Cover Characteristics: Book Covers featuring Birds (2)

 
 

I did birds as a topic once before, but I’ve decided to do it again! (Hence the number two in the title.) What can I say, it was just a great topic, and there are so many book covers out there with birds on them that I wanted to share some more of them!

By the way, fun fact since most of these cover seem to have crows, did you know crows remember human faces? In other words, don’t mess with crows. Lol. Actually crows aren’t the only birds that can remember human faces, but they (along with other birds in the corvid family, like ravens and magpies) are apparently some of the most intelligent animals in the world, including emotional intelligence. They’re great problem solvers, they even understand concepts like analogy and delayed gratification, and some can understand the mental states of other beings (like ravens, who have empathy for and comfort each other). Seriously, you should go Google this, it’s interesting stuff. Here’s a link to get you started 😉

And now onto the covers!


Cover Characteristics is a weekly meme hosted at Sugar & Snark. I went rogue this week, so my topic is:

Books Covers featuring Birds

 
Ferals by Jacob Grey | reading, books
An Etiquette Guide to the End Times by Maia Sepp
Ways of the Wicked by Lola StVil
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
Iniquity by Melody Winter | reading, books
Jack of Ravens by Mark Chadbourn
Rise of the Dead Princes by Brian A. Hurd | reading, books
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo | reading, books
Murder of Crows by Annie Bellet
Gabriel by Nikki Kelly | reading, books
 

Pin the Collage!


 

Gabriel by Nikki Kelly

 
Gabriel by Nikki Kelly | reading, books
 

This just looks awesome and intense with the ring of fire and the flock of birds and the way the guy is floating.

 

Murder of Crows by Annie Bellet

 
Murder of Crows by Annie Bellet
 

All the covers for this series have that nice urban fantasy look with the glowy magic and everything.

 

Six of Crows Series by Leigh Bardugo

 
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo | reading, books
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo | reading, books
 

Honestly these were never really my favorites, but they’ve grown on me, and it is pretty cool how the the wings form buildings and whatnot.

 

Rise of the Dead Prince by Brian A. Hurd

 
Rise of the Dead Prince by Brian A. Hurd | reading, books
 

This one is cool, and that bird looks creepy as hell lol, but in a good way.

 

Jack of Ravens by Mark Chadbourn

 
Jack of Ravens by Mark Chadbourn
 

I love the blend of colors and kind of smoky swirl in the background and just how it all looks together with the man and the birds.

 

Iniquity by Melody Winter

 
Iniquity by Melody Winter | reading, books
 

This one is just really pretty, and I like how the bird is a big part of the cover, not just in the background. It also makes me curious about this girl and her crow. (Is that a crow?)

 

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

 
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
 

Honestly this isn’t the kind of cover I’d normally be drawn to because it looks more contemporary than sci-fi/fantasy (even though it is sci-fi/fantasy), but it’s got a pretty muted colors thing going on.

 

Ways of the Wicked by Lola StVil

 
Ways of the Wicked by Lola StVil
 

This is another one that’s just pretty, and I like the splashes of red with the black and grayish-blue.

 

An Etiquette Guide to the End Times by Maia Sepp

 
An Etiquette Guide to the End Times by Maia Sepp
 

I love how most of these, and most book covers with birds, have crows on, and/or the birds are just flying in the background looking pretty or ominous, but this cover’s just got a big ol’ chicken as the focus lol.

 

Ferals Series by Jacob Grey

 
Ferals by Jacob Grey | reading, books
Ferals #2: The Swarm Descends by Jacob Grey | reading, books
 Ferals #3: The White Widow's Revenge by Jacob Grey | reading, books
 

Middle grade books get the best covers sometimes. I mean, look at these, they’re awesome! I love the art and the colors and the details and of course the birds! Look at that tagline even—he was raised by crows?! In that case, the first cover must be a veritable family portrait! (But seriously, how cool does that sound as a premise?)

 
 
 
 

Talk to me!

Which book cover with birds is YOUR favorite?

Book Covers featuring Birds (2) | reading, books, book covers, cover love, birds
 
 
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Your Thoughts

 

44 thoughts on “Cover Characteristics: Book Covers featuring Birds (2)

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  1. Nannetter Demmler

    I like the chicken one I think because it is unusual. Although those middle grade ones are just begging me to pick them up. I’ve never heard of that series. I’m going to go look it up right now, lol.

  2. Catherine

    I love the cover for All The Birds In The Sky.

