Many books consist of a collection of essays. Here I review a set of essays that could well have been assembled in a book but were instead published in Colorado Birds, the quarterly journal of the Colorado Field Ornithologists. For ten years, from 2010 to 2019, one of that organization’s prominent members, David Leatherman, wrote a regular column titled “The Hungry Bird,” whose stated goal was to provide uncommon background deepening insight into bird observations. He did this by using his experience as an entomologist and professional field biologist to better understand birds through their behavior, what they eat, and who eats them.