Book Review: Birds at Rest: The Behavior and Ecology of Avian Sleep by Roger F. Pasquier

After countless winter nights spent beneath the great crow roost in Lawrence, Massachusetts, watching thousands of crows pour in at dusk, circle, settle, and then rise again in sudden bursts before quieting for the night, I have often wondered what truly happens once the last wingbeat fades. Roger Pasquier’s Birds at Rest finally opens that darkened window.

Pasquier, a seasoned ornithologist with a lifetime of field and conservation experience, approaches avian rest with the precision of a scientist and the awe of a lifelong birder. Building on Alexander Skutch’s Birds Asleep, he gathers the latest discoveries, from EEG studies of swifts that sleep in flight to insights on unihemispheric sleep, and translates them into clear, graceful prose. His writing connects the physiology of sleep to the larger story of how birds survive, migrate, and adapt to a changing world.

Each chapter explores a different aspect of rest: why birds sleep, how they choose their roosts, and how light, temperature, and predation shape their nightly rhythms. Chapter summaries distill complex material into elegant takeaways, and Margaret La Farge’s delicate drawings bring quiet life to the pages.

For those of us who study roosting behavior firsthand, Pasquier’s final chapter on human impacts resonates deeply. He details how light pollution, urban noise, and habitat loss disturb the very act of rest that birds depend on. We thought immediately of the crows roosting along the Merrimack River, persevering amid glare, sirens, and cold industrial air.

Birds at Rest is more than a scientific reference; it is a meditation on stillness, endurance, and adaptation. It belongs beside your field guides as a companion for reflection, a book that deepens both knowledge and wonder about what birds are doing when the world grows quiet.