    Here’s a few others:

    The 10pm Question by Kate Dr Goldi
    Finding Violet Park by Jenny Valentine
    Magpie Hall by Rachael King
    The Goldfinch by Donna Tart

  3. Greg

    The Noru might be my favorite, that’s the one that jumped out at me initially. I like the storminess and are those blood drops on the cover? I like to think they are. 🙂 The other one I really like is Murder of crows- awesome cover. And then the charlie Jane Anders one as well- I’ve always liked that one.

    Iniquity too now that I look closer. Again I like the storminess (why is there always a storm lol) and the black hair. Nice. And middle grades often do get the best covers- the first Ferals is nice (and killer tagline).

    1. Kristen Burns

      Noru is a good one, they look like blood drops to me too! And Murder of Crows is a great UF one.

      Lol about the storms. They just set the dark mood I guess, haha. Seriously, I love the Ferals covers, and I especially love that tagline!

  4. chucklesthescot

    I love crows. The jackdaws who come to our garden are very smart. They know we chase cats away from the garden and our bird feeders so when they see cats, they tap on our window and squawk to warn us. They also love getting cheese! We used to hand feed them, even the babies who were gorgeous with big blue eyes! The whole Annie Bellet series has beautiful covers. I enjoyed the first book with all her friends but really didn’t like the second book and quit reading the series. Ferals was too young for me but I do like the covers a lot! Six of Crows is on my tbr.

    1. Kristen Burns

      Hahaha that’s awesome, I love that they tap the window to let you know about the cats. And huh, birds who like cheese, that’s kinda different! I haven’t actually tried any of these, but I have the Six of Crows series, the library has All the Birds in the Sky which I plan to read, and I actually am considering the Ferals series even though I rarely read MG just because it sounds so interesting.

  5. Cee Arr

    I love birds! (Which you can probably tell since my avi is a bird, lol. It’s based on a Welsh mythological bird called an Adaryn Rhiannon.) I espec. love crows – they’re a) awesome, and b) mystic/magic: what’s not to love? XD

  6. Geybie's Book Blog

    Awesome list. Agree with you. There are a lot of books with birds on their covers, mostly in paranormal/urban fantasy books. They are beautiful too. Anyway, these books sound great. Which ones are your favorites and you would love to recommend to me? ?

    1. Kristen Burns

      Thanks! Yeah, for some reason, UF cover designers/authors seem to love using birds in the background lol. But they look nice! I haven’t actually read any of these though, so sorry, can’t give any recs.

  7. Lindsey @ Lindsey Reads

    I didn’t realize before, but covers with birds are super cool! I love pretty much all of these covers, but especially the middle grade series is begging me to pick it up 🙂 And the one with the chicken, but that’s because it’s so different 😉

  8. Lori

    These look so pretty all put together like this! I never really liked the SoC cover until Crooked Kingdom came out. They really grew on me though. Now they’re some of my favorites. I love how detailed they are!

  9. Barb (boxermommyreads)

    I think the covers to the Feral series are downright awesome. Thanks to this post, I also want to check out Inquiry and the Lola St. Vil books. I really can’t help but be intrigued by the chicken in the gas mask too. Although the Inquiry cover is probably my favorite one here, I can’t help but think the girl resembles on of the Jenner girls (and it really doesn’t matter which one because aren’t they basically the same?)

    1. Kristen Burns

      I agree about the Ferals covers! Love the chicken lol. I really do like that Inquiry one though! You’re asking the wrong person about the Jenner girls because I don’t even know their names let alone which is which, haha.

    1. Kristen Burns

      Yeah I used to not like the Six of Crows covers, but they have grown on me. STill not my absolute favorites or anything, but they’re nice. I agree that the Ferals covers are awesome and make me want to try the books!

    1. Kristen Burns

      I always find new books when I make them too lol.

      Haha, if you like those guys, I think you’re gonna love one of my upcoming cover posts 😉 I’ll be sure to tweet you whenever I post it so that you won’t miss it.

  10. Ashley G.

    Oh wow! I never noticed that on the Six of Crows negative space of the wings form towers! (I’ve never held a physical copy either). That’s really cool actually. I like that one.

    The Etiquette one with the chicken cracks me up. XD I don’t think it’d make me want to read the book, but it is funny.

    I really like the Feral covers too.

    1. Kristen Burns

      Don’t worry, I didn’t notice that either until someone pointed it out.

      I do love that chicken, haha, but Idk that I’ll actually read the book either.

  11. Melody Winter

    Hi Kristen

    I’ve only just found this post and want to thank you for featuring Iniquity 🙂
    It’s a raven on the cover. He’s called Odin, and is featured throughout the book. He has a great character and many readers have fallen in love with him.

    Thanks again

    Melody xxx