At first glance, the Guide to Troubled Birds looks like any run-of-the-mill bestiary with acrylic paintings of nature's precious winged treasures. Soon, though, it's evident that beady-eyed devils--à la Alfred Hitchcock's avian nightmare The Birds--and snippets of deliciously cheeky prose have replaced nominally dry factoids. This is just the latest addition to the burgeoning collection of bird-related craziness from the Mincing Mockingbird (artist Matt Adrian), whose picture-perfect, museum-worthy paintings have graced the pages of Sunset magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle as well as films and television shows (Her, Modern Family). His paintbrush provides a forum for troubled, jealous, angry and even horny birds, and no subject is too taboo for the Mincing Mockingbird's judicious, discerning eye.
Ask the duck with the smoking gun what he thinks when it comes to foie gras ("Duck Would Like a Word") or the bird high on crystal meth ("Love in the Time of Crystal Meth"). Discover how hummingbirds in "Ounce Per Ounce, Tougher than a Wolverine" seek revenge for "every hummingbird brother or sister lost to" a cat's "feline featherlust." On the subject of blondes, even Hitchcock's classic gets due honor when the white-haired bluebird opines how much it loves Tippi Hedren as it stares the reader down with a wide-eyed, open-beaked expression of feigned innocence. That Adrian's quirky, sometimes potty-mouthed dark humor and mockumentaries manage to spark such curiosity and interest worldwide is a testament to his enduring artistry with brush and paint. Indeed, the bird is the word. --Nancy Powell, freelance writer and technical consultant