Artist and author Linda Johns – known as the “Bird Lady of Nova Scotia” – checks in with her sixth ornithological opus, Birds of a Feather. The book is filled with dozens of poignant stories of injured birds nursed back to strength and, when possible, set free. Johns is an expert bird rehabilitator and her writing about this is instructive, from detailed diets for different species to the elaborate triage system she has set up to disinfect injuries, warm frightened birds, and even fashion a feather duster – made from the plumage of a previous convalescent – that acts as a surrogate mother for a young bird.

There are also brief glimpses into the author’s frustration with humans and our lack of care and respect for our feathered friends. This is when the book is at its best. The relationship between humans and animals is a huge and timeless subject, but it is largely ignored in favour of the next bird-related emergency. After several incidents, the bird rescues start to sound similar.

What is noticeably absent is a context for Johns’s work. There’s no question that all the animals under Johns and her husband Mack’s care have distinct personalities, but readers need to know the why as much as the how. Why does Johns do what she does when most of the world cares not a whit for her beaked buddies and the often human-created problems they encounter with alarming regularity? This is not to be callous, but readers want to know who the Bird Lady is and how she came by her vocation. Are the birds surrogates for children? What made the couple choose a rural life?

There is an assumption here that readers already know Johns and her work, which may be fine – for those who do. There are quotes from fan letters and avian enthusiasts, as well as bird drawings sprinkled throughout the book. Johns’s approach to both bird rehabilitation and writing is gentle and good-naturedly funny, but the lack of a mission statement or overview of how and why and when she took up rescuing birds is a significant oversight.