Michele Raffin. (2014). The Birds of Pandemonium. Algonquin Books.

Michele Raffin. 2014. The Birds of Pandemonium. Algonquin Books.

Michele Raffin, The Birds of Pandemonium. Algonquin Books, 2014.

Michele Raffin. The Birds of Pandemonium. Algonquin Books, 2014.

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1. • value: Book
2. • value: Biography
3. • value: ecosystem
4. • value: Species
5. • value: Conservation
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28. • value: naturalism
29. • value: Biology
30. • value: Wildlife
31. • value: rainforest
32. • value: Pigeon
33. • value: story
34. • value: memoir
35. • value: rescue
36. • value: finch
37. • value: dodo
38. • value: pheasant
39. • value: quail
40. • value: crowned
41. • value: aviary
42. • value: repopulate

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1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Raffin, Michele
   • bioText: Michele Raffin was a high-tech executive, venture-capital consultant, and writer before deciding to devote her time to saving animals. Her books include Love That Lasts, The Good Nanny Book, and The Birds of Pandemonium. A lifelong animal lover, she was the cochair of the Board of Directors of a large humane society for ?ve years and served on the board of a companion bird rescue organization. Her passion for conservation and protection of the natural world is focused on saving bird species from extinction. Raffin holds degrees from Tufts University and Stanford University School of Business, and she has also won a gold medal at the Pan-American Masters' weightlifting games.Tamara Marston has been an actor, singer, and director for more than thirty years. A career performer and musician, she has toured nationally with several groups and appeared on The Arsenio Hall Show and A&E's Goodtime Café. Dividing her time between acting and singing gigs, choral conducting, music and stage directing, jingle and voice-over work, private and public teaching, and family, Tami feels very fortunate to make her living working in the arts.
   • name: Michele Raffin

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2014-10-07T00:00:00-04:00

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title

The Birds of Pandemonium

fullDescription

"Michele Raffin has made an important contribution to saving endangered birds, and her book is a fascinating and rarely seen glimpse behind the scenes. The joy she gets from her close relationships with these amazing animals and her outsized commitment to them comes through loud and clear in this engaging and joyful book." —Dominick Dorsa, Curator of Birds, San Francisco Zoo
Each morning at first light, Michele Raffin awakens to the bewitching music that heralds another day at Pandemonium Aviaries—a symphony that swells from the most vocal of over 350 avian throats representing over 40 species. "It knocks me out, every day," she admits.
Pandemonium Aviaries is a conservation organization dedicated to saving and breeding birds at the edge of extinction, including some of the largest populations of rare species in the world. And their behavior is even more fascinating than their glorious plumage or their songs. They fall in love, they mourn, they rejoice, they sacrifice, they have a sense of humor, they feel jealous, they invent, plot, cope, and sometimes they murder each other. As Raffin says, "They teach us volumes about the interrelationships of humans and animals."
Their stories make up the heart of this book. There's Sweetie, a tiny quail with an outsize personality; the inspiring Oscar, a Lady Gouldian finch who can't fly but finds a way to reach the highest perches of his aviary to roost. The ecstatic reunion of a disabled Victoria crowned pigeon, Wing, and her brother, Coffee, is as wondrous as the silent kinship that develops between Amadeus, a one-legged turaco, and an autistic young visitor.
Ultimately, The Birds of Pandemonium is about one woman's crusade to save precious lives, bird by bird, and offers insights into how following a passion can transform not only oneself but also the world.
"Delightful . . . full of wonderful accounts of bird behavior, demonstrating caring, learning, sociability, adaptability, and a will to live. Its appeal is ageless, her descriptions riveting, and her devotion to the birds remarkable." —Joanna Burger, author of The Parrot Who Owns Me: The Story of a Relationship
"A remarkable book. Reading about the birds of Pandemonium will make you laugh and cry; it will make you see more clearly the need to take care of our planet; and it will confirm that one person with a passion can make a difference." —Jeff Corwin, nature conservationist and host, Animal Planet
"The Birds of Pandemonium touched me deeply . . . This book is about reconnecting with the nature of birds, and the nature of ourselves." —Jon Young, author of What the Robin Knows

reviews

1. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     August 4, 2014
     Raffin, Avicultural Bulletin columnist and founder of the Pandemonium Aviaries bird sanctuary, describes the trajectory of her accidental career as a breeder of endangered species in this anecdotal, entertaining memoir. In 1996 a random encounter and subsequent rescue of a wounded dove on the Lawrence Highway led Raffin to Louis Brown, a local bird breeder, who took Raffin and her newfound avian interest under his wing. At the time, the Wild Bird Conservation Act of 1992 had given rise to a surfeit of homeless doves and pigeons throughout the U.S. (in the words of the author, “From the late 1990s until around 2010, it was raining birds,”)—many of which Raffin went on to adopt. She recounts her experiences over the years providing shelter to a of variety birds, including a red-headed, potty-mouthed Amazon parrot called Amigo, a quail named Sweetie, and Harli and Peeki, a pair of gay lorikeets. Raffin’s passionate advocacy for birds is reminiscent of Jane Goodall’s support for great apes. The author emerges as a knowledgeable and, above all, endearing champion of animals, who practices what she preaches.

2. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     September 1, 2014
     Raffin recounts how a chance encounter with an injured dove proved to be a life-changing experience. Fifteen years ago, the author, now a conservation columnist for the Aviculture Society of America, was a stay-at-home mom who had put her career as a Silicon Valley executive on hold in order to care for her sons. When her trainer showed up late for their appointment at the gym, he explained that he had stopped to move an injured dove to the side of the highway. Raffin went back with him to pick up the bird and take it to a veterinarian; though it eventually died, the seeds of her new vocation were planted. A newspaper advertisement led to her agreeing to take in a pet dove in need of a home, and she was hooked. More birds followed, and she became a volunteer at a local bird shelter and then a certified aviculturist, after which she joined an informal network of experts. Raffin had found her calling, opening her home to a wide variety of birds. The author describes how, over the years, she has gained expertise in housing rare, endangered species-some of which have been illegally captured in the wild-and taken on the additional task of breeding them in captivity. Not only did the learning process prove "daunting," it also required strategic planning-finding mates, "incubating eggs, hatching them, and caring for the babies." By 2010, Pandemonium Aviaries, which had begun on a whim (fostering birds in need of a home), was a premier conservation-breeding operation playing an important global role in saving endangered species. "I've learned that their behavior is far more fascinating than their plumage..." writes the author, "and that 'birdbrain!' is the finest of compliments." A charming memoir about birds and the people who love them.

     COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

3. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     August 1, 2014
     

     Raffin, a former venture capital consultant, channeled her deep connection with animals into the development of "Pandemonium," a San Francisco area exotic species aviary. The author's initial focus involves bird rescue; demand for her care is strong enough that within a decade her single coop will grow into a multiaviary complex sheltering some 300 birds and 40 species. Learning as she goes, Raffin shares many insights into her birds' behavior and needs. Avian "personalities" predominate in the book, but there are human angles, too, such as how Raffin manages the ups and downs of her demanding calling, the funny family dynamics as she wheedles yet one more bird into the menagerie, and the backstory exposing the secretive "boys' club" of bird breeders with which she contends. The author's mission eventually shifts to imperiled species conservation, and the book closes triumphantly with the birth of a rare green-naped pheasant pigeon chick, a notoriously difficult bird to breed in captivity. Raffin's self-deprecating humor endears but hackneyed diction spoils her effort. Dialog peppered throughout the text is often lame, leading the reader to wonder: Do people really talk like that? VERDICT Animal lovers will likely forgive the author her stylistic lapses and read appreciatively of her many strong works.--Robert Eagan, Windsor P.L., Ont.

     Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

4. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     September 15, 2014
     Oscar, the flightless Gouldian finch, was the inspiration for aviculturist Raffin's conservation aviary, Pandemonium Aviaries. Though unable to fly, Oscar's determination to get up to higher perches taught Raffin to observe his behavior, improvise a solution to his problem, and ultimately achieve success, with Oscar not only perching up where he wanted but also able later to get to a nesting area and produce chicks. Oscar's story is the theme of this lovely memoir-cum-how-to manual for starting an aviary from scratch. There was the rescue of an injured white dove, which led to Raffin's lifelong love affair with the pigeon family and her eventual successful breeding of endangered Victoria crowned pigeons. An Amazon parrot, the victim of too many previous owners, decided he loved Raffin's son, which opened the door to more rescued parrots and to learning how to work with emotionally damaged birds. Learning from the birds, Raffin has made Pandemonium into a true sanctuary.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

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"Michele Raffin has made an important contribution to saving endangered birds, and her book is a fascinating and rarely seen glimpse behind the scenes. The joy she gets from her close relationships with these amazing animals and her outsized commitment to them comes through loud and clear in this engaging and joyful book." —Dominick Dorsa, Curator of Birds, San Francisco Zoo
Each morning at first light, Michele Raffin awakens to the bewitching music that heralds another day at Pandemonium Aviaries—a symphony that swells from the most vocal of over 350 avian throats representing over 40 species. "It knocks me out, every day," she admits.
Pandemonium Aviaries is a conservation organization dedicated to saving and breeding birds at the edge of extinction, including some of the largest populations of rare species in the world. And their behavior is even more fascinating than their glorious plumage or their songs. They fall in love, they mourn, they rejoice, they...

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