'In this elegant and masterful treatment of avian life, the biologist Joan Strassmann makes it abundantly clear that the proverb 'birds of a feather flock together' is one massive understatement. Birds variously pair up, lek, roost, form colonies, team up to assist the parent, breed communally, and turn super-social. She will intrigue the novice while transporting even the most knowledgeable bird lover in fresh and unexpected directions' (Mark Moffett, author of The Human Swarm)

'For those of us drawn to watch birds, few aspects are more awe-inspiring and mind-blowing than their propensity to live with others of their clan. Strassmann digs deep into the fascinating social world of birds, bringing a scientist's critical eye and a novelist's sharp pen to interpret and understand its dizzying diversity' (John M. Marzluff, author of Gifts of the Crow)

'Birds of a feather not only flock together, but sleep, feed, migrate, mate, and raise young together, too. Sometimes birds move about and live together with only their own species and sometimes they are in mixed flocks. Joan Strassmann, a world-leading scientist on the communal lives of diverse lineages of life on Earth, clearly explains the benefits and costs of the different ways in which birds spend time together. Her easy-to-follow writing is based on scientific findings from peer-reviewed literature, and it takes us from parasitic cowbirds in the Americas to penguins in Antarctica and drongos in India. The world, as she explains, is a more interesting place, because we humans share so much with birds when it comes to living and loving together' (Mark Hauber, author of Bird Day)