Book Review: "Where Have the Birds Gone?" by Asad Rahmani

Arguably one of the best books I have picked up, if only for its emotional impact. 

TW for bird death. 

(Also, I learned how to type emdashes on my computer. This is entirely an ape's handiwork, not a neural net's!) 

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Hello, readers! I recently found Asad Rahmani's "Where Have the Birds Gone?" in a bookshop, and I LOVED IT! 

The book is split into two main sections; individual 'case-study' accounts of certain vanishing species, and a general overview of the threats that India's birds face. Dr Rahmani has clearly researched every aspect of this book in depth, and, charged with his poetic prose, this book is a wake-up call to the citizens of India to get off their chairs and do something to protect birds. 

"Where Have the Birds Gone?" begins with a cold opener; the phrase 'Humans may not have made the world, but we have certainly changed it.' The introduction makes the reader uncomfortable, to the point of cringing at their own species, setting the tone for the rest of the book, which is mostly a string of bad news. Don't think this means I'm against it; on the contrary, it woke me up harder than a BBC Earth documentary could ever have. He frequently references Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring', drawing parallels between the situation in the 1950s in North America and the situation today in India. 

Dr Rahmani gets a little personal in each one, with accounts of his sightings/bids of the species he has seen, or accounts of other people's sightings of them. (By a North Indian road, there used to be rollers on every wire. Every wire!) But each chapter contained facts I didn't know, even about things I thought I'd be familiar with.
For example, Sir CV Raman, AKA Light Spectra Guy and the first Asian to ever win a physics Nobel Prize, was the one who FIRST FIGURED OUT that the BLUES of BIRD FEATHERS are caused by STRUCTURAL COLOUR — which may have paved the way for scientists to figure out the COLOURS of CERTAIN NON-AVIAN DINOSAURS — by studying the Indian Roller! Although this section is followed by one discussing how roller populations have declined. 

In the chapter about the Finn's Weaver, the author criticises the 'mark-off-a-tiger-reserve-and-let-nature-take-its-course' approach to conservation, because some species need more dedicated efforts, like science-based captive breeding, to save them. He also notes that captive breeding is an absolute last-ditch effort to save a species because it means all else (efforts to conserve their habitats) has failed. For the Finn's Weaver in particular, captive breeding is suggested as a solution to help increase their numbers so they can hold their own against crows who want to wreck their nests. 

Speaking of which... Dr Asad Rahmani clarifies that he's not an animal-hater, as a man who has kept lots of pets, including cats and dogs, but his chilling accounts of the effects of invading crows were strong enough to, at least temporarily, loathe them. He doesn't blame the crows, however; he cites them as a natural consequence of the urbanisation of the weaver's habitat. 

Urbanisation and 'development' pop up frequently in this book. He even mentions how grasslands have long been misclassified as 'wastelands' (I wrote about this at https://www.https://survogelasksthebiosphere.blogspot.com/2026/05/plainly-speaking-life-on-indias.html if you want to read more) and how this name-based kneecapping of conservation policy has led to grassland (and sandbank and desert) birds declining more. (At one point, he mentions how farmlands are actually more hostile to birds like floricans by killing them with machines, albeit inadvertently, as they try to nest.) And he doesn't forget humans' more beneficial roles in the ecosystem either; he says that conservation measures should also benefit the people who share the land with birds such as the Great Indian Bustard. 

However, most of the solutions he offers aren't really for individuals, but rather for the government. Fair; there's only so much you can do directly unless you're a scientist or deeply involved in politics. Towards the end of the book, there's a callout for people like me. "...birds [will not] be saved by photographs posted on social media or sentimental prose shared on Facebook and Instagram. Wildlife lovers must become advocates, not merely admirers," Dr Rahmani writes. The implication in this part of the book that India's wildlife photography groups are one step away from becoming a grassroots political movement gives me hope. It makes me want to do more and start pestering lawmakers to do something to protect India's biodiversity. 

After all, Colombia, Brazil, and Ecuador should have some real competition at the GBBC. 

I don't wanna spoil any more of the book (even though it's nonfiction), so please read it yourself if you can. 

Thank you for reading! 

-Pied