Book Review

Curlews on Vulture Street: Cities, Birds, People & Me

By D. Jones

2022, Published by NewSouth Publishing, UNSW Sydney

pp. 336 (Paperback)

Price AUD $32.99, ISBN 9781742237367

Professor Darryl Jones has been investigating the interactions between birds and people in urban settings for over 30 years. He has published a litany of scientific papers, but more recently he has focused on books, his books include: The Birds at My Table, Feeding the Birds at Your Table and Getting To Know the Birds in Your Neighbourhood: A Field Guide; all are from NewSouth Publishing. His expertise in urban birds and their interactions with people makes him the right choice for books on urban birds.

The aim of this book is to educate and entertain the readers on the subject of urban ecology. This is done by exploring the research involved in bird/people interactions within the highly modified urban habitat. It is a collection of research stories forming a memoir told in a wry and engaging way. It presents chapters focused on particular birds and the particular problems arising when they are interacting with humans. Most chapters are based on research activities conducted by or supervised by the author, Professor Jones. There are eight chapters, an afterword, and appendices giving published sources and acknowledgements. Chapters include stories about: being quizzical about introduced Blackbirds Turdus merula; watching the antics of Blue-naped Mousebirds Urocolius macrourus [yes, mousebirds in Khartoum (Sudan)]; counting 179 Peaceful Doves Geopelia placida on Coorong Street [but more about starting a research career]; a PhD on the Australian Brush-turkey Alectura lathami; successfully relocating angry Australian Magpies Gymnorhina tibicen; shinning a light on lorikeet roosts – Rainbow Lorikeet Trichoglossus moluccanus; understanding Sulphur-crested Cockatoos Cacatua galerita, other birds and people at bird feeders; and Bush-stone Curlews Burhinus grallarius in Brisbane’s CBD, although it seems more time is spent discussing the urban habits of Bin Chickens Threskiornis moluccus in this section; and sandwiched into other chapters the roosting habits and trapping of Torresian Crows Corvus orru. All these birds (except the mousebirds) found their way into the book because they were for the most part the predictable species the author and his post-graduate team needed to research, because when they interacted with people the results were frequently emotive and conflictual; thus they required research to inform management.

The audience addressed is a vast one. General readers who want to be entertained and informed can amuse themselves with this book, but it will open their eyes to the true nature of the bird/human interactions and as a bonus show them how research proceeds. To more academic readers it has a more serious role in detailing how problems with bird/human interactions are researched and resolved. Any student or professor of urban ecology will benefit from seeing the research unfold and be entertained by the wry humour present throughout the book.

This book’s greatest strength lies in presenting the author’s career in urban research – the research methods and findings. It is more than a memoir using the chapters to break down a research life into digestible sections based around well-known species of Australian birds. If you are not familiar with the iconic species the author gives enough detail to bring you up to speed. The author’s approach using wry humour has made this book far more readable without sacrificing the science. If you want the pure science then follow up with the published sources given at the end. The text aids understanding the discipline of urban ecology by outlining the research from planning through implementation and ending on management decisions. This makes it a great starter for anyone wanting to begin a career in urban ecology. I can think of no better place to start and I am currently moving from studying remotely situated woodland birds to urban bird research so this book will guide me from the outset. The book’s educational value, for me, was off the scale. However, the book’s wry humour and engaging style indicates that it was not intended as a primer for urban ecologists, but more of a book for general readers to be entertained while reading about the research life of the author.

The organisation of the book into the chapters (given above) advances the book by making it a book you can put down and pick up again when you want to read the next chapter. Alternatively, since the chapters revolve around focal species it makes each chapter a useful stand-alone reference source. The published sources given in this book hark back to the times the author was either researching himself or a member or members of his post-graduate team were doing the research. However, the whole book is a reference story with methods and results woven into the narrative. It can be viewed as a whole or in its parts. The supplementary material is minimal with some sketches given at the start of each chapter.

I would recommend this book to everyone interested in birds. To anyone starting a career in ecological/behavioural research or those already intrenched in it. I would also recommend it to anyone who wants to see a concise image of a career in behavioural ecology and anyone who wants to put their feet up and enjoy a humorously entertaining read.