The conventional wisdom is that cities are inhospitable places for birds and other wildlife. Where birds are actually found in the greatest numbers is where the habitat is most diverse, not necessarily exclusively native. Although the author has a preference for native plants and animals, in fact, his research and that of others does not justify his obsession. When I finally got around to reading Subirdia I was pleasantly surprised. All plants and animals are at home in our ideal nature.

As our readers know, we consider the nativity of plant and animal species largely irrelevant. Virtually every plant and animal was preceded by the qualifier of “native” or “non-native.” The implication of the introduction was that the most important feature of every plant and animal is whether or not it is native. It took me a long time to read this book because its introduction was off-putting. All of those studies reach remarkably similar conclusions.

He also reports on countless studies of bird populations in similar settings all over the world. (1) He reports many years of his research and that of his graduate students about the birds that live in urban and suburban Seattle as well as surrounding forest reserves. Subirdia was written by John Marzluff, an academic ornithologist at University of Washington. We celebrate the holidays with good news about the birds living in cities all over the world. This article is our Christmas present to our readers.

Welcome to Subirdia by John M. Marzluff