The Song Behind Today’s Review Title

Today’s review title comes from the 1989 song Birdhouse in Your Soul, the alternative rock hit from the band They Might Be Giants. The song hit #3 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart, and #6 on the UK Singles chart. It was the band’s biggest hit in both countries.

The song may be the only one you’ll ever hear written from the viewpoint of the nightlight in your bedroom. A catchy, danceable tune with quirky lyrics it was the kind of song you either loved or hated from the first listen. The music video for the song was just as quirky as the lyrics, as you can see in this YouTube video.

The nightlight of the song, in the shape of a blue canary, invites us to build it a birdhouse in our soul - to take it as a friend and care for it (quirky, remember). But it fits today’s book because birds, as the author shows, have not always received the love, or care of humans.

On September 1, 1914 Martha, the last living carrier pigeon, died in a cage at the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens. She was the last of her kind. At one time carrier pigeons flew in flocks so large they could block out the sun for hours as they passed overhead. In 1814 a roost of pigeons was reported near Shelbyville, Kentucky that was several miles wide and forty miles long. Carrier pigeons numbered in the billions.

So how is it that carrier pigeons, once so numerous, became extinct? In one word - humans. We considered pigeons nuisance birds and hunted them ruthlessly. That large roost near Shelbyville, once discovered, was hunted day and night.

When the carrier pigeons died out, many eyes were opened to the other bird species well on their way to extinction. Canada geese were one species that had been all but eliminated in the wild.

The author begins The Feather Wars at the Seney National Wildlife Refuge in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It was there, in 1936 that a group of Canada geese was penned, carefully cared for over a breeding season, and reintroduced to the wild. Over decades a migratory breeding population was fully established at Seney, part of the revival of this bird species.

The book takes us from the end of the Civil War through the Great Depression, and beyond, to tell the story of how Americans went from wholesale bird slaughter to dedicated bird conservation. Each of the book’s chapters highlights individuals who had a prominent role in one or the other. There are plenty of colorful characters and interesting stories along the way.

One of the colorful characters is Edward Avery McIlhenney, who is most famous for putting Tabasco Sauce on American kitchen tables. But he also funded and established bird refuges along the Louisiana coast and he played a large role in saving the snowy egret from extinction. After establishing the refuges, he then bought property in the midst of them and proposed building a large, exclusive “hunt club” for the primary purpose of shooting birds the refuges were sheltering. McIlhenney, the author says, encompassed all the contradictions of bird preservation and hunting. The two continue to be intertwined today, with fees from hunting licenses funding many preservation projects.

I really enjoyed this book. Viewing American history through this prism - through our treatment of the creatures around us - is telling. But I suspect a book about bird hunting and preservation is not for everyone. That’s a shame because it’s well told and full of interesting stories.

Read it for the colorful characters, and for the telling view into American history.

RATING: Three and a Half Stars ⭐⭐🌠

OVERALL COMMENTS: How America’s nineteenth century war on birds turned into 20th century bird preservation. Full of colorful characters, it’s an insightful view into American history.

WHERE I GOT MY COPY: I received an advance reviewer’s copy of the ebook through NetGalley, and courtesy of the publisher St. Martin’s Press. The book is available to the public starting today, March 17, 2026.