring how herbaria emerged and have changed over time, who promoted and contributed to them, and why they remain such an important source of data for their new role: understanding how the world’s flora is changing. Barbara Thiers, director of the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden, also explains how recent innovations that allow us to see things at both the molecular level and on a global scale can be applied to herbaria specimens, helping us address some of the most critical problems facing the world today.

Hardcover, 304 pages. /// Randy’s Price on Bookshop $36.80