When Richard Cannings was growing up in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, the songs of the meadowlarks rang through his bedroom window as the morning sky brightened; now meadowlark songs mean home. Cannings describes various aspects of the birds’ natural history, including how they tuck their nests deep into a hollow beside a clump of grass, where they are so completely hidden that he has seen only two in his entire life.

In this series of delightful meditations, the author weaves his personal experiences with fascinating descriptions of the behavior, anatomy, and evolution of birds from all across North America. Other birds described include the northern gannet, the saw-whet owl, and the trumpeter swan. These nuggets of birdlife cover the continent, from the shores of the Atlantic, across the alpine tundra of the Rocky Mountains, to the Pacific Ocean.