I am a sucker for books about 18th and 19th century composers... less so about ornithology. So it was a pleasure to put myself in a position to learn a few things about birds. Particularly the starling. I'd like to think that there are also bird obsessives who enjoyed learning a few things about Mozart. Maybe we should all hang out.

The book is very well written, by the way. The author did a wonderful job of putting all of it together. There isn't a lot that's known about Mozart's pet bird, just a few scant mentions. However, Haupt did an excellent job of investigating and deducing what living with a starling would have been like for the Mozart family.