Mark Cocker has done it again. In 2005 he published Birds Britannica, in which he wove a tapestry featuring birds in the foreground but always with humans in attendance. The book centred on the interaction. Now he has followed it with an even bigger book, Birds and People, which goes global. It is constructed as before according to avian families, and again includes telling contributions from the public, this time across the seven continents.Cocker, who lives in Norfolk when he is not travelling, shows not a trace of the overwriting that can so easily mar descriptions of wildlife. He has a scientist’s eye for exact description. The colour is in the facts. For example, he notes that together with the pigeon, the sparrow is the most widespread and abundant bird on the planet – b