I'm not a birder, but I do like birds. This book had much more information about Wisconsin birds than I expected, which was nice because I visit Wisconsin often. Sometimes the story slowed a bit, but it got back on track.

Flock Together had its charms- there's some good reflection on extinction in our world here though wrapped up in an anxiety. The imposter syndrome was a bit strong for someone writing a memoir but I found all the information interesting.

As the son and brother of avid bird watchers and a weekend watcher myself, this sounded like a really interesting book. A variation on the bird-watching theme ... a search for ... or a 'love affair with' extinct birds sounded like a really fascinating take on the bird-watching craze. The appeal is part bird-watching, of course, but there's also the historical and paleonotological aspects.

Author Hollars does a nice job of bringing the extinct birds to life (so to speak), but rather than a love affair with extinct birds, as the sub-title states, Hollars focuses in on just a couple and really, he might have made a better case for a book about his obsession with the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker.

But one thing that we don't really get is why Hollars has developed this fascination. He admits at the very beginning that he's not a bird watcher. This is disappointing because we've been led to think we're getting a story from a bird watcher with words such as 'flock together,' 'love affair,' and 'birds' in the title. But the key word is 'extinct.'

It seems like we shouldn't dislike the book for what it's not, but for the millions of people who enjoy bird-watching, and hence preserving the existing birds for future generations to enjoy, a tale about the extinction of specific species ... <em>from someone who hasn't developed the same appreciation for the living birds</em> ... feels so hypocritical. What experiences have you had that suggest you can now lecture to those who have spent years tracking and searching and enjoying rare birds?

When Hollars decides to focus on his obsession with the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker the book becomes clearer and the bird watchers who are reading can begin to understand and see the change in a non-bird-watcher to becoming a fan of birds. It's a different path than most take, but the similarities are there.

Hollars writes, when he finally holds a stuffed Ivory-Billed from a museum of natural history:
<blockquote>Holding that bird, I’m faced with a complicated feeling—part joy, part grief, part something bordering on the sublime. And it’s my inability to give it a proper name that makes the emotion even more powerful. This is my moment of quiet reckoning, my real-life anagnorisis.

<em>I’m in love with a bird</em>, I realize as the camera clicks. <em>But I’m also mourning the bird that I love. </em>

And this isn’t just any bird, mind you, but a bird—like so many others—with a backstory. According to the tag wrapped round his leg, this particular specimen was killed on March 13, 1883 near the Wekiva River in central Florida.*</blockquote>
And this, is what Hollars has been leading us to. That moment of discovery that there is something special about birds. For Hollars it comes with a bird that it is extinct. For others it might come with the first time they see an Oriole, or the Calliope Hummingbird or some exotic, lost traveler. But every birder recognizes the moment.

And while there was a fair amount that was interesting here, the over-all impact of this book doesn't live up to what the title and synopsis suggest.

Looking for a good book? <em>Flock Together</em> by B. J. Hollars wants to be a about a love affair with extinct birds, but it doesn't quite manage to get there, though moments of the book shine brightly.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

*Quote taken from an advance reader copy and may not reflect the final, printed book.

The author became fascinated with birds when there was a possible rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker. It was thought extinct due to hunting. Through interviews with bird experts (ornithologists) and books on this woodpecker he became fascinated with Nort American birds especially the ones that are extinct. He examined the early methods that were used to study birds. He describes the birds and their environments. He includes historical research in each chapter. I found myself worrying about birds that are still alive but on the endangered list. This is an excellent memoir on his quest to know living birds through his study of extinct birds.

This is a lovely book about one man's quest to learn all that he could learn about extinct birds. What struck me about this memoir was that, unlike me, Hollars was not fascinated by birds. In the book he tells us how he fell in love with the species and how this led him to want to know more about birds, particularly the ones that are no longer here.

I'm not a big fan of birds, and mauybe that's the reason why i didn't enjoy so much this book, but i must accept that isn't bad, just isn't for me

I confess that B.J. Hollars Flock Together: A Love Affair with Extinct Birds was not what I expected. I thought I was going to be getting a book that looked in depth and more than a little scientifically at the evolution of birds from dinosaurs such as Confuciusornis or Hesperonis. Certainly, the “love affair” should have tipped me off that this would be a more personal examination rather than a more objective, scientific one. And it’s true that the scope of the book is much more narrow than I’d expected in terms of both time (covering only a few centuries, and mostly the past 150 years) and geography (heavily focused on Wisconsin). But I also ended up with a much more charming, engaging story than I’d expected, which I consider a win.

“Once upon a time there lived a bird and then that bird stopped living.” Thus begins Hollars' odyssey into bird watching, early-20th century naturalists, conservationism, and recent bird extinctions, including in particular the passenger pigeon and the ivory-billed woodpecker. His journey brings him to the Chicago Field Museum, the early-morning back roads cold of a “Christmas Count,” and into the Wisconsin bog in search of the foundation of an old cabin. This is the general structure of the book—one major thread focusing on the ivory-billed woodpecker, one on the 20th century Wisconsin amateur naturalist Francis Zirrer, and one on his foray into bird watching. Hollars makes a few small side journeys, say into discussing the passenger pigeon, but those three elements make up the bulk of “Flock Together.”

The entry into the book is the ivory-billed woodpecker (also known as “The Lord God bird”), that bird that lived then “stopped living,” in the opening s sentence, one thought extinct, then for a short while thought to be rediscovered, and then, all too sadly, considered extinct once more. This for him is his “spark bird”—the “one that — through its beauty or grace or other intangible quality — ‘sparks’ one’s lifetime interest in birds.” The sections on the extinct birds—the woodpecker, the passenger pigeon— are informative and sorrowful, but luckily the sections detailing Hollars’ own beginning moves into bird watching leaven the sorrow and sense of impending catastrophe and offer up the most charming moments. Hollars voice in these segments is engagingly honest and self-deprecating, as for instance when a more experienced birder gives him a run-down of species she’d seen at a recent count and he, “nod [s] knowingly (or at least in a manner that gives the impression that I’m familiar with the species she’s rattling off).” Or when someone asks if he’s heard about a particular bird and he tells us, “Of course I haven’t, though I take a moment to pretend to mull it over.”

The focus on Wisconsin was, as I said, a bit more narrow than expected, and despite Hollars’ engaging voice, I still would have preferred a bit wider, deeper focus at times. But thanks to that voice, a good sense of historical detail, and some at times moving reflections on the loss of biodiversity—past and pending—Flock Together is an easy book to recommend to those interested in birds, birding, conservation, or just—or perhaps most importantly—the world around us.

I received a free electronic copy of this informative memoir from Netgalley, B. J. Hollars and University of Nebraska Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me.

I love that B. J. Hollars is a beginning bird nut - so many of us can relate to that sense of feeling left out of the conversation, the information, the love that is associated with everyone's favorite bird species. We all start that way. Hollars quickly picks up the baton (and the lingo) of experienced birders, however his favorite bird is, and is always going to be, the ivory billed woodpecker, long extinct. As are the Passenger Pigeon. The Carolina Parakeet. The Dodo, the Labrador Duck and the Goshawk. But he also brings to us the success stories - the California Condor, the Sandhill Crane.

And as he shares his quest for more information, more photos, more art of these awesome but no more birds, these 'endlings', he shares too the knowledge of many conservationists along the way - Frank Chapman, James Tanner, Aldo Leopold, Bill Schorger, Francis Zirrer, Don Eckelberry, and Steve Betchkal, to name a few. And he gives us an introduction and insight into many museums in the east, Including the Field, and the curators that make them an easily usable resource for all conservationists, professional and amateur alike.

And I will find a local Christmas Count to join before next winter rolls around. I'll bet you will, too.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29873286-flock-together