Clearly that’s a very subjective question and everyone has their own view on which books about a particular subject they would recommend! So coming up with a list of just five for the Shepherd book recommendation site was not easy. My list features authors such as Brenda Z. Guiberson, Megan Lloyd, Steven Falk, Dave Goulson, Mike Shanahan and Stephen L. Buchmann, which will hopefully inspire you to read some of these books.
Here’s the link: https://shepherd.com/best-books/bees-and-other-pollinators
If you think that I’ve missed your favourite from the list, please do comment below. And if you’re an author, consider signing up for Shepherd and curating your own list, they’ve been really helpful and it’s a useful service for readers and authors.
Prof. Jeff Ollerton - ecological scientist and author 
Hello Jeff,
Great blog – I read it regularly – thanks. By way of comment to this particular one, as an undergraduate, I was hugely influenced by Bernd Heinrich’s “In a Patch of Fireweed”. It isn’t about pollination per se, but rather it is about his journey into entomology and thermal regulation research, but it has some wonderful anecdotes regarding pollinators. I found his second book “Thermal Warriors” less inspiring.
Andrew
Thanks Andrew! I have read a couple of Heinrich’s books, but not that one. I will have to check it out.
Have you looked at what might be the consequences of bees biting holes in the backs of flowers rather than ‘going in by the front door’? I’ve seen whole riversides of comfrey with all the flowers bitten through, and in the garden, bees would bite holes in the back of runner bean flowers, and woodlice would eat the tiny undeveloped beans from the front. 😦
I did manage to revive a big bumblebee found swimming in my kitchen sink recently though.
Cheers.
Yes, that kind of “nectar robbery” is usually done by bees that don’t have mouthparts long enough to access the nectar legitimately. I’ve seen it often of fuchsias too.