The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behaviour by David Sibley, Christopher
Helm, £35, ISBN 0713662506
EVEN great artists may have an Achilles’ heel: for wildlife painter David
Sibley, it is birds’ feet. The son of a noted Yale ornithologist, he began
watching and drawing birds in 1969 at the age of seven. More than three decades
later, he still struggles to capture a true likeness of their lower
limbs—or so he says.
Looking at the exquisite illustrations in Bird Life & Behaviour,
it’s clear that the artist is mistaken. Among nearly 800 full-colour pictures
there are many showing the…